Aside from more legroom and a chance to beat the crush of your fellow holidaymakers for overhead bin space, politeness can often open doors with airline personnel. Do airlines do things wrong? Yes, at an Olympic level. Airlines lose your luggage, frequently cancel or delay their flights and strand passengers, miraculously delete seat selections made months ago.

But remaining calm is far more effective (and less scary to flight attendants) than blowing your top. Last week, the captain of a Hawaiian Airlines plane diverted the flight following a dispute with a passenger the flight crew over a $12 charge for a blanket, in which the passenger reportedly said he wanted to “take somebody behind the woodshed” over the charge.

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