We’ve all encountered rude travelers. I don’t even mean the ones who start fistfights over seating or who yell at gate agents. I mean the ones who do the little things because they don’t think (or care) about others. The ones who put their bags on the seats of the terminal so others can’t sit. The ones who don’t control their kids or who leave a mess. You know the kind I’m talking about.
An online website called Solitaire Bliss decided to see if there was a trend in terms of who committed these “crimes of airports and airplanes.” And best of all, they’ve done the study two years in a row, so you can compare 2024 to 2025 (here’s 2024) and see if any trends are emerging.
Here’s how they explained it:
In this study, we set out to learn where Americans are most guilty of naughty travel habits when flying. To do this, we surveyed residents in every state and asked about the common habits they are guilty of themselves, what habits they have observed, their overall opinions on airline etiquette, and more.
To determine where people exhibit the naughtiest habits, we awarded one point for each action respondents said they have done and then calculated the average score by respondent, and then by their state of residence. We then adjusted these scores on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 representing the naughtiest travelers.
The states with the most/least rude people at airports and on planes
These are the states (20 per category) that admitted to participating in inappropriate behavior at airports and on airplanes (Note: they didn’t specify whether these numbers represent the most respondents who admitted to ANY of these behaviors, regardless of how many per individual, or that had, in total, the most people admitting they’ve done the most behaviors).
Click here to compare these results with those of their 2024 survey.
| STATE | PERCENT OF MOST RUDE TRAVEL HABITS | STATE | PERCENT OF LEAST RUDE TRAVEL HABITS | |
| 1 | Mississippi | 99.50% | Idaho | 58.51% |
| 2 | California | 98.21% | Michigan | 58.85% |
| 3 | Arkansas | 93.75% | Nebraska | 59.57% |
| 4 | New York | 90.63% | Iowa | 59.64% |
| 5 | Texas | 88.84% | Indiana | 60.58% |
| 6 | Washington | 81.59% | Louisiana | 61.06% |
| 7 | Florida | 81.25% | Wisconsin | 62.50% |
| 8 | North Carolina | 81.13% | Tennessee | 63.21% |
| 9 | Connecticut | 80.39% | Oregon | 63.27% |
| 10 | Arizona | 79.52% | Maine | 63.86% |
| 11 | Kentucky | 78.61% | Maryland | 64.32% |
| 12 | Massachusetts | 76.33% | Alabama | 65.00% |
| 13 | Minnesota | 76.00% | New Mexico | 66.20% |
| 14 | South Carolina | 74.04% | West Virginia | 66.42% |
| 15 | Virginia | 72.45% | Nevada | 66.49% |
| 16 | Georgia | 70.83% | Colorado | 67.16% |
| 17 | Utah | 70.38% | Pennsylvania | 67.50% |
| 18 | Kansas | 70.21% | New Jersey | 68.40% |
| 19 | Illinois | 70.15% | Missouri | 68.62% |
| 20 | Ohio | 70.10% | Oklahoma | 69.36% |
“Naughty” behaviors Americans admit to committing while at airports or on planes
These are the top 15 “universally disliked” airport and airplane behaviors that respondents admitted to committing.
Click here to compare these results with those of their 2024 survey.
- Putting bag(s) on seats in terminals (60.27% admit to doing this)
- Reclining your seat without asking (48.32% admit they do it) (frankly, although it’s polite to ask, I don’t think it’s some horrible thing if you don’t. It’s your seat; you have the right to recline it)
- Not putting your phone on airplane mode (47.98%)
- Asking to switch seats on plane (42.05%)
- Leaving garbage in pocket seat (37.71%)
- Passing gas in the seat or cabin (35.83%) (This one is sort of iffy too – sometimes you can’t hold it in!)
- Using both armrests if not in middle (35.74%)
- Hanging leg(s) in aisle (31.44%)
- Lying down in terminal (31.05%)
- Ignoring seatbelt sign (26.65%)
- Wearing strong cologne or perfume (23.35%)
- Pushing on seat in front of you (22.21%)
- Asking to cut in security line (16.24%)
- Loud phone use in terminal (15.35%)
- Drinking too much (13.72%)
“Naughty” behaviors Americans say they’ve seen others do while at airports or on planes
It’s not just if YOU’VE done it…it’s if you’ve seen OTHERS do it (and then, undoubtedly, judge them LOL)
Click here to compare these results with those of their 2024 survey.
- Putting bag(s) on terminal seats (83.56% have seen others do this)
- Loud phone use in terminal (82.87%) (Wait, so almost 83% of people have seen others do this, but only 15% admit to doing it? I think it’s more than 15%)
- Reclining seat without asking (82.28%)
- Asking to switch seats on plane (81.15%)
- Leaving garbage in seat pocket (77.64%)
- Pushing on seat in front of you (75.12%)
- Ignoring seatbelt sign (73.94%)
- Hanging leg(s) in aisle (73.54%)
- Using both armrests if not in middle (73.05%)
- Lying down in terminal (72.06%)
- Loud phone use on plane (68.76%)
- Wearing strong cologne or perfume (67.77%)
- Asking to cut in security line (59.87%)
- Not putting your phone on airplane mode (58.19%)
- Drinking too much (52.91%)
Fun Facts!
The people who gathered the statistics for this survey added a few findings along the way, even though they didn’t show them anywhere else in their documentation:
- 81% of Americans think airline etiquette has declined in recent years.
- Those who frequently fly Frontier or JetBlue are the most likely to think airline etiquette has declined in recent years.
- Spirit and American are the most common airlines Americans associate with naughty travel habits.
- When they asked respondents what naughty travel habit was the single most unacceptable, they found that sexual acts on the plane and physical confrontations with others ranked as the top two.
Final thoughts
My thoughts about the 2025 version of this study reflect my thoughts about it in 2024. Their study still has a lot of holes and unanswered questions that would help determine if this was a bona fide “we did our due diligence” study or not.
Also, although I wouldn’t necessarily call it “fishy,” the rankings and percentages for each state when you compare 2024 to 2025 certainly saw some major, heavy-duty changes.
- Iowa was ranked THE rudest state in 2024 (94.29%) – in 2025 it was suddenly the 4th LEAST naughty state (59.64%)
- Arkansas was the LEAST rudest state in 2024 (54.58%) but in 2025 it was the THIRD RUDEST (93.75%)?
I mean, how does something like that even happen? Did someone pay for the entire state of Iowa to go to charm school and become a kinder and gentler state? Did Arkansas decide, as a state, to suddenly have the opinion of, “Screw it; we’re gonna do whatever we want and eff everybody else”? Such jumps in one year are just…weird. Statistically speaking, that is.
Anyway, I’d like to see Solitaire Bliss continue to tackle this each year, so we can see if there are any actual trends. Time will tell.
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
