Seat Kickers Passenger Complaint: Airline ‘Seat Kickers’ Are No. 1 Complaint Of Passengers

Apparently seat kickers annoy passengers the most, as the number one complaint among fliers. According to KCCI News, airline passengers can deal with a lot of things, from crying babies to reclining seats during meal times, but the most bothersome part of flying for many people is when someone kicks the back of their seat.

“Rear seat-kickers top Expedia’s list of onboard etiquette violators, according to the travel company’s 2014 Airplane Etiquette Study, released Tuesday. The study, conducted by global research firm GfK, asked 1,000 Americans to rank the most annoying on-board behaviors of fellow passengers.”

Seat kickers are high on the passenger complaint list, beating out inattentive parents (which came in second), and passengers who don’t smell pleasant (which came in third). Perhaps this is because a passenger sitting behind you kicking your seat directly affects you, and not the whole plane. It’s one thing to know what to expect on a flight, but to have to deal with someone kicking your seat, well that tends to be a problem.

According to WGAL, people tend to get annoyed quickly, but not many actually say something. While you might think that it would be easy to turn around, and give the person behind you the stink-eye, most passengers would deal with the annoyance just to keep the peace. Some will vent about it on social media before saying something onboard the aircraft.

“About 12% of those surveyed say they would record an incident, and 6% say they would use Twitter and other social media to shame passengers. Only 22% would be brave enough — or foolish enough? — to talk directly to the offending passenger.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, “passenger shaming” is actually a thing now. Travelers don’t hesitate to take photos of other passengers violating the unspoken rules of air travel, and post those photos on social media. Passengers are far more likely to call each other out on Twitter or Facebook than to actually deal with the problem head on.

“Every passenger travels differently, but it’s the ones who go over the top to make themselves feel at home that are popping up on the internet,” reports the Inquisitr. Most of the photos involve passengers putting their bare feet where they shouldn’t.

Are you surprised that seat kickers are the number one complaint among airline passengers? If your seat was being kicked on an airplane, what would you do about it?

[Photo courtesy of Hideyuki KAMON from Takarazuka via Wikimedia Commons]