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Editorial: Flying rude / Long lines and cramped quarters take their toll

Editorial: Flying rude / Long lines and cramped quarters take their toll

It may seem rude to talk about other airline passengers, particularly during a peak travel week, but the smarty-pants who brought you a major national study on rudeness in America started it.

New research by Public Agenda says air travelers are more naughty than nice during the holidays. Interestingly, 65 percent of passengers complain that rudeness is a major cause of travel stress, while more than half of travel workers say passengers are the biggest pain. Maybe so, but it's not their fault.

Nasty conduct is to be expected in an age when commercial air travel packs airports and airplanes with so many people, in such tight quarters, that the experience is more of a cattle drive than a pleasant journey.

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When the nonprofit public opinion research organization studied a Travelocity poll of 1,000 passengers, the biggest grievances were linked to uncontrolled kids. OK, no big surprise there.

More than 60 percent of passengers and 72 percent of travel employees said the problem of people snapping at each other was made worse by the failure of parents to "teach respect to their kids."

Other irritants topping the "rudeness R us" list were swearing, loudness and littering, although not necessarily in that order. Also mentioned frequently were passengers who persist in kicking the seat in front of them, and those folks who recline their seat all the way back, crowding the passenger in the seat behind.

The latter offense resulted in one offender being repeatedly hit about the head with a newspaper by the annoyed passenger in the rear. And when it comes to seat etiquette, it works both ways: How about the passenger who lifts himself to his feet by pulling on the seatback in front of him?

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Included in the Public Agenda study was a report by Rick Musica, vice chair of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. He swears -- so to speak -- that travelers are misbehaving more than ever.

But he politely blames increasing rudeness in part on new airport security procedures that strain the patience of passengers forced to stand in lines longer than before. Not surprisingly, other aggravations that provoke incivility, according to the passengers surveyed, were lost luggage, reservation problems and long lines.

So until airlines and airports rediscover the art of treating passengers with respect, you're advised to cut the grump in the seat ahead a little slack.

First Published: December 25, 2003, 5:00 a.m.

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