- 13 July 2011
- 7:52am
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How not to behave on an airplane: a passengers’ bill of rights
Andy MurdockLonely Planet author
In our recent survey of behavior on airplanes, Lonely Planet asked readers a series of questions with the intent of establishing some basic guidelines for the traveling community to promote peace on airplanes. Flying can be stressful and tiring enough – we should at least know how to get along with one another. But how can we know what others expect without asking?
After over 5800 responses, we feel that we’ve got a solid grasp on the situation, and there’s good news: travelers generally agree on what is or is not acceptable in-flight behavior.
The most common words used to describe annoying airplane behavior (click for larger version).
The number one annoyance? Other people messing with your seat and personal space – prodding the entertainment console on the seat back, kicking, people pulling themselves up using your headrest, and various types of unreasonable space encroachment were mentioned repeatedly. Noise, unpleasant aromas, unruly children, and thoughtless behavior involving carry-on luggage were also common gripes.
Full results from the survey questions are reported below, but as an initial summary of the findings, we present the democratically-decided Passengers’ Airplane Behavior Bill of Rights:
The Passengers’ Airplane Behavior Bill of Rights
Article I: The right to remove shoes
Passengers shall be allowed to remove shoes from their feet, but only if the aforementioned feet don’t stink or present health risks to other passengers. The right of the passenger to go to the lavatory without shoes shall not be infringed, as it is really your own business should you want to stand in the urine of others.
Article II: Freedom from unreasonable aromatic assault
No passenger shall, in the time of flight, be subjected to unreasonable aromas, be it from powerful perfume, foods redolent of onion, or other fragrance wholly unnecessary whilst on an airplane.
Article III: The right to reasonable light
All passengers shall be allowed the right to use their own overhead light to read when the cabin lights are turned off, as that is its intended use. No passenger shall be unwillingly bothered by the thoughtless opening of window shades during this period; window seat passengers are not delegated the power to blind their fellow passengers.
Article IV: The article of reclension
A well-justified act of reclining one’s seat shall not be prohibited at all times, apart from meal time and other times specified by the flight crew. All instances of reclension shall be preceded by a rearward glance so as not to unwittingly crush the patellas or portable electronic devices of the affected passenger.
Article V: Freedom of no speech
There shall be no requirement for other passengers to listen to you drone on about your child, cat or other subject not directly germane to an immediate inflight emergency situation. The right of other passengers to give you the ‘book-off’ shall not be infringed, nor shall you assist with the answer to 14-across if unprompted.
Article VI: The right to bear armrests
In all cases where an armrest is shared by two adjacent passengers, both parties must respect the right of the other to keep the armrest down. Passengers relegated to a middle seat shall be afforded special status, and aisle and window passengers shall endeavour to accommodate.
Article VII: Conditions of passenger quarters
Passengers shall not be subject to the rubbish of others crammed thoughtlessly into seat-back pockets, or tossed onto the floor in a cavalier fashion. Chewing gum shall not be pressed to any surface affixed to an aircraft.
Article VIII: The right to heed the call of nature
A well-organised attempt to use the lavatory, being necessary for inflight calm and gastrointestinal health, shall not be impeded by aisle passengers sleeping or otherwise. The rights of others waiting to use a lavatory shall supersede the frankly ill-advised wishes of current lavatory users to waste time poking around said lavatory.
Article IX: Provisions concerning use of electronic devices
The assurance of safety shall not be infringed by the desires of others to make one last phone call, update their social network status to brag about their impending holiday, or to plant cauliflower in their virtual farm. Whilst MythBusters and others have debunked most potential dangers of using common electronic devices on planes, safety and calm shall take precedence.
Article X: Cruel and unnecessary aisle clogging
No passenger shall, in the time of disembarking, hastily grab their bag and congest the exit route before actual movement is possible. Likewise, when it comes time to exit, no passenger shall unaccountably act surprised that it is their turn to leave.
Article XI: Freedom from feral children
The right of passengers not to be kicked in the back, have their hair pulled, be presented with unasked-for mucous-moistened objects, or be otherwise assaulted by feral children shall not be infringed. Crying babies cannot be held accountable for their actions, and are therefore exempt.
Article XII: The right of reasonable alcohol consumption
No person, apart from those who are drunk and obnoxious or minors, shall be prohibited from imbibing an alcoholic beverage should they feel that it is a good idea, despite all indications to the contrary.
Article XIII: The right to private media
Reading over others’ shoulders shall not be inflicted, unless achieved in a particularly stealthy fashion causing no annoyance to the book holder. The same shall be true for films and other non-private media.
Full results from the ‘How not to behave on an airplane’ survey:
1. Shoes? 68% say off is okay.
2. Shoes in the lavatory? 88% say on, 12% don’t mind getting their feet wet (so to speak).
3. Highly fragrant foods or body care products – 82% deem them unacceptable on airplanes.
4. Unwelcome aromas on airplanes: stinky feet were ranked the worst of the worst, beating out baby vomit and old cigarettes by a fair margin. Scented lotion was the least unacceptable.
5. You want to read when the cabin lights are turned down, 77% say turn on that overhead light.
6. Reclining your seat is okay to do…
7. The person in front of you reclines their seat with no intention of sleeping – 48% don’t really care, but more than half will either stare angrily or plot small acts of revenge.
8. The person next to you won’t stop talking – only 14% will tell them that they’re not in the mood for a conversation, the majority will try the ‘book-off’ technique or wait patiently.
9. The stranger next to you flips up the shared armrest – 60% will ask them if they don’t mind leaving it down.
10. You’re stuck in the middle seat, and both armrests are already occupied – 57% will try to share, only 4% will invent a rare tropical skin disease to win the armrest war.
11. Trash, rubbish, waste – whatever you call it, it goes in the bin, not the seat back pocket or the floor.
12. In the lavatory, 82% get in and out as quickly as possible, while 18% will freely admit to wasting time.
13. The crew tells you to turn off your electronic devices – 83% of responders are well-behaved and follow directions, 5% push the limit, and 12% simply hide the device.
14. You’ve finished your food, 68% will wait for collection, 32% will try to find somewhere to shove it aside.
15. Drunk people on planes can be fairly obnoxious, and the stats back it up.
16. Reading or watching movies over people’s shoulders – 31% admit to doing it, 69% won’t do it because they hate it when the other 31% do it.
17. The person in the aisle seat is sleeping, but you need to us the lavatory. 43% will gently wake them to get out, 30% will just climb over, and 27% will risk pulling a Tycho Brahe and try to wait it out.
18. Climbing past other passengers, 50% will default to giving them the ass in the face, while 36% will first consider what they look like or how nice they’ve been on the flight so far.
19. Crying babies, are you more sorry for yourself or the parents? The majority were strongly in the ‘sorry for self’ camp, some were split, but parents got only moderate sympathy overall.
20. The child behind you is kicking your seat, 68% will ask the parents to make them stop, and 18% will use this as justification for using birth control.
21. The plane lands and taxis to the gate, 74% will wait patiently for their turn, while 26% want to jump up immediately despite the almost inevitable long wait.
These could all be added to Murphy’s Laws for Frequent Flyers!
http://www.thetraveltart.com/murphys-laws-for-frequent-flyers/
Thanks for the article. I think it’s too useful. I would like to mention the ways which the workers on airplane mustn’t behave. Just fly with Ryanair and you will feel in the middle of a street market. From me point of view the worst Flight Company.
As always, I leave the link to me travel blog, hope that you’ll enjoyed
http://bagpacktraveller.blogspot.com/
I’m a private pilot and day or night, I’ll always sit in a window seat and look out at the view. With any degree of knowledge, you pretty much know where you are. It’s just so darn beautiful looking out I resent being asked to close the blind for any reason.
My pet hate is the passenger on a short flight that immediately throws the seat back as far as possible in spite of the fact everybody around him understands that the convention is that on such a short flight seats are kept upright. Generally it is a infrequent traveller who thinks that to not recline the seat is missing out on their flight experience. I find that if they decline to observe the normal conventions, frequent vigorous insertions and extractions of books from seat pockets and practicing of the brace position (on the seat ahead) generally helps them to learn aircraft manners.
Well, as a flight attendant I can really tell that is just a matter of common sense …
About when a baby is crying – really the sympathy ought to be for the baby, in pain and unable to say why. Apart from the usual reasons, it is often the pressure on a flight (which bothers adults too with the all too familiar pain in ears, except adults get used to it) that is unbearable; babies have smaller bodies and ears so probably find it harder, apart from not knowing how to deal with it as adults do, so feeding them on the way up and helping them yawn on the way down is something attendants ought to be taught. If one yawns, so does pretty much everyone around, and babies do too. So something as simple as an adult yawning might help alleviate their pain.
I’m with steve_yyz; I really resent being told to have my blinds closed when there is no reason to have the lights dimmed. My theory (and not only mine!) is that the flight crew want the lights dimmed to make the passengers more docile and less demanding.
And the view is often amazing – why not enjoy it? You can watch movies at home…
Yep, and I’m another supporter of steve_yyz and spanner1. I don’t want to sit there, bored out of my mind in the dark whilst wonderful views of the world are passing by below me. What’s wrong with being able to look out, unless the sun is at an angle where it is shining straight into a sleeping passenger’s face?
No less than 60% lied to 21: you can hardly see anyone sitting when the plane taxis to the gate. If I saw 74% sitting with me, I’d actually fear something very serius had happened!
People who recline their seat are a pain, it`s time the seats were made static. 10-20 years ago, it was Ok because there was more legroom, now they are so close together one is like the meat in a sandwich.
I agree with conmaur! Reclining your seatback in the new reality of no legroom verges on aggressive, rude behavior. I’ve had seat-backs unceremoniously slammed into both my head and my laptop screen on different occasions. Was surprised when the computer screen didn’t break. On some planes it is very difficult to work on a laptop when the seat in front of you is reclined. Why should I have some clown’s head in my lap when I paid good money for the flight?
I agree with those who believe passengers have a right to look out of the window. I was on a daytime flight enjoying the view and a flight attendant leant over me, without saying a word, and shut the blind even though it had been open since take off. So much for customer service!
2encubed1,
you paid for transporting you from A to B, not for creating for you a comfortable office environment, or am I wrong? :)
to “2encubed1,” = Yes, and paid DEARLY!
The number one annoyance for me is people hitting or touching the seat back or headrest, especially when I try to sleep. Unfortunately nowaday flights are full of peasants who don’t know etiquette from jack, comparing to 40 years ago.
I agree with the shade up comments (within reason) I am always fascinated to look out the window when there is a view of earth. As someone 6’6″ I barely fit into existing seats; there really should be a reasonable accommodation of placing tallest passengers in seats (i.e. bulkhead) with a bit more room – need I say reclining is simply out of the question?
When they stop lying about airplane safety I’ll turn my phone off. I have an irresistable urge to leave the phone on every time I hear the blatant lie about transmitting deveices affecting our aircraft systems.
As for reclining it is your seat go for it but don’t just drop it on someone and do put it up during meals if asked.
I’ve told parents to stop their kid kicking my seat or I will in the past too!
Parents who let their kids kick the back of your seat is very irritating but people (and kids) who use your headrest as a lever to pull them selves up makes steam come out of my ears :) Crew who keep serving grog to obviously drunk passengers is the kicker for me….once they were doing exactly that on a flight I was on and then acted surprised when the passenger threw up over the meal and then kept eating it!! Lucky me, I was straight across the aisle!! “No thanks…I won’t have a meal I’m not hungry at the moment!”
These are all things that I have seen on a regular basis as a frequent flyer. But, I disagree with the comments about keeping your shade up. There are a few reasons to put it down if you are asked: if a movie is being shown on the overhead screens, others can’t see if several people have not closed their shade. Also, I have extremely sensitive eyes – there have been occasions where the sun is so bright that it’s blinding me. If I ask you nicely to put your shade down and explain the reason why, you should put it down as a courtesy. Otherwise, I don’t care.
What about behaviour collecting baggage?
Got to be the most annoying of all,people surronding carousel so you can’t see or get to your baggage! There should be a yellow boxed area (like for driving car) where you only step forward to collect when it is actually there! It would stop all the morons causing congestion!Simple!
I agree with most of these in their entirety. However, “Thou shall buy 2 seats when morbidly obese” should be on the top of the list. Although you guys probably did not want to say it, I beleive that sitting next to an extremely overweight person that is spilling into my seat is among the worst offenses.
kchiz7 that reminds me of the incident not long ago where an obese lady did purchase 2 seats and when she got on the plane it turned out one was down the back and the other in the middle :)
It’s getting that way now that when manners and politeness are required verses “being in front…first in line….it all goes out the window! You’d prob find these people drive with the same attitude.
I agree with the right to access the washroom, but when the person at the window seat is drinking heavily and needs to get up every 20 minutes, that’s obnoxious.
I also think that you should have a right to space in the overhead bin by your seat. Get onto a flight last and the overheads are often packed with the luggage from families that bring on 3 or 4 pieces of carry-on. Not cool.
On my last international trip, I waited patiently in my seat until the aisle had cleared at the end of each flight…14 hours on a plane, what’s another 10 minutes? That is until the last short domestic leg, by which time I had severe sleep deprivation and home sickness resulting in claustrophobia and paranoia and I almost lost it…perhaps international passengers on domestic flights should be allowed off first?
interesting research but…
its a plane- people dont behave as you may like, as good manners differ from culture to culture. You are in the mixing pot so everything goes. Accept it.
If you dont like it shell out for a front end seat or appreciate you are on a bus, not a luxury liner. Its 3rd class baby even if its your life savings.
Happy holidays.
And for the anti recline lobby- just put your own seat back. Problem solved mostly.
If airlines didnt want you to they wouldnt make it possible. Or again, shell out for a front end seat. But accept that you are down the back and its not called economy class without reason.
Can these be added to the constitution? Flights are usually the most hectic part of any trip and all annoyances could be easily avoided with simple common courtesy.
Peggy Goldman
President, Friendly Planet Travel
http://blog.friendlyplanet.com
@FriendlyPlanet
Two extreme annoyances not mentioned:
1. Armrest. If there are two people sharing an armrest, it serves as a divider, not something one should take over. What makes one think that they deserve it more than someone else? That is just asshole rudeness.
2. Other Scents: People that are callous enough to pass gas in a crowded airplane (or any crowded place) really ought to be shot. There is no call for that at all. If you have a recurring problem, there are meds for that.
agree with andrewmorten – economy’s economy BUT if airlines can charge for extra legroom, why can’t they refund for less legroom – try sitting in the seats backing on the toilets – your seat won’t/can’t recline. With the people seated in front of you fully reclined you have absolutely no chance of resting on a longhaul flight – Peru to Amsterdam. In fact if the airlines got rid of that row of seats completely and thought of their passengers just a little bit – life could be sweet – fat chance
I whole heartedly agree with jamie6772. Please step back from the baggage carrousel. My luggage went around three (3) times before I was able to squeeze through the hoard of people to retrieve them. So frustrating!
May I also add…pull your pants up, I do NOT want to see your butt crack!!
I personally think there should be child free flights..I’d pay an extra $100-150 not to have a screaming, snotty kid raising heck around me on my next 27 hr or so flight to India….but Air India has leg room, and enough space that you aren’t sitting in someone else’s seat if you weight over 97 lbs.
regarding the big no no about grabbing the headrest of the seat in front. It is almost impossible to get yourself out of an economy seat without grabbing the headrest in front of you if that seat has been fully reclined.
Agree with most of the posts, with the exception of the reclining seats. Help me understand how reclining seats make it impossible for the person behind said recliner to get any rest? Reclining seats don’t take up legroom, although they do intrude a bit into the tray/lap space. And people who recline but are not sleeping may have physical reasons for doing so. I do not always recline my seat; in fact, I usually don’t. But I will recline my seat if I wish or need to do so until the airlines make the seats stationary.
Most of all the problems on board can be solved with a friendly word. Next time you want to recline your seat, take a moment to tell the passenger behind you. They will understand and have time to take there coffee from the tray table so it does not get spilled all over them.
If you want to open the window blind, tell your fellow passengers that you would like to enjoy the view for a wile and invite them to have a look themselves.
If you have a small bladder suggest with your ail-seat passenger to maybe switch seats for the night rest of the flight so you don’t need to wake them up all the time. They will appreciate it.
As a Flight attendant myself i can tell you that common courtesy does not exit anymore on-board. Asking a Passenger nicely to switch seats so a mother and young child can sit together is enough to get yelled at the entire flight! Passengers get more aggressive every year.
Passengers who ignore our instructions (remain seated during taxi, turn off electronic devices, putting on your seat belt,…) should know that we are only following instructions ourselves and that we do not say these things to make you upset in any way! (you would not be the first passenger to fall over during taxi and hit his head on an arm rest)
I don’t recommend anyone to drink, but refusing a drunk passenger any more drinks could make them angry and aggressive instead of just a bit loud (and sick). It is better to say: You are having a nice party here, but could you turn it down a bit because we have some baby’s on-board who need there nap time.
So my advise, try to talk to each other in a polite way. Explain way you want to do something and ask if they don’t mind. Just think that the things you don’t like, most other people don’t like too.
Window Shade closed? A couple of years ago I flew over the north pole en route from NY to Beijing. I could not take my eyes of the arctic. So few people, even today, actually get to see that part of the world, still most continued in their movie without a glance outside. Sorry my window shade stays open for events like that!
Hey man I just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to write something worth reading . I am all over the net and I see so much useless junk that is just written for the sake of putting something fresh on their page. It takes devotion to make good stuff, thanks for caring.