What really gets your goat as a plane passenger? A new study has revealed Australian flyers’ bugbears and our top pet peeves may surprise you …
Topping the list of Aussie flyers’ frustrations, according to Agoda’s 2023 Travel Bugbears Survey, is the invasion of our personal space, which for those of us not flying business or first, is already at a premium. So no real surprise there.
Our second biggest annoyance is the passing of wind (others’, not ours?) – though we mightn’t seek compensation like a Kiwi couple who recently sat next to a gassy dog for 13 hours.
Still on scent, and the third most frustrating thing about flying for Aussie travellers are smelly socks when others kick off their shoes.
Interestingly, flight delays ranked fourth on the list while the dread of sitting near a crying baby made it into Aussie flyers’ top five pet peeves.
Surprisingly, across the ten nationalities polled in the study, Australians ranked least sensitive to rowdy passengers.
And lost baggage also failed to earn a mention among our top grievances, despite baggage mishandling rates almost doubling in recent times.
Wider lens
Across Asia-Pacific, the invasion of personal space was also the number one irritation among flyers, but flight delays ranked second on the list.
The next biggest annoyances were loud passengers, chatty ‘seatmates’, couples airing their dirty laundry in public, and raucous groups broadcasting their music or games for an entire flight.
The Japanese, widely known for their politeness, were the only market that picked disruptive passengers as their number-one frustration.
“For many of us, the holiday fun starts the moment we board a plane,” Agoda Vice President of Global Partner Services Liyana Jamil said.
“But while flying is generally an enjoyable experience, it sometimes comes with minor grievances.
“I hope that the findings of this light-hearted survey create awareness, increase consideration, and make the in-flight experience on any of these routes even more enjoyable.”
Read about another (not listed) flying pet peeve and how passengers are dealing with it.
Conducted by market research firm YouGov in July 2023, the study took into account the opinions of more than 12,000 adults, including over 1,000 Australians, who had been on holiday at least once in the past year.
