Travelers Biggest Pet Peeves

Travelocity asked approximately 1,000 U.S. travelers about the bad travel behaviors that irk them the most. It seems many Americans don’t mind plane conversation: Chatty passengers only received 5% of the vote for most disliked passengers. Actually, the least-favorite people to sit next to on a plane are passengers with poor hygiene (44%), coughing or sneezing passengers (31%), and large passengers (15%).

More than 80% of respondents think large passengers should be in two seats. However, many (40%) don’t think the large passenger should have to pay for the extra seat.

What’s the most irritating on-board behavior? For more than half (56%) of respondents, loud talking or swearing is the worst, followed by kicking the seat (50%). The most annoying travelers to encounter are arguing families (31%), boisterous kids (28%), and rowdy college students (24%), according to Travelocity’s poll.

When boarding a plane, the guy with the overstuffed suitcase as a carry-on tops the list of irritations (29% of respondents agreed), followed by passengers that block the aisle (22%). When de-boarding the plane, passengers who rush to get off the plane before those ahead of them are the most annoying (59% agreed).

Noisy children are a classic complaint when traveling, but people traveling without children are twice as likely to be bothered by them as those traveling with children (30% verse 15%). When encountering misbehaving children, most people just ignore it (44%) or avoid them (23%).

The full results of the 2009 Rudeness Poll are available here.