Airline passengers reveal the common habits that are and aren’t acceptable on a flight

Do you think it’s acceptable to take your shoes off on a plane?

If you do, then you’re in the majority, although it’s not exactly an emphatic one, with 59% of respondents to a British Airways survey saying that it’s acceptable to remove your shoes during a flight. Mercifully, 87% of people drew the line at shoes, saying that it is completely unacceptable to remove one’s socks in mid-air. Be careful about taking off your shoes if flying to or from Italy, mind, because three-quarters of Italian respondents were against the idea of removing one's shoes mid-flight. The issue of shoe removal was one of the many contentious topics visited by British Airways, who polled travellers across the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy to address the biggest plane etiquette dilemmas facing fliers today, using the feedback to draw up an unofficial rulebook for how to successfully navigate your next flight. The ownership of an armrest was also up for debate, with 67 percent of all travellers surveyed saying that the proper etiquette is to take one armrest and leave the other for your neighbour. 47% of British travellers, meanwhile, are likely to try and claim both armrests if sat in the middle seat compared to 42% of American fliers. As for the thorny issue of ‘the climb over’, most people (80%) were in agreement that it’s OK to wake your neighbour in order to go to the toilet, although 40% said it’s only OK to do so once per flight. 33% of those surveyed would have no problem stepping over a heavy sleeper to get to the jacks, although it was hard to reach a consensus over which way to climb across, with 54% of Americans, for example, saying that a face-to-face exit was the way to go. Regarding small talk on a flight, more than eight in ten (83%) agreed that a quick hello and a smile to one’s neighbour is appropriate behaviour, with 42% of US travellers saying that it’s unacceptable to share personal stories and advocating putting headphones on as a polite way of avoiding small talk. You can see the results of the survey in full here.