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The Most Annoying Thing You Can Order on a Plane

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Travel + Leisure

27 Feb 2022

One of the worst places for impatience to set in is on an airplane. When your dry mouth hits at a high altitude, it’s like a perfect storm for grumpy behaviour.


Some advice: don’t order a Diet Coke if you’re ever in this situation.


According to a flight attendant, Diet Coke takes the longest to pour. The high altitude makes carbonated drinks foam up more, and Diet Coke is the worst since it has higher levels of carbon dioxide than regular Coke, which means it is more fizzy.

In fact, the soft drink is so slow, they can usually fulfil three other drink orders in the time that's wasted waiting for the bubbles to go down on one Diet Coke.

This all might seem minor, but on full-service flights, it can make a huge difference.


The Diet Coke doesn’t come out of the can when flipped upside down until you lift it up and tilt it slightly. This is because the air pressure is keeping the Coke in the can. It makes pouring the Diet Coke very controllable and reduces the chances of spilling or overflow.


Diet Coke drinkers will just have to be patient – or hope they’re on one of those magic flights where they get to keep the whole can

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