KUALA LUMPUR: Discourteous invasion of personal space is the number one pet peeve for fliers, based on Agoda's Travel Bugbears Survey 2023.
The survey, which delves into the realm of in-flight annoyances across 10 countries in Asia, shows that travellers from South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan are most offended by personal space invasion, be it the war on arm-rest territory or the production of bodily noises and unpleasant smells from uncovered feet.
Unsurprisingly, flight delays rank high, coming in second on the list of passengers' grievances across the region.
Agoda said the patience of travellers from the Philippines especially reaches a tipping point when it comes to flight delays as they rank it their top bugbear, a sentiment echoed by travellers from Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Ranking as the third biggest in-flight annoyance across the region is the presence of loud passengers.
This includes overly chatty seatmates, couples airing out their dirty laundry in public, or raucous groups broadcasting their music or games across the entire flight.
Australians and Malaysians are least sensitive to noise while Taiwan and South Korean travellers appreciate more peaceful flying experiences.
Japanese, too, appreciate the peace and quiet, but also are the only market that express an intolerance for disruptive passengers who are rude to cabin crew as their top grievance.
"For many of us, the holiday fun starts the moment we board a plane," said Liyana Jamil, vice president of Agoda global partner services.
"But while flying is generally an enjoyable experience, it sometimes comes with minor grievances. There are over 130,000 bookable flight routes on Agoda.
"I hope that the findings of this light-hearted survey create awareness, increase consideration, and make the in-flight experience on any of these routes even more enjoyable," Liyana added.
Zooming in on the answers of Malaysian respondents, flight delays are the top source of annoyance, with almost a quarter of respondents rating it as the ultimate in-flight bugbear.
This is followed by discourteous behaviour of other travellers, with disturbance by loud passengers and people being rude to airline staff tying in third.