This entire thread was inspired as I waited for a bus, chatting with Rita, a UA flight attendant for 45 years and going! Apparently, UA female flight attendants are supposed to have heels on for public image, when they're not in the aircraft but in uniform. Rita puts on more practical shoes when she's on duty.

She tells me that different aircraft have different combinations of exit doors that are not supposed to be used in water landings. My response is that I'm glad the flight attendants are next to those doors. The overwing exits, though, are dependent on the exit row passengers who don't get to practice.

The new 737-900's overwing exits are handy. They're hinged at the top and designed to swing outwards and upwards out of the way.

As for pockets, I travel with a fleece jacket with zippered pockets so things don't fall out everywhere. I've got headlamp, earplugs, surgical masks (gurantees that the guy next to me isn't sneezing, wheezing, coughing and flinging phlegm everywhere), chapstick, etc in the pockets. Holy utility belt Batman! Anybody seen any stray water bottles left behind in the seat pockets? I've forgotten so many, that I think I need to tether those to myself somehow.