--- description: Inattentive parents are almost as awful title: Seat Kickers Are the Worst People on Airplanes, Says Expedia Survey image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte25dd26525f43b1f/69876dc35f570f6d42b14169/airplane-pasenger.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Airlines](/tag/airlines/) ## Airlines Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # ‘Seat Kickers’ Voted Worst Passengers on Airplanes by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 9, 2014 8:48 PM CUT  Male passenger with knees against female passenger's seat on aeroplane Male passenger with knees against female passenger's seat on aeroplaneJason Hetherington—Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 9, 2014 8:48 PM CUT Kicking the seat of the passenger in front of you is the gravest transgression off of a long list of things people can do to annoy others during flights, a [new survey](http://viewfinder.expedia.com/features/expedia-airplane-etiquette-study-2014 "undefined") found. When 1,000 people were asked by Expedia and research firm GfK what they thought was the most annoying plane habit, 67% of respondents ranked “rear seat kickers” as the worst passengers on a flight. The battle over leg room garnered intense debate this year after the Knee Defender, a controversial device that passengers were using stop the seat in front of them from reclining, was [banned](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/28/knee-defender-ban%5Fn%5F5723136.html "undefined") by major airlines. Besides intrusively long legs, there are plenty of other mid-air activities that passengers hate. Inattentive parents who let their annoying kids scream or run through the aisles ranked second, with 64% of respondents calling that annoying airplane behavior. Overly fragrant passengers, who either have too much perfume or body odor, ranked third. Notably, “Seat-Back Guy,” the person who reclines his seat back into another passenger’s leg space, ranked all the day down at ninth, implying that kicking the seat in front of you is a graver sin than reclining your chair into the vicinity of someone else’s legs. (**MORE**: [5 Ways to Be an Airplane Aggravation](http://time.com/3258571/5-ways-to-be-an-airplane-aggravation/ "undefined")) Check out the complete ranking, and try your hardest to not be one of these people as you’re traveling this holiday season: 1. Rear-Seat Kicker – 67% 2. Inattentive Parents – 64% 3. Aromatic (smelly passengers) – 56% 4. Audio Insensitive (plays music too loud) – 51% 5. Boozer – 50% 6. Chatty Cathy – 43% 7. Carry-On Baggage Offenders – 39% 8. Armrest Hog – 38% 9. Seat-Back Guy – 37% 10. Queue Jumper – 35% 11. Pungent Foodies – 32% 12. Seat-Back Grabbers – 31% 13. Playboy Readers – 30% 14. Amorous Couple – 29% ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3626138/seat-kickers-worst-passengers-airplanes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3626138/seat-kickers-worst-passengers-airplanes/"},"headline":"‘Seat Kickers’ Voted Worst Passengers on Airplanes","datePublished":"2014-12-09T20:48:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:42:29.245Z","description":"Inattentive parents are almost as awful","url":"https://time.com/3626138/seat-kickers-worst-passengers-airplanes/","keywords":["Airlines","Flights"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte25dd26525f43b1f/69876dc35f570f6d42b14169/airplane-pasenger.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte25dd26525f43b1f/69876dc35f570f6d42b14169/airplane-pasenger.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"airplane passenger","caption":"airplane passenger","creditText":"Jason Hetherington—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/airlines/","name":"Airlines"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3626138/seat-kickers-worst-passengers-airplanes/","name":"‘Seat Kickers’ Voted Worst Passengers on Airplanes"}}]}] ```