Is it time for a refresher in flying etiquette? Millions of Aussie flyers have endured incidents of bad behaviour in the air with noisy, stinky, inconsiderate and unruly experiences at the hands of other passengers topping the list of plane grievances.
A new Finder survey found two-thirds of Aussies (66%) have had an unpleasant flying experience with screaming children the most common complaint as 44 per cent of travellers reported this behaviour.
The spate of unpleasant flying experiences could be due to infrequent flyers still not “match fit” for flying post-COVID as Karryon Founder Matt Leedham found on his first flight back to the UK.
On the unpleasant flying experience list
Other complaints read like a list of flying bugbears and bad habits such as having your seat kicked with two in five respondents (40%) saying this has affected them during a flight.
Research also showed nearly a third (30%) of Aussies have had passengers in front of them put their seat back during meal times or seat mates hogging the armrest.
Hygiene concerns were among other major inflight issues with a quarter (26%) of travellers enduring other passengers removing their shoes and 20 per cent sitting near someone who smelt.
Twenty per cent were also put off by having a chatty person beside them during their flight while 12 per cent took umbrage at another passenger asking to swap seats.
Surprisingly, it’s not Boomers or Karens leading the complaints. Younger Aussies claimed proportionally worse flying experiences than their more mature counterparts.
Three-quarters (75%) of Gen Z travellers reported unpleasant behaviour from other passengers compared to only 59 per cent of Baby Boomers and 65 per cent of Millennials and Gen Xers.
