Why we hate you: You stink, kick the seat and make flights a misery

For airline passengers, nothing quite drains the holiday season of love faster than people who kick the back of their seat, people who ignore their children kicking the seat the back of their seat or playing around, and people who make no attempt to mask their body odor.

Those are the top three reasons that may make perfectly nice airplane seat mates go ballistic.

And here’s a tidbit from the TMI department: 5% of your fellow fliers say they’ve been intimate with someone on a plane.

The information doesn’t come from the Passenger Shaming Facebook page but from Expedia‘s second Airplane Etiquette Study released Tuesday. The company polled more than 1,000 Americans to find out what onboard behaviors bug us most.

“You’re in a tight space at 30,000 feet with hundreds of fellow travelers, so even the small things – helping your neighbor stow a bag or switching seats to put a mom next to her child – can make a huge difference,” Expedia vice president and General Manager John Morrey said in a statement about the study.

Other big-time turnoffs, according to Expedia:

4. “Audio-insensitive travelers,” whether they’re talking nonstop or blaring music.

5. Those who’ve had way too much to drink.

6. Carry-on bag offenders who hog the bins.

7. Seat mates who love to talk — nonstop.

8. Armrest hogs.

9. Seat-back recliners. Expedia points out at least three flights were diverted this year after passengers got into a row over their leg space. By the way, men are more likely than women to push their seats back.

10. “Queue jumper,” the person who jumps out of their seat and down the aisle to be first off the plane.

As for Passenger Shaming, we’re apparently mixed on doing so.

Forty-eight percent of passengers said they would remain quiet and ignore someone’s bad behavior on an airplane, and only 12% would choose to record the incident on a mobile phone or camera.

There’s one notable exception: Almost half of those polled said they would talk to a parent if their kid was kicking the back of their seat.