From unwell passengers to problems with overhead bins, flights test your resolve.
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A new report contains an ominous warning for air travelers.
“No matter what you do on the plane, you will probably disturb other passengers,” it says.
The report, released Thursday by data intelligence firm Morning Consult, examines 12 types of behavior on a plane and finds that most travelers (more than 50%) are concerned about all but one behavior. It has been found.
“Disputes can arise when unwritten rules of airline etiquette are followed,” wrote Lindsey Roeschke, a travel and hospitality analyst at Morning Consult, who wrote the report. .
Nearly one in five respondents said concerns about the behavior of other passengers could deter them from traveling.
According to the report, the most problematic behavior onboard is invasion of personal space, such as invading armrest or legroom or crossing invisible boundaries. This is what separates the passenger seat. Approximately 77% of those surveyed responded that they were “concerned” and 51% responded that they were “very concerned.”
According to a survey of more than 2,200 Americans, the No. 2 ranking was unhygienic behaviors such as cutting nails and taking off shoes. However, not everyone is against taking shoes off on planes, with less than half (49%) in Asia and a third in the United Arab Emirates, according to a YouGov poll published in April. A strong majority (38%) consider this practice unacceptable. .
Because COVID-19 and other communicable diseases can affect passengers long after the flight ends, passengers who are visibly unwell are ranked third on the list. .
The top five irritating behaviors are listening to devices without headphones, followed by obvious intoxication.
People who try to get off the plane before getting to the front of the plane irritate more than two-thirds (67%) of American travelers, and people who block the aisle during boarding are almost equally criticized (66 %). Standing up and retrieving something from the overhead bin while a passenger is still on board also counts here.
There are some other unspoken rules for exiting. take out the bag early (“Pulling a bag out of the overhead bin while someone is waiting in the aisle is a surefire way to intimidate yourself,” says CheapAir.com.)
Passengers wearing backpacks can wear their backpacks facing forward when getting on and off the plane to avoid accidentally hitting a seated person in the face. This is so common that some flyers report it. A good reason to book a window seat.
Although No. 9 on the list, 62% of American travelers said they were annoyed by passengers who folded their seats on short-to-medium-haul daytime flights.
What was once commonplace has turned into a huge problem, with new rules of etiquette now considering reclining seats prohibited. Skip failure in almost all situations — This claim met with little consensus among flyers.
NEW YORK, USA – FEBRUARY 23: A woman with long legs sits in an economy class seat on an airplane in Berlin, Germany on February 23, 2016. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
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On the plane, a woman repeatedly said,I’ll move my seat back!Current advice is for passengers to ask or warn the person behind them before reclining.
What used to be the typical flying irritant – a crying baby – came in at number 10 on the list. The report notes that most passengers tolerate crying infants and misbehaving children if parents do their best to calm them down.
Still, about 57% of respondents expressed interest in flying in sections of the plane where children are not allowed.
The Morning Consult report also showed that irritability on airplanes increases with age, with baby boomers showing higher levels of irritability almost across the board.
Gen Z, now approximately 11 to 26 years old, cared the least about all but one of the behaviors measured, Roschke concluded. If you want to change seats, find a Gen Xer. ”
The biggest generational gap is in how they view drunk people, with 83% of baby boomers annoyed, but only 55% of Gen Z, followed by visibly sick passengers and coronavirus This could highlight the health risks that diseases such as viral infections pose to older people.
Overhead bins can be a source of tension on flights, from what passengers put in them to how quickly they store and retrieve their luggage.
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The report speculates that the difference in irritability may be because Gen Z spends far less time in places.
But also, “Perhaps it is [also] “Because they have relatively limited life experience, they have not yet become bitter and unhappy.”
Or maybe it’s because baby boomers have memories of what used to be. Of the four generations surveyed, she is the only one to have traveled during the “Golden Age of Travel.”
The number of passenger misconduct incidents reported in the U.S. has plummeted by more than 80% from an all-time high in early 2021, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration. Approximately 6,000 passenger reports of bad manners were filed that year, most related to the mask requirement, which was significantly higher than the 1,736 reports filed as of October 29, 2023.
According to the FAA, the number of incidents of passenger misconduct reported in the past year was about two per 10,000 flights.
However, this is significantly higher than before the pandemic (1,161 cases were reported in 2019, compared to just 544 in 2017). This phenomenon is perplexing industry insiders.
However, this data does not reflect in-flight incidents that do not rise to the level of a “report.”
Sarah Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said: “What the public doesn’t hear is that 99 per cent of potential accidents are resolved by flight attendants without doing anything.” told NBC News via email.. “As the airline industry’s first responders, we de-escalate disputes on nearly every flight.”
Data from the International Air Transport Association shows that unruly incidents are increasing rather than receding. IATA Report published in June It is estimated that there will be one loss of control accident for every 568 flights in 2022, an increase of one for every 835 flights in 2021.
According to the IATA report, incidents typically involve violations, verbal abuse and intoxication, with the most common forms of violations being smoking or e-cigarettes on board, seatbelt issues and carry-on baggage allowances. Exceeding, etc.
Physical violence, which occurs once in every 17,200 flights, is also on the rise, according to IATA.
