With strict schedules, crowded security lines, overpriced food, and a dearth of places to plug in your phone, air travel tends to be a stressful experience long before you’re stuck in a seat for hours.
So don’t make the situation worse for everyone.
travel website The vacationer recently released the results of its 2022 Airplane Etiquette Violations Survey, which asked more than a thousand adults what behaviors on airplanes irritate them.
Here are the things about flights that people say are really, really annoying.
10. Listen to loud music or movies
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 28.96%
Yes, some of us haven’t been on a plane or to a movie theater in a while. No, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to watch this summer’s blockbusters without headphones.
Merely wearing headphones is also not courteous in itself. Make sure the volume is not at maximum. Since we’re sitting with our ears maybe 8 inches apart, your neighbor trying to read a book can probably hear every line of dialogue differently.
9. Embark or disembark out of turn
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 29.6%
Some might say it’s all fair in the love and battle for top storage space. But scrambling to the front of the line to board — or trying to pull a quick one on the hurried flight crew by lining up with an earlier boarding party — is pointless.
Ditto for people who practically climb on the seats trying to get down before everyone else.
8. Talk too much to someone
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 29.87%
There’s nothing wrong with being friendly, but not everyone is a social butterfly or in the mood to chat with strangers at 35,000 feet. If someone doesn’t seem enthusiastic about the conversation, dropping it is the polite thing to do, as they don’t have the option to politely find a way out.
7. Fully recline your seat
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 38.25%
Airplane seats usually can’t recline very far these days. But every inch you gain is the inch you take from someone else. And it really makes a difference when you have long legs, especially if you’re a middle seat beleaguered on all sides.
6. Hog the armrests
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 39.07%
There are usually four (or three, if you’re in an exit row) armrests in every row of three seats on a flight. Suppose you only have one, and it’s the one on the side closest to the aisle.
Treat your armrest as an international border and assume crossing it will be considered a declaration of war.
5. Eat pungent or foul-smelling foods
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 39.8%
You can bring your own snacks on a flight. The ones they offer are often ugly or expensive.
But if you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ve probably seen someone cook something stinky in the microwave in the break room. An airplane is a break room in which you are locked up for hours.
4. Be inattentive or misparent your child
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 46.81%
Being a parent is not easy. But few people appreciate children sticking things between seats, bouncing around, crying, screaming, or committing the cardinal sin of air travel – which we’ll get to at the end.
3. Odor due to poor hygiene or heavy perfume
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 48%
We don’t want to smell someone else’s smell any more than we want to smell someone else’s lunch.
1. Getting drunk and being disruptive (tie)
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 59.11%
Although many flights sell alcohol, no one should confuse an airplane with a bar. It might have been funny when Kristen Wiig’s character drank too much and swore at the flight attendant in the movie “Bridesmaids,” but it won’t be if someone does it for real.
1. Kicking someone’s seat back (tie)
Survey respondents who cited this among the most annoying airplane behaviors: 59.11%
Here it is: the most boring thing you can do on a plane without being of legal drinking age. Please keep your feet – and your offspring’s feet – off the seat in front of you.