Air Travel Faux Pas to Avoid: Don’t Break These Unwritten Rules

Travel etiquette professionals weigh in to help ensure you’re not part of the problem

an illustration of people on an airplane

Air travel is already plagued by flight delays and shrinking seats, among other things. Be sure you don’t break these unwritten rules of air travel, including engaging in public grooming, listening to music without headphones, talking to your seatmate who doesn’t want to talk or eating smelly food.

Vidhya Nagarajan

Berit Thorkelson,

AARP

Published July 11, 2025

As our capacity to travel the world has expanded, our ability to interact considerately while doing so appears to have done just the opposite.

A recent Pew Research Center study found that nearly half of U.S. adults think public behavior has become ruder since the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing a trend identified years earlier.

The rudeness intensifies during air travel, which is plagued by other dubious trends, including busier airports, flight delays, shrinking legroom and reduced in-flight services. Meanwhile, air travel is on the rise for adults 50-plus, according to AARP’s 2025 Travel Trends survey.

Fold in a fellow traveler breaking out the nail clippers or shout-talking to the grandkids on speakerphone, and an already challenging situation quickly feels intolerable.

All the more reason to pack our manners, says Lisa Mirza Grotts, 62, author of A Traveler’s Passport to Etiquette in a Post-Pandemic World. “Etiquette matters more than ever; it helps us navigate the chaos with calm, especially for those of us who aren’t sprinting to Gate 19 anymore,” she says.

Here’s a reminder on what not to do, plus advice for when others haven’t gotten the memo.

people on a moving walkway at an airport

“The etiquette rule is: Walkers on the left, people stand on the right,” says Lisa Mirza Grotts, author of A “Traveler’s Passport to Etiquette in a Post-Pandemic World.”

Vidhya Nagarajan

1. Standing still on moving walkways

If you’re in a hurry, a moving walkway makes it feel as if you’ve developed superpowers, whizzing you to your gate in record time. That is, until a fellow traveler plunks down in your way and forces you into neutral. “The etiquette rule is: Walkers on the left, people stand on the right. And that’s just the way it works,” Grotts says. “All of us need to keep the pace so others can safely pass.”

A polite, direct “Excuse me” should be all that’s needed to get them to move over.

2. Treating the airport lounge like it’s your kitchen

The airport lounge is one of air travel’s lingering luxuries, but it doesn’t feel luxurious when others act as if you’re invading their personal perk, spreading out, conducting business with abandon and loading up on food and drink.

“You know, you can go back as many times as you want. You don’t necessarily have to pile your plate sky-high,” says etiquette expert and former flight attendant Jacqueline Whitmore, 60, who’s the founder of The Protocol School of Palm Beach (Florida).

She’s seen travelers grabbing olives or cookies directly from the buffet with their hands. “Use the tongs … and keep the line moving,” she says. “Don’t sit there and sample everything. … That’s rude.”

3. Crowding the gate

Airline employees have an unofficial and unflattering name for travelers who loiter in the boarding area far earlier than necessary: gate lice. If it’s an attempt at early boarding, it’s futile, as gate agents typically don’t let travelers board before their group is called. Plus, you may be making it harder for others to board, adding time and annoyance. Whitmore and Grotts agree: Clear the path, keep your cool and wait your turn.

4. Putting bags on chairs

a person with a backpack and bag of chips on a bench at an airport next to a person with a suitcase

Avoid the urge to spread out and put all your belongings on the seats around you.

Vidhya Nagarajan

Scanning the gate for a place to sit, you spot them: Not empty seats but suitcases taking up seats.

“Seats are precious, especially for older people who may need to sit while waiting,” Grotts says. It’s not just rude; it’s unsanitary — the bags are filthy. “It’s like the bottom of a foot,” she says. It’s OK to temporarily save someone’s spot with your purse or backpack, she says. Otherwise, put it in front of your chair.

5. Asking to switch seats

To be clear, a polite inquiry into trading for a seat of equal value is perfectly acceptable. It’s asking or, worse, expecting someone to downgrade, especially if they’ve paid for their seat, that’s the no-no. This is true even if you’re trying to sit next to a friend, spouse or child.

You can’t assume that the seat you’re offering is the better deal. Someone may have paid ahead to reserve theirs for any number of reasons, including mobility issues or proximity to a bathroom.

If someone’s insistent on trading seats with you, get the flight attendant to help. “That’s their job, to reseat people,” says former flight attendant Whitmore.

6. Not using earphones

“Always wear earphones” when you’re listening to something on a device, insists Whitmore, who believes mobile connectivity has stoked the incivility she’s seen increase since she was a flight attendant in the 1990s.

“People are so self-absorbed, and they tend to forget that other people are around, especially when they’re fully engaged with their technology. They’re not concentrating on what’s around them,” she says.

No type of tech interaction gets a pass, including games, shows and phone calls.

“Do not use your speakerphone in public,” she says. “Especially on a plane.”

people putting bags into the overhead bin

Don’t put all your bags in the overhead compartment, and don’t try to slip your bag in a bin that is rows ahead yours.

Vidhya Nagarajan

7. Monopolizing overhead bin space

Grotts saw it happen on a recent flight: A man boarded the plane and immediately put his bag in the overhead bin before proceeding toward his seat at the back of the plane. “A flight attendant called him on it. I loved it because I think that is just so rude,” she says. “You didn’t pay for the seat. That’s their overhead bin. You’re gonna have to walk to the back with your bag like the rest of us.”

When you get to an overhead bin near your seat, she says, don’t lay your carry-on flat but on its side, like you’d shelve a book. That helps make room for others’ luggage.

8. Ignoring ‘don’t talk to me’ signals

Travelers tend to view their seatmates in one of two ways: as a potential new best friend or a potential privacy disruptor. Whichever camp you’re in, you cannot assume you’re sitting next to someone who feels the same as you do.

Signals to give or watch for include earphones, an open book and closed eyes. “Everyone treasures quiet time, and some people may have hearing sensitivities. [Or] they just don’t want to talk to you,” Grotts says.

If you’re continually interrupted, get direct. “It was nice chatting with you. I think I’m going to close my eyes now and take a nap,” Grotts suggests. “Some people are clueless, so you have to kind of just spell it out.”

9. Going barefoot

Grotts and Whitmore confess to slipping out of their shoes at their seat. But peeling socks off, à la John Candy’s Del Griffith on Trains, Planes and Automobiles, is rude and unsanitary, Grotts says.

Best to put those shoes back on when you leave your seat. “It’s more of protecting you than anybody else, because I will tell you, the water on the lavatory floor is not always water,” Whitmore says.

10. Treating your seat like a trash can

It’s challenging enough to spend hours within the incredibly shrinking personal space allotted airline travelers without having to fight off a migrating iPad or stare at a stranger’s seat pocket erupting with wafer wrappers and cocktail napkins.

“I do see that, where they don’t make a point of being part of the pickup process and leave it for later,” Whitmore says. It’s not only disrespectful to your seatmate, but it also creates more work for the cleanup crew attempting to quickly reset the plane. Again, she says, it comes down to awareness. “You just have to be mindful … there are other people around you.”

No one wants to watch you floss your teeth. Take personal grooming tasks to the bathroom.

Vidhya Nagarajan

11. Public grooming

If you haven’t encountered these problems on a flight, certainly you’ve read or heard about them: travelers applying face masks, brushing hair, clipping nails and flossing teeth — basically running through their personal hygiene routine as if they were at home.

“Personal grooming is best done personal, as in private,” Grotts says. If you must, she says, take it to the bathroom as you would at home, with one exception: lip balm.

12. Passing gas

Unfortunately, biology is working against travelers on this one. The average human already passes gas about 14 times a day. Add in the probability that more than a few fellow travelers have digestive issues and the fact that low air pressure combined with high altitudes can increase gassiness, and flatulence is just a fact of flying.

“Things happen, but we shouldn’t bring attention to it,” Grotts says. This applies to the person passing gas, too. A passenger was reportedly removed from an American Airlines flight after passing gas and calling attention to it.

13. Eating smelly foods

You level off at cruising altitude, settle into a movie, and then it hits you: the smell of tuna — or curry or garlic — wafting down the aisle. It happens more often now that airline-provided food is no longer a given.

Packing snacks is smart, especially if you have a medical condition or dietary restrictions. But given an airplane’s close quarters, any smell will travel. Avoid strong odors, though in general, stinking is preferable to a hangry fellow traveler.

If you have smell sensitivities or allergies, come prepared. “I always say, ‘Pack a mask, just in case,’ ” Whitmore says. “You just never know if somebody’s going to eat their pungent Philly cheesesteak with extra onions.”

14. Trying to exit before the row in front of you

We’re all in a hurry to get off the plane, but that doesn’t give anyone the green light to ignore disembarkation etiquette and exit before the people sitting in the row in front of them.

If you have a medical necessity or a tight connection, speak with the flight attendant, who can help you exit the plane early with grace.

For everyone else, take a deep breath and wait your turn. As with all these faux pas, consider: What would happen if everyone did it? Confrontation, annoyance and a general mess.

We all deserve to travel better than that.

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Berit Thorkelson is a travel writer and editor for aarp.org. She has also written for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Better Homes & Gardens and The Minnesota Star-Tribune's travel section.

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