The Top 18 Air Travel Pet Peeves Amongst Frequent Fliers

If you were to guess that seat recline was the top pet peeve amongst frequent fliers, you would be incorrect — despite events recently spotlighted in the media insinuating otherwise — according to the results of a survey released from Frequent Business Traveler magazine in conjunction with input from members of FlyerTalk.

Here are the top 18 air travel pet peeves amongst frequent fliers:

Insufficient legroom ranked as the top pet peeve; followed by a seat mate taking up too much space. Seat recline was third on the list.

Readers of The Gate have posted opinions and comments on such topics as:

1. Insufficient legroom — at least, in relation to who is entitled to the space under the seat in front of you
2. Seat mate taking up too much space — whether it is due to obesity or use of a service animal
3. Seat Recline — enough said
4. Loud or disruptive passengers who have been kicked off of the airplane or restrained with duct tape
5. Misbehaving children which prompted passengers to want a child-free airline — and do crying babies count as misbehaving children?
6. Sick passengers — or how to reduce your chances of getting sick; and is it possible that sneezing passengers might have allergies instead of being sick?
7. There are too many stories pertaining to misbehaving adults at The Gate from which to choose on this topic — especially when they cause diversions of flights — but this one stood out in my mind
8. Does this airline really have the rudest employees, which includes members of the flight crew?
9. “Smelly” neighbors can include obnoxious seat mates such as those with bad breath
10. Dirty lavatories can be found in all cabins of an airplane — but passengers in the premium class cabin usually prefer that passengers assigned to seats in the economy class cabin use the lavatories in that cabin with filth and stench being part of the reasons
11. Diaper changes of babies while at the seat can certainly be one of the many reasons why a seat is dirty
12. Not enough room for carry-on baggage is certainly a major reason for the war over space in the overhead storage bins
13. Could you possibly becoming irrelevant to travel companies — including airlines — be a contributing factor towards minimal service aboard the aircraft; or is it because airlines are attempting to squeeze as much profits from you as possible?
14. For me, one “flight announcement rap” would be one too many
15. One mother might have been happy if the in-flight entertainment system were inoperable on one particular flight; but if the executives of one airline apparently had it their way, the days of in-flight entertainment provided by the airline would be eliminated altogether
16. The seat belt sign is left on during the entire flight: who needs seat belts, anyway?!?
17. Can raising access rates improve Wi-FI Internet service aboard airplanes during flight?
18. Here is at least one article pertaining to meal preferences not being available about a FlyerTalk member who kept refusing meals served to him in the first class cabin because he was not pleased with the choices — but I suppose we should be grateful when meals are served at all these days

 

I intend to revisit some of these topics in the future. Are there any which you would like to see covered? Do you agree with this list?