I always take an aisle seat so I can get up, stretch a little, and walk to the galley to politely make my request and perhaps engage in a little conversation before returning to my sardine seat.

I have no problem ringing the call button for drinks, peanuts, anything

YOu just ask the FA nicely that's all. Don't be a demanding jack a*s*s

Never had any problems

On LCC AirAsia they arrived at the ultimate solution to the economy class call button service issue. It is a LCC with dirt cheap fares so food and drink items are for sale (at reasonable prices). The FA's earn commissions on all in cabin sales. Consequently they request that you "please press your call button if you would like anything at any time during the flight" when they make their service announcement and they respond instantly and with a smile when you do. It's a good system.

I believe Virgin America operate a more sophisticated version of the same concept. Makes sense to me.

It is not rude. It's fine. However, I agree that many FAs don't seem to like being "called." I judge by the situation. In some seats, if there is no turbulence, it's better to just go to the galley and ask for it there, so you minimize the amount of walking the FA has to do. I'm not getting up and getting my own hot coffee though. I'll just have to apologize and thank them a lot for bringing me the needed caffeine. Believe me, they don't want me tromping up and down those narrow aisles with a coffee cup. Same for red wine, but after observing several of my fellow pax enjoy "interesting" accidents, I no longer order red wine on airplanes, so I don't have to worry about that one.

I don't think it is rude at all as long as you make the request politely.

I still can't seem to bring myself to do it though.

I probably ring it on less than 10% of flights, but I have rung it for drink service, especially when I'm not on the aisle. I have seen cases where it went unanswered for >10 minutes, even with a re-ring. The typical response (on UA) is gracious.

I've rang the thing all of twice.

1) BA A320, during the safety demo, the fold down monitor near my head didn't stop folding down, going back up, back down, etc. That just needed to stop right then before the motor burned out.

2) AA 767 DFW-LHR. Stuck in middle seat after misconnecting, can't sleep. Both aisles snoring with me thirsty. Sorry but the FA can bring me a drink without waking anyone up- I can't say the same thing about getting out of the row. (Perhaps that I remember this says how strongly I work to stay in aisles at all times?)

I always feel like a bother when I consider using it, though, even in F.

Only done it once, and that was by accident.

Was getting seated in an Economy Extra seat on a SAS Airbus A340, where the button is on the small remote that stowed in a small "pocket" on the inside of the armrest. I simply pressed the button with my thigh while sitting down, and not before my a** was planted in the seat, a female FA came to ask what the matter was.. "Oh, did I press the button? Sorry, that was an accident, I'm really sorry". "Oh, not a problem at all", she smiled :)

For the rest of that flight, drink services were to frequent for me to ever need to push it again.

With the wonderful new attitude and service on AA lately I wouldn't hesitate if I REALLY needed something. Once in the past I had an FA just about bite my head off when I asked if they had any extra warm nuts floating around the galley, so I never had the courage to ever ring the call button again.

I'm exactly the same, I have only ever pressed it once and that was by accident. I just can't bring myself to press it. I know that I should have no qualms about using it, especially as the picture on the button shows someone bringing me a drink, but I just can't. Sorry.

When I want a drink or something, I prefer to wait for one of the stewardesses to walk past and then ask them. And even then I mitigate it by saying 'when you have free time, I'm in no rush'.

I normally travel business long haul and then it's normally on Asian carriers (mostly OZ) so I don't need to wait very long before someone walks past. When I travel short haul economy it's usually for less than two hours, so generally I don't need anything anyway.

Strangely, on the occasions when I travel long haul economy (i.e when I'm paying for the ticket myself and there's no suitable air miles option in J/C) then I find myself far more prepared to press the call button than when I'm in business. Especially when it's on an airline with dreadful service, like KLM where the staff spend most of their time talking with friends / colleagues. However, I haven't yet made the final push to actually press the button; but I've certainly given it serious consideration.

There's probably something psychological going on here, but I have no idea what.

I remember one KLM flight we took we didn't see CC for ages and rather than push the call button OH went to the galley and had to interupt one of them knitting to get a drink:)

Even though I am the passenger, when I do hit the call button, I usually begin my request with a "Sorry to bother you but...", usually brightens their demeanor somewhat.

I do that too, but think about it, why should we feel compelled to do so?

I have no problem pussing the call button if i really need something, we pay for it, right..