Lack of Personal Space and Disruptive Passengers are Biggest Air Travel Pet Peeves
Flying multiple times per month, or in some cases per week, frequent travelers have become intimately acquainted with many of the aggravations that accompany air travel.
Frequent Business Traveler and FlyerTalk, the world’s largest online travel community, asked readers and forum members what their biggest pet peeves were concerning air travel, focusing on the time spent in the air. The discussion thread on FlyerTalk garnered 238 responses and over 24,000 views and is still going strong.
More than 1,300 readers responded to our survey and the results were crystal clear. The top peeves had less to do with in-flight perks, such as poor Wi-Fi speeds or unsatisfactory on-board service, and more to do with the basic need for personal comfort, including elbow room and peace and quiet
While the top peeves in this year’s poll closely align with those in last year’s results in that they addressed personal space and comfort issues, there was also an increase in peeves that are directly attributable to one’s fellow passengers.
Insufficient legroom, the peeve that clinched the top spot in last year’s poll, ranked first as the most notable nuisance. Next on the list, however, came loud or disruptive passengers, which moved up from last year’s fifth place. The following two peeves, seatmate taking up too much space and passenger in front reclining seat, revisit the desire for unencroached-upon personal space in-flight.
Odoriferous passengers ranked fifth, followed by misbehaving children and coughing or obviously not well passengers in sixth and seventh place. Misbehaving adults (eighth), rude cabin crew (ninth), and dirty lavatories (tenth) finished off the top ten list.