What's your biggest air travel pet peeve?
 

And by pet peeve, I mean minor thing that is annyoing for no other reason than being stupid and annoying - not something big picture such as "how hard it is to redeem miles in J on XX carrier," or whatever, like that...

The only reason I ask, is that I just can't figure out why people insist on crowding around the boarding area when they know they aren't going to be boarding for quite a while. The other day I was awaiting to board a DL flight ATL-CPH when they come on and announce boarding in Zone 1. I was Zone 2 and I just then began to slowly gather my things and head over to the boarding area. However, as soon as they announce that boarding will begin, hoards of people rush to the gate. WHY?!?!?! You are in Zone 8, skippy. You aren't getting on the plane for another 15 minutes. Just sit down and finish your Sabarro.

I just can't figure out the fascination with rushing into the immediate boarding area when you're zone, or boarding group, or whatever, its still 15 minutes away.

Thank you, rant over.

Luggage carousel hugger.
Body odor from fellow PAX.
TSA :)

Amen! If everyone would just stand two feet away from the carousel, everyone could see all the bags and would easily be able to move forward to get them.

Overhead bin users who insist on trying to close the bin for 15 minutes while holding up all other passengers when the flight attendants get paid to close them and know how to close them well.

If it won't close in 1 attempt, sit down and wait.

1) angry/ annoyed pax who make it clear that they are angry/ annoyed to anyone and everyone on the plane
2) separated pax who are both in middle seats who get on the plane before me and decide that I will be happy to trade my front of the plane window seat for the other middle (invariably in the back of the plane)
3) seat-kicking pax... actually, the parents of the seat-kicker who say, "oh don't mind him he's just spunky!"
4) smelly pax
5) non Group1 who boards with Group1

Bathroom users who do not wipe down the sink area, toilet, floor for the next user. GROSS!

Yeah, it is especially annoying when they are all a foot taller than you are and you have NO chance of seeing around them.

People leaving the WCs in sorry shape is also really bad, as SFOTRAVELER suggested.

I won't even touch coach-reclining here - that's its own thread.

A simple peeve is seatmates who can't pick up on my cues regarding whether or not I'm in a chatty mood. Usually, if I'm just flipping through a newspaper, I'm okay with a little chattiness. But if I'm nose-deep in a book, I'm probably not.

If you turn to me and ask my opinions about the weather, the city we're visiting, the Chiefs' overall draft day philosophy, airline food, or anything else and I respond with a grunt, that means "I am not feeling chatty."

Children as Luggage Carousel Huggers. They ain't gonna be able to lift off the bags anyhow. Let them run around behind the crowd so they will be tired.

Passengers on short hour long flights who decide to bring McDonalds/Burger King on board or a huge bag of chips ect. and make the others around them smell what they are eating (egg mcmuffins are the worst!). I understand that the "airlines don't feed you anymore" ..but geez can't these people go one hour without filling themselves up?

Another thing..Passengers who stand/walk slow in the walk lane of the moving walkway..preventing passengers in a hurry from getting by.

Gate lice (the term was developed in another FT thread; wish I could take credit for it). They're the people who are in Boarding Group 5 but are standing so close to the gate that you have to "excuse me" your way through them to get on the plane if you're in an earlier boarding group.

1. I hate it when the departure gate is extremely crowded and whole families/groups put their bags in the seats next to them, not offering those seats to people who are standing. It's extremely rude.

2. Gate lice annoy me to no end.

3. I do not like it when people question my presence in the first class or elite lines, simply because I look young and do not travel for business.

People who don't have their ID ready at the check point.

People gathering around the gate before their zone is called.

People who pull on the back of my seat when they are getting up.

Yeah, but the problem there is that the airlines pretty much tell pax to do it. In fact, I've done it before myself...if I'm doing MCI-DEN-SEA, neither leg is long enough for any meaningful chow on board (in E+ anyway...sometimes DEN-SEA has food in F, sometimes not). So in DEN I sometimes grab a sandwich...otherwise we're talking 7 hours door-to-door with no food.

That said, I usually buy cold sandwiches that no one else can smell. The hot food isn't as good an hour later inflight. I only buy that when I have enough time to eat it right when I buy it in the airport.

Totally agree. I *hate* that. Same goes on escalators: stand on the right, walk on the left. If you're traveling with others, stand single file on the right...don't hog the walk area!

Flights that leave the gate on time but roll back and then just sit there for as long as an hour without a word from the flight crew. The worst thing about flight delays is the uncertainty. Let us know how long we are going to just sit there and wait.

My second pet peeve is the movement towards those small cramped regional jets on 1000 mile flights. These planes should be used only to small towns and places under 300 miles away.