A seasoned traveler has urged flyers to avoid one surprisingly common — and pretty unpleasant — habit on planes, especially during long-haul trips.
Mitch Glass has traveled to more than 40 countries and taken countless flights since choosing to backpack around the world.
Now living as a digital nomad, he has built up plenty of experience with air travel and is well aware of the many unspoken rules passengers tend to learn along the way — from seat reclining etiquette to what definitely should not be happening with people’s feet.
If you’ve flown enough, you already know the kind of thing that can make a journey miserable.
While many passengers take their shoes off briefly after getting through airport security and settling into their seat, walking around the cabin barefoot or in socks is a different matter entirely.
On longer flights, plenty of travelers do remove their shoes to sleep more comfortably, but aviation hygiene experts generally advise keeping footwear on when moving around the cabin, particularly in the lavatory. Airline bathrooms are high-traffic spaces, and floors can quickly become exposed to spills and other contamination during a flight.
Mitch drew a clear line between staying comfortable and making the experience unpleasant for everyone else.
“On the flight itself, I usually keep [my shoes] on for short haul and take them off for sleeping on long hauls. Obviously it’s important to wear clean socks that don’t smell and bother other passengers.”
Taking your shoes off while seated is one thing, but Glass said there is one major mistake people still make, especially on longer journeys.
“Always put your shoes back on when you walk around the plane, especially to the bathroom!”
It is not hard to see why. Airplane bathrooms are rarely as clean as they might appear, and any turbulence while passengers are using them only makes matters worse. That means the floor may be far grimier than many people realize.
He also shared broader advice on what people should wear when flying, noting that longer flights call for more thought than a quick domestic hop.
“I have my go-to outfit that I use for almost all my flights no matter the length,” Mitch explained to UNILAD. “But in general, I’d focus on wearing sleep-friendly clothes for long-haul flights.
“Whereas on a short flight, you can just wear whatever you plan on using when you get off the plane.
“In my case, my sleep-friendly clothes are pretty versatile, so I can use them for whatever I’m doing right off the flight.”
Glass runs the YouTube channel Project Untethered, where he shares travel content with his wife. Their story began while he was backpacking through South America.
“I stopped in Cali, Colombia to take salsa dancing classes. I only planned to stay for a couple weeks, but God had other plans for me.
“I met a cute Colombian girl in class, those couple weeks turned into a couple years, and before we knew it…we were married and traveling the world as digital nomads.”
More of his travel experiences can also be found on his website.