Ideas about what constitutes etiquette and polite behaviour around the world vary, so perhaps it’s no wonder that people disagree about how to conduct themselves in shared spaces, such as planes.
Travel Tomorrow has reported previously about the type of passenger others find particularly irritating. Now a new survey for Skyscanner, a flight comparison website, has uncovered the worst flight faux pas, according to British flyers at least.
Drinking too much booze, reclining your seat, and monopolizing armrests are just some of the behaviours that Brits cannot stand, but there are some surprises among the bugbears too.
Alcohol, reclining and queue-jumping
The survey of 2,000 UK travellers found the three most annoying things you can do to a Brit when flying are: excess alcohol consumption; pushing into a queue (but let’s face it, the Brits get annoyed about this whether it’s at an airport or not); and reclining your plane seat, especially when food is being served, making it hard for the person behind to use their table.
At what point do airlines cut off someone’s alcohol consumption? I don’t want you drunk falling asleep on me during my flight seat neighbor…. @Delta please share the insight here.
— Stephanie Alonso (@LttleBirdToldMe) July 30, 2019
Space invaders
Listening to or watching a device without headphones came next and the rush to get out of a plane when it lands, with passengers standing up and blocking the aisle as soon as the wheels touch the tarmac, is another thing that grates with UK travellers, rounding out the top six annoying behaviours.
Ill never understand why passengers stand up as soon as the plane lands. Now you just standing there for 15-20 minutes looking plain stupid. Whats the reason?
— J (@jordvnpvtrick) April 2, 2022
How to share the limited space in a plane equitably seemed to be a feature. Using the armrest without due consideration to the person nextdoor came high up on the list of irritations. Strangely perhaps, putting your bag on a seat, even temporarily, was considered more anti-social than draping your hair over the back of a seat.
Fussing over your luggage
Just outside the top ten inconsiderate actions was failing to sort your liquids or baggage for security, so that other passengers end up blocked in a hold-up behind you while you juggle your luggage.
Most common flying faux pas
- Drinking too much alcohol on the flight
- Queue-cutters
- Reclining your seat while the food and drinks are served
- Reclining your seat back at any point during the flight
- Using gadgets without headphones
- Standing up as soon as the plane lands
- Leaving bags on the seat to get comfortable when you’re trying to sit down
- Double arm rest hoggers
- Draping hair over the back of the seat
- Taking up multiple seats in the departure lounge
- Not separating liquids before security and causing a hold-up
- Not having passports or boarding passes to hand and holding up the queue
- Taking shoes or socks off on the plane
- Blocking escalators/travelators so you can’t walk past
- Over-packing and holding up the queue while they sort their bags out
Solutions
The travellers surveyed were honest enough to recognize that they themselves commit some of the faux pas on occasion, and in a hopeful sign that we can learn to live alongside each other in public again, sensible suggestions were given about how to avoid being seen as rude. The solution could be as simple as asking the person behind you if they mind you reclining your chair, according to 74% of those surveyed.
Laura Lindsay, Skyscanner’s travel trends expert, recommended buying your cosmetics and pharmaceuticals once you’ve already gone through security, to avoid having to worry about luggage triage at all.
While that may sound like you need more time airside to do your shopping, as well as an incitement to spend money at the airport, Lindsay points out that you can use the “click and collect” option when ordering your purchases online in advance, in order to avoid both paying “airport prices” and having to do a mad dash to the shops.