‘What bothers you most about air travel?’ that was just one of the questions asked in a recent poll carried out by Qualtrics, when they surveyed 500 American Airlines passengers.
The survey aims to identify the real issues and problems that frustrate passengers when they travel, and hopes to improve our future travel experiences.

Topping the poll (not surprisingly) was ‘Lost Luggage’.

When asked to rate travel annoyances in terms of severity 88% of respondents listed lost luggage as the most severe annoyance.
The study revealed that 1 in 5 passengers who had experienced lost luggage were so annoyed they switched airlines rather than fly with the same carrier again.
48% of all those surveyed said they would consider never flying with an airline if it lost their luggage.

When asked to rank a list of things that bothered them about air travel these were the top offenders:

• Lost luggage
• Hidden Fees
• Cancelled flights
• Unclean Bathrooms
• Unfriendly Cabin Crew
• Uncomfortable seats
• Bad in-flight service
• Lack of Legroom

When asked the question ‘What would prevent you from flying with an airline again, the top three answers were:

• Lost Luggage
• Hidden Fees
• Unfriendly cabin crew

As you might expect, business class passengers and economy passengers answered differently.
1 in 5 business class passengers claimed uncomfortable seats would be a deal breaker and would result in them refusing to fly with an airline, whilst only 1 in 10 economy passengers felt the same way.
29% of business class passengers were‘bothered a lot’ by poor in-flight entertainment options, compared to just 13% of economy passengers.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as passengers pay a premium to travel in business class, so it stands to reason they are going to expect the airline delivers a more comfortable and attentive package.

When questioned about their fellow passengers 45% said their biggest annoyance is poor personal hygiene, 35% said drunk passengers and the third biggest complaint was seats being kicked or constantly jolted by the person behind.

Interestingly 30% of passengers don’t mind sitting next to someone who wants to strike up a conversation and 49% said they wouldn’t mind switching seats if they were asked.

The research also highlighted the difference between male and female travellers as 45% of women said hidden fees would possibly prevent them from using the airline again, compared to just 35% of men.
Only 23% of men stated that unclean bathrooms would stop them flying with the carrier in future, whereas 34% of women said this would be a deciding factor.

Overall the results were very encouraging, finding that 85% of female passengers are happy when travelling and 93% of men said in general they were happy when they travelled by air.