DEAR MISS MANNERS: Is dining etiquette different when on an airplane? Should I wait for everyone in my row to be served before eating, as though they are my dinner companions, or should we all politely ignore each other?
What other rules can be ignored, or should be amended, when drinking or eating on an airplane?
GENTLE READER: There are many courtesies that you owe your seatmates on a flight, but pretending that you are at a social event is not one of them. If it were, it would be rude to fall asleep while the others were awake.
The fiction that should be observed is that you are each enclosed in your own space, however sparse that is. Therefore the dining rules require not intruding on others’ space with spills or smells.