There is shameless air travel behavior by too many travelers. It seems to be happening every day, and it needs to stop.
As we draw close to the end of 2025, my thoughts this past week have been with air travelers who have had to endure shameless air travel behavior from fellow passengers.
The world-wide COVID pandemic began in 2020. Almost at once, tempers flared and seem to get the best of air travelers on too many flights. Airline misbehavior incidents soared. Masks were often a trigger. One passenger on a flight I took in 2021 tried to rip my mask off at the gate. Fortunately, those days ended by late spring, 2023. Unfortunately, while tempers and misbehavior peaked during the pandemic, in my opinion, rude and boorish passenger misbehavior remains at considerably elevated levels to this day.
Below are some of the worst and rudest behavioral issues that continue to plague air travelers while aloft to this day.
Parents with babies and infants are among the worst-behaved passengers flying today. They change diapers in the cabin and don’t clean up seats they’ve soiled from their diaper changes. They also leave soiled diapers in seat pockets.
Changing diapers on seats.
In the last couple of years, I’ve been the victim of disgraceful parents who changed their baby’s diaper in the seat on the other side of the aisle from me during two flights and once in my seat on the flight prior to the one I had on the same plane. I understand that flying with a baby or a diapered infant is a major challenge, as my wife and I did it on many flights years ago. No passengers in the cabin, however, should be subjected to the stench of diapers, particularly from parents who feel it’s fine to put a soiled diaper in the seat pocket in front of them. It’s not fine! And it’s not fine when parents don’t protect the seat they’re using to change their child’s diaper, leaving it filthy for the passenger in that seat on the next flight.
Changing diapers in a plane should be done in a lavatory. Most airplanes have at least one lavatory equipped with a baby changing table, except for the small ones where diapers still should be changed in the lavatory, on the counter or toilet seat, despite it not being ideal.
Playing music, games, and videos without earphones.
When flying, whether on a business or leisure trip, many passengers want to sleep, work, read or watch a video to occupy their time in-flight. They don’t want to listen to someone else’s games, music or videos. We’re all in a shared space when flying, and it’s extremely rude and obnoxious for any passenger to impose their audio from their electronic devices on anyone else, no matter how soft. Earbuds or headsets to keep one’s audio private to the user alone are essential.
Touching another passenger and taking up their space with your body is an egregious problem encountered by many more women who travel than men.
Touching another passenger.
Particularly in economy, airplane passengers are seated extremely close to each other. Even so, it’s important for every passenger to physically keep to themselves in their personal seat space. Arms, elbows and hands need to stay within the confines of each person’s seat space, not stretched out across neighboring seats. “Manspreading,” as spreading one’s legs wide is known colloquially, is never right. Each air traveler must stay within their own seat space. Touching another passenger without their permission should never be done, particularly if the touching is on the legs or torso. Every passenger must keep their hands, arms, elbows and other body parts to themselves.
Letting your child kick the seat in front of them.
It’s never all right for parents to permit their children to misbehave, particularly when that behavior is directed against another passenger. Over the years, I’ve been a victim of children kicking my seat far too often. It’s the parents’ fault. When this happens, don’t let it continue. Speak to the parent and ask for their help. If the child continues, ask a flight attendant for help. Don’t let it go. The parent needs to be held accountable, and every passenger deserves the minimal comfort they can get on a typical flight.
Someone in your row takes off their shoes and socks and puts their stinky feet up.
Bare feet in the cabin.
It doesn’t matter if it’s bare feet on the floor, on a seat, on a tray table (yes, I’ve seen that too), or anywhere on the plane. It’s gross, smelly and outrageous. Moreover, passengers with bare feet on an airplane carpet are taking a risk to their health. The carpets on planes are filthy. It also doesn’t matter if instead of bare feet it’s feet with socks, but no shoes on. It’s still gross and sometimes even more smelly with bare feet.
The passenger behind me had the audacity to put his bare, stinky feet on my arm rest. I turned to him and told him to “Cut it out!” He did for a few minutes, but then they were back again. I asked for help from the flight attendant and got it. She told him that if he put his feet back there again he might find a cup of hot coffee accidentally spilled on it. He left me alone after that.
A reader told me about a young woman who rested her foot partly on her tray table, then proceeded to start to polish her toenails. Fortunately, the flight attendant stopped that before she got to the second toe. To bring out nail polish and use it in the confined cabin of an airplane is thoughtless and inconsiderate. She put her filthy feet on someone else’s tray table. Then to use nail polish in an airplane cabin, exposing all the passengers to the fumes, is outrageous and a health risk.
Sooner or later, long-haired women cover the seat back and screen with their hair.
Covering the seat back and screen with hair or a seat cover.
Whether it’s long hair draped over the back of the seat you’re in or a seat cover put over the seat as a safety barrier for germs and dirty seats, covering the seat back, the rear of your airplane seat, is unfair to the passenger behind you. Passengers have no right to cover the seat back in any way because it’s not their space. Seatbacks belong to the person behind the seat. The tray table and the entertainment screen on some seatbacks belong to the passenger facing them.
If you accidentally cover them and are asked to stop, do it immediately. Don’t hesitate. If that describes you, please understand that not complying with the passenger behind you is egregious behavior.
Most plane flights are crowded these days. Seat size and seat pitch have diminished substantially, particularly in economy. Air travel today is stressful. Lines are endless, seating is cramped, restrictions seem tighter than ever, schedules are tight, flights are canceled daily. Sometimes flights are seriously delayed, and lost luggage seems to be an everyday occurrence. Add shameless air travel behavior and we all want to scream. But we have to remain calm and not become the passengers whose offensive behavior hurts everyone else.
READ ALSO:
Six Christmas dreams for travelers in 2026
Venice for the disabled is not easy.
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
