The 5 most annoying habits of airline passengers

The results of a new in-flight etiquette survey reveal that it’s never OK to go barefoot on the plane, and that the most annoying passenger is the one who sits behind us.

In the latest edition of Expedia’s annual Airplane and Hotel Etiquette Study, the seatback kicker emerged the most annoying in-flight passenger for the fourth year in a row, cited by more than half (51%) of global respondents as the most offending in-flight behavior.

The poll was conducted among nearly 18 230 respondents across 23 countries around the world.

The annual survey serves as a handbook on in-flight etiquette and offers the do’s and don’ts of modern air travel.

After seatback kickers, grabbers and pokers, come flyers with poor, pungent hygiene, inattentive parents, flyers with no sense of personal space, and seatmates who blast the volume on their headsets.

Almost all global respondents (90%) agree it’s never OK to go barefoot during a flight, a message that will hopefully reach this particularly offender identified as #ToeGirl by an unfortunate victim to her barefooted wanderings.

“Getting comfy on a long flight is tough, but there is a happy medium to avoid grossing out seatmates. Only remove shoes, and never prop feet up on the seatback or encroach into the next row,” Expedia experts recommend in the report.

The survey also revealed that the majority of US flyers — 90% — aren’t looking to make new friends in-flight, and prefer to keep to themselves. In fact, more than three-quarters (77%) of American respondents said they dread sitting next to flyers who talk too much.

To defend yourself against a chatty seatmate, experts advise plugging in your earplugs to send a not-so-subtle message to them.

In other interesting findings, results of the poll found that South Korean flyers are most likely to get drunk on a flight, followed by Thai and US travelers, while a quarter of Americans believe seat reclining is rude.

Here are the most offensive in-flight behaviors according to the Expedia report:

1. The seat kicker/bumper/grabber
2. The aromatic assenger
3. The inattentive parent
4. Personal space violators
5. Audio insensitive

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