Survey pinpoints the behavior on planes that people find most annoying

The close quarters on planes and variable public views on appropriate flight etiquette are a recipe for tension. But travelers seem to agree on who is to blame for bad behavior in the air: other travelers, according to a new survey.

The top source of friction in the air: passengers using cellphones, laptops and other personal technology to make phone or video calls or to watch television shows or movies without using headphones, the poll of 2,500 U.S. adults by travel site The Points Guy (TPG) and YouGov found.

Come on, feel the noise

According to the survey, 40% of passengers think airlines should ban phone and video calls aboard an aircraft, with 27% citing such noise as the most annoying passenger behavior. 

“It happens in the preboarding areas, too, where people sit on their phones watching videos on full blast,” TPG managing editor Becky Blaine told CBS News. “And it can’t be pinpointed by age demographic. You see kids on iPads, all the way up to older people on cellphones.” 

Airlines are well aware that their customers are sensitive to noise coming from their neighbors’ devices. In March, United Airlines amended its policies to require that all passengers wear headphones when listening to audio from a personal electronic device. That includes scrolling social media feeds that emit audio.

The airline also reserves the right to boot passengers who flout the policy and even to ban them from flying the friendly skies. 

In what is by now a long-running and fairly torturous debate over whether passengers should recline their seatbacks, a majority — 51% — of adults said it’s OK, the TPG poll found. Only 10% of respondents said it’s never acceptable to recline inflight.

In TPG’s view, middle-seat customers are entitled to use both armrests, given that they are the most cramped in the row. Survey respondents disagreed: Only 11% said the middle-seat passenger may automatically claim both armrests. 

Pajama game

Americans tend to dress comfortably for air travel, often in stretchy or loose-fitting fabrics; for some, that can even mean flying in their pajamas. Responding to such trends, the U.S. Department of Transportation last year launched a campaign to encourage Americans to dress more respectfully on flights. 

“Dress up to go to the airport, help a stranger out, and be in a good mood,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a social media post at the time. 

The flying public has its own ideas. More than seven in 10 respondents to the TPG and YouGov survey said the most appropriate attire is “whatever is comfortable,” including casual athletic wear and loungewear. 

Only 9% of survey respondents said passengers should don more professional attire. While comfortable clothing makes sense, only 1% thought pajamas were acceptable on planes.