I personally have no issue. If someone is crazy enough to walk barefoot, it's their issue. TSA and Regulations not withstanding.
Sure, reeking feet and disease should prompt one to keep their shoes and sox on, but people are people. They are going to do crazy things.

I admit I may take off my shoes on long flights when in my seat. But I'm well groomed and clean and powdered. If I get up, my shoes go back on.

I think I'm more tolerant of others since sitting next to a very flatulent man on a flight from LAX to MCO about five years ago. That was a disgusting flight.
Since then, I don't mind feet odor as much. :(

I don't even want to think about it..

Barefeet.. that's each flyer's concern to take care of their feet.. sight of feet, hopefully its not disgusting..

For the most part, if I don't smell odors, I'm ok..

I think many have discontinued this. The worry was the heels puncturing the slides, but there doesn't seem to be much evidence backing this up. I did read a couple of NTSB reports where they expressed concern about this. In one accident, passengers did end up with injured feet from debris outside the aircraft; in the other people were taking their shoes off right at the slide and the discarded shoes were piling up in the aisle, becoming an obstruction.

You must hang around a lot of stinky-footed people, probably people who wear shoes most of the time, so their feet are always damp and sweaty. Old sweat + bacteria = stink.

:eek::eek:

I can't recall a single flight I've taken where they didn't say that anyone with high-heeled shoes should remove them. Multiple airlines on three continents in just the past couple of months. On a recent CA flight they also instructed us to remove any sharp objects, and showed people taking off their watches. Just curious -- do you recall which airlines no longer say this?

Just to chime in, I don't believe I've ever heard that high heels should come off on United.

*ever meaning in about the last 6-7 years, I guess I honestly can't remember prior to that.

Well, I never fly UA, so that explains it. (The recent incarnation of this thread started in the AA forum but was moved here and merged into this older thread.)

Boeing and Airbus tells you that high heels can puncture their slides! That's enough for me!!

I don't hear it in safety announcements, I think they have been shortened over time to reduce information overload / flyer fatigue, but I do recall seeing the little picture with an X through it on the safety card.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/safety/faq.html

Can't link the Airbus one for some reason, but on their instructions for flight crew for evacuation it says heels should be ditched, along with pens, badges etc!

Maybe the CDC should get on this...lol

All of the recent safety videos I've seen (AA, BA, and CA come to mind) have said and shown that women must take off high-heeled shoes. The CA video also said to remove all sharp objects, and the video showed people taking off watches.

Yeah. Actually, I don't want to hang around them, but they apparently want to sit next to me. :D

While it's not the majority of people who sit next to me who stink, the ones that do are very memorable.

You have my deep sympathy. I've had to sit next to stinky people on planes, and it is awful.

Fair enough, it's hard to keep track of the merges. Off the top of my head, I can't recall it on BA or domestic Qantas, either (as far as OneWorld goes), but I can't honestly say I pay a tremendous amount of attention to those announcements.

Personally, I sometimes save the little booties I get in J/F and use them on long trips to walk around the plane without shoes. Other times I change into crappy socks. I'm not against barefoot, but just not for me.

The whole thing about barefoot on the plane is really not so much about bare feet per se, but how much more offensive it is when the shoes are removed and it is bare feet propped on the bulkhead or seat or armrest. Nobody's going to pay attention to someone else's feet if they are on the floor in front of the OP's own seat, not unless they smell.

From the posts here, that seems to not be the case.