After we mentioned nuts as one of the snacks we sometimes bring on Hawaii flights, Diane asked us to stop recommending them because several of her friends have severe nut allergies. She also explained that her years as a registered nurse shaped how seriously she views the issue on Hawaii flights.
We aren’t turning this into a medical discussion nor trying to settle what airlines or passengers should do about nuts. What caught our attention was that we’d mentioned them casually, without thinking about how differently the same suggestion might land for someone sitting nearby on a flight.
That made us realize the larger subject was not really nuts at all, but what happens when hundreds of people with different habits, sensitivities, expectations, and ideas about personal freedom share one small cabin for five or six hours on the way to Hawaii.
Long Hawaii flights magnify personal decisions.
Most of us board a Hawaii flight thinking first about our own comfort. We wonder whether there will be enough legroom, whether the seat will feel cramped, whether we brought the right food, and whether the person beside us will be easy to sit next to for the upcoming hours.
But once the boarding doors close, every personal decision starts affecting someone else. More than we realize. A passenger opens a meal with a strong smell, another permanently reclines as soon as the aircraft levels off, shoes come off and sometimes feet go in strange places, music leaks out through headphones, someone starts coughing, and someone else’s conversation you don’t want to hear continues at a volume that carries across multiple rows, the kind of moment that’s put flight attendants in an impossible spot.
None of those things seem remarkable on their own. On a long overwater flight, however, there is no easy way to take a break from the person beside us and what’s happening with them, especially in the tightest parts of the cabin. No, this won’t be over in an hour or two. Things that might barely register on a shorter flight can feel much bigger when everyone is sharing the same confined space for so long.
Hawaii flight passengers do not all bring the same expectations onboard.
The more we fly, the more obvious it becomes that nowadays especially, passengers don’t agree on what’s reasonable. One traveler sees reclining as part of the seat they purchased, while the person behind them may see it as losing already limited space they have available for long hours.
The same divide is apparent with food, fragrances, armrests, bare feet, crying keiki, and loud entertainment. One passenger may think nothing of bringing pungent takeout onboard, while another may spend the flight wishing the cabin air smelled like nothing at all. A fragrance that seems light to one person may feel overwhelming to someone seated very nearby.
Most people are not trying to be inconsiderate. They are just operating from a different idea of normal, and that difference doesn’t become obvious until the flight is already underway.
Unwritten Hawaii flight etiquette seems less settled than ever.
There was once a fairly common set of expectations around flying. People generally tried to keep their voices down, stay within their own seat area, avoid strong odors, and make the experience tolerable for everyone around them.
Those basic expectations now seem far less consistent in today’s world. Some passengers believe buying a ticket gives them the right to use every feature of the seat and bring whatever food or personal items they choose. Others believe sharing the cabin means giving up a little comfort or convenience for the sake of the people nearby in this temporary community.
Neither side necessarily sees itself as unreasonable. That’s part of what makes these disagreements so difficult, because both passengers may think the other person crossed a line.
Airlines cannot make every Hawaii flight decision for us.
Airlines can set rules about smoking, disruptive behavior, seat belts, electronic devices, and what can be carried onboard. They cannot create or enforce policies for every smell, sound, meal, cough, or armrest and reclining seat dispute.
That leaves most of the experience in the hands of individual passengers coming together or not. The cabin community works because most people make hundreds of small choices without ever discussing them or even thinking about them much, and most flights reach Hawaii or return to the mainland without any major conflict.
The tension appears when one person’s ordinary choice becomes another person’s six-hour problem. That may involve something that someone else never expected to see or encounter.
A reader’s nut allergy concern made us rethink our own advice.
We saw a convenient food to pack, while our reader, Diane, saw something that could create concern for passengers around her.
The person next to us may be experiencing the same flight very differently, even when neither of us has done anything wrong. We may not share the same concerns or arrive at the same conclusions, but Diane’s comment reminded us how easy it is to see the cabin only from our own seat and point of view.
After countless Hawaii flights, that may be one of the biggest changes in how we see the cabin. It’s not only a row of individual seats, but a temporary community of strangers heading to Hawaii who have to make the arrangement work until the doors open once again.
Why Hawaii flights bring these questions into focus more.
A short flight can be uncomfortable, and still it’s over quickly. An aspirational Hawaii flight gives every small irritation time to grow, especially when passengers are tired, hungry, anxious, or already worn down by a long travel day, the same way length turns small airline problems into big ones.
Maybe that is in part why these flights generate so many strong opinions. Complete strangers with different expectations are placed inches apart and asked to share the same air, sounds, smells, and too-limited space for hours.
Most of the time, the arrangement works remarkably well. Sometimes it doesn’t, and almost every frequent Hawaii traveler has a story about the moment someone nearby crossed a line they never knew needed to be explained.
Has anything another passenger did on a Hawaii flight changed the way you travel, or made you think differently about what we owe the strangers sitting beside us?
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →
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Today while flying from the Bay Area to Maui, a guy was having a full on conference call in a very loud tone about 2 hours into the flight . I couldn’t take it anymore so I asked a flight attendant to talk to him. He finally ended his call- but what was going through his head when he thought a 15-20 minute call was ok over the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Your essay responding to a nurse’s concern about nuts made me curious as a retired blood vessel surgeon so I looked it up:
“The smell of nuts alone does not cause an allergic reaction, as it does not contain the proteins that trigger allergies.
I am most certainly not a trained allergist but it certainly did not sound right.
However the essay did highlight the need for us to regain social respect and common courtesy we have lost in the age of social media.
As a very frequent international flyer I am acutely aware of the importance of respecting your neighbors and environment. I wish others felt the same.
Sorry guys, but somebody has to bring this up. Men, Please put the seat down after you use the restroom ! This is unbelievable, but true……… I had a kid sitting behind me, 3ish years old. Kicking the seat …..not once , not twice but continuously. I turned around and asked the mother , politely, Can you please have him stop kicking the seat ….. She answered “no, he can do what he wants” I swear , thats the truth ! Then he’s jumping up and down on his seat and yelling at his mom, “I hate you” No, he was not mentally challenged. The flight attendant came over and talked to him and the mother…… he sat still and was quite the rest of the way home. He was just spoiled rotten ! Who wouldn’t be with a mom like that.
A couple of times I have sat next to a very nice person who, unfortunately, stank of body oder. Even if you arrived at the airport clean from a shower you can sometimes work up a pretty good sweat just through normal exertion in the open air terminals. I may have been one of those people too.
As for reclining seats, some of the blame definitely goes to the airlines, but I often will try to nap a little, and I just can’t do that in a bolt upright position.
I try to be cognizant of others…trying to break the habit of using the seat in front of me to stand up. Getting old makes it difficult. I give thought to the foods I bring…no foods with a strong smell. Now as for nuts, they are a go-to snack for me.
That’s Nuts! … This is from an AI Overview … People with nut allergies generally do not need to ingest nuts to be impacted, as casual skin contact can cause **mild** irritation, but severe, life-threatening reactions **require** ingestion or direct contact with sensitive areas like the eyes or mouth.
– Ingestion: Eating even a tiny trace of a nut protein triggers severe immune responses, including dangerous anaphylaxis.
– Smelling: Merely smelling nuts or being in the same room where they are present does not cause airborne anaphylaxis, contrary to popular myth.
– Touching: Skin contact with nut butter or oils can cause localized redness, hives, or itching, but it rarely escalates to a life-threatening systemic reaction unless the residue is transferred to the mouth, nose, or eyes.
You are exactly right.
Weird. Trying to make a general discussion fit into Hawaii specifically. I mean, this could be any destination…it’s a stretch.
I agree some people just don’t use common sense or they only care about themselves.
However, some of the blame can be put on all airlines. Tighter seating. No meals or snacks on long flights. Now on Alaska no inflight entertainment unless you bring your tablet and don’t forget the headphones. At least Hawaiian did not lose all its charm.
Thanks for raising this subject. It’s a great point about bringing snacks on board that don’t put someone at extreme risk. A severe nut allergy is life threatening. It can lead to anaphylaxis, and death. The closer the quarters, the more difficult it is to ensure that someone sitting any distance away won’t be adversely effected by fine particles that could be blown about. Likely best to consider snack suggestions that won’t cause such an adverse reaction with a simple Google search.
We just returned from a nice vacay on Maui. The flights are always the worst, especially when a layover is typical these days, elongating flight time. Sadly, Flight Etiquette is about as common as Common Sense. The food and associated smells are huge. Our recent flight had a family of 4 with a carry-on sack of food from Panda Express. I like Panda, but the smells were nauseating in this environment.
Another bad behavior is holding on to the backrest of a seat for balance while getting to the lavatories. I’ve had my hair tugged, pulled and stretched from people not paying attention to their hand placement. And it hurts! Especially if you’re resting/asleep.
On our recent flight (red-eye) there was a young adult behind me. She could not get comfortable and kept jostling my seat, for hours. She’d pull her tray down and put her head on it to rest, turn back and forth, and squirm around.
The hard part is how to address these issues quietly, without being rude or condescending.
For whatever it is worth… It is the Oil from a “tree nut” or a peanut that triggers an allergic reaction! IMHO, there is nothing dangerous to those around you when you are simply eating a nut! I say that as someone who is Severely allergic to “tree nuts” (aka, almonds, cashews, pistachios, etc.) and when my husband is sitting next to me eating them, I have no reaction! And peanuts are not a “nut” – the are a legume (aka, a pea) so those TWO are totally different allergies. I can go into anaphylaxis if I ingest (Eat not smell, not inhale) the “dust” from the bottom of a box of Honey Nut Cheerios but I can safely eat SW Airlines famous peanuts! However, please don’t sit next to me on a plane eating a pizza. That will make me gag!!!
Well, I agree with you. If I’m buying a ticket, I’m gonna do what I want on the flight as far as what I’m gonna eat, what I’m gonna wear. But I’m also conscious that there are other people around me. That being said if I’m bringing peanuts on the flight for me to snack on, I’m bringing them. If somebody else has an allergic reaction,… That’s called personal responsibility. It’s not my problem. That’s probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but that’s how I feel.
This is why we love flying first class on Hawaiian wide body aircraft.
Now Alaska 737 only to Maui?
Next year palm Desert resorts only 1 hour from Bay Area
Airlines still offer warm nuts- right? Or have I lost track of many years since I had warm nuts served on the way to Hawaii.
I was on a flight from LAX to Lihue several years ago and the person next to me had strong intestinal gas. I turned up the air vent and it was a Long flight.
Nothing worse than the shoeless cretin using the bathroom barefoot.
Hi or the lonely over drink indulged loud talking person that talks incessantly and laughs at every sentence she slurs.