Airplane etiquette: Flyers list their biggest pet peeves

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Try to keep your knees and feet to yourself. That’s the lesson from a new travel etiquette survey which found that seatback kickers are the most annoying type of in-flight passenger.

According to the latest edition of Expedia’s Airplane Etiquette Study, seat-kickers narrowly beat out inattentive parents this year, with 61 per cent of the 1,019 respondents polled in the U.S. agreeing that restless, seatback kickers make the worst type of seatmates.

Rounding out the top five complaints were clueless parents (59 per cent), seatmates with poor hygiene (50 per cent), the 'audio insensitive' who play their music or talk too loudly (50 per cent), and the tipsy, in-flight boozer (45 per cent).

Meanwhile, are you a ‘Chatty Cathy?’ Because in addition to being cited as one of the top 10 annoying in-flight behaviors, the survey found that most U.S. travellers (75 per cent) prefer to keep to themselves for most of the flight.

In fact, two-thirds of respondents agreed that they “dread” sitting next to chatty flyers -- the 16 per cent who view flights as “an opportunity to meet and talk to new people.”

The survey also revealed current attitudes towards reclining seats --an ongoing flashpoint in travel -- with interesting results.

About one-third of respondents said they’d like to see reclining seats banned entirely, or restricted to set times during short-haul flights.

The same percentage of travellers also said they refuse to recline.

The most common reason for adjusting seatbacks is to sleep.

And 13 per cent admitted they recline immediately after takeoff.

Overall, American flyers were globally optimistic, with three-quarters of respondents agreeing that passengers are, for the most part, considerate.

As for the Mile High Club, membership is exclusive, with just one per cent admitting to have engaged in sky-high nookie, or knowing a traveller who did.

Here are the top 10 grievances for in-flight behaviors:

The full ranked list of onboard etiquette violators includes: