to put the children in economy while DH and I fly business class?

[OfCourseIveNameChangedForThis]

Testing name change.

susie you misunderstood, that was about children travelling alone, not about OPs situation.

They will if specifically paid to do so with the children travelling as UMs but I think that option is not technically possible if the parents are on board.

There's a whole raft of stuff kids that age might need, including someone to keep an eye on them to make sure they're being reasonably behaved towards nearby passengers.

As a passenger I would rather sit next to a well-behaved 10 yo then to many adults. Had plenty of those in first and business class BA flights when their parents paid for the little darlings and it was bliss (also was spared the occasional irritating small talk). However, IF the kids are not well-behaved I WILL fucking make a fuss.

The airline gets paid extra. Mine were always taken care of by a designated member of the crew throughout the flight. The children were also signed in and out at either end with multiple checks as to the ID of the person depositing the kids and collecting them. It was a good and reliable service which came at a cost.

Ah I see thanks Hazel

My cousin stayed with us for a while while my uncle was abroad with the army and she was at primary school. She used to regularly fly as an UM from Glasgow and she was definitely under 12.

BoneyBackJefferson If you read the thread you will see the whole UM thing brought up.

Hazelnut No, the cabin crew aren't actually paid more but you have paid extra for the higher level of service required by a solo child. You aren't effectively expecting someone else to pick up the responsibility free of charge. It's like hiring a baby sitter whilst your children are asleep.

The point is that the 10 year old is too young to be effectively unaccompanied on a flight. It depends whether "on the same plane" equates to accompanying your child. Personally I don't think it does.

Other people bleated on about how children can fly unaccompanied from 5. Yes they can but you pay for the extra care required

Maryz - London to Dublin is about an hour. It's not long haul!

soupdragon - is cabin crew paid on seat occupancy rates then?

ah, sorry, got it now...

If these kids are as spoilt and self-indulgent as their parents, which they might well be, then they'll need fairly constant low level supervision to see they aren't making the journey a misery for those around. It's not demanding per se, or complicated, but it's a parents' job.

If the kid throws up whilst the seat belt signs are on, then the parent needs to be there to clear things up. If the kid spills a drink, the parent needs to be there to help sort it out. If the kid keeps kicking the seat in front, a parent needs to tell it to stop. If the kid reclines its seat into the face of the passenger behind, it needs a parent to wind it back in.

Pay someone to perform your duties or perform them yourself.

And that's without anything on the flight going majorly wrong.

HuntyCat I see inverness has both BA and FlyBE flights, both take UM's under 14, EasyJet doesn't (it's a low cost airline and doesn't want the extra costs at the airport )

FlyBe info I gave above, maybe you couldn't find a flight, but they absolutely exist. Short haul flights are rarer, because so many of those are run by low cost carriers who offer it less often, I don't believe there are any transatlantic airlines who don't accept them. In any case, this is not an UM situation as they are accompnied.

I've just flown with my 10 and 11 year old (I sat with them, dh sat elsewhere as we couldn't all sit together in the seat formation).

I cannot think of one intervention I made the whole flight but then again as I was asleep for most of the time, perhaps the cabin crew were wiping their arses and stopping them from drinking alcohol without me noticing .

No way would I do this. Not because the kids are unaccompanies minors (no idea if this is true), or because other people might have to look out for them, but because I wouldn't spend money on me and DH flying in luxury while the kids were in the cheaper seats in a different part of the plane. It just seems wrong.

Yes, there are things we get that they don't because we're adults (mainly wine lol, or more expensive clothes because I'll have mine for 10 years till they fall apart), but not stuff like this.

Mind you we don't have the money to waste on business class for anybody.

OP's dh does seem like a bit of a spoilt brat. 'I can't afford to fly us all business class but I'm so special I need my sleep so I'm going to chuck the kids in the hold and sit up front being all special and important.'

Honestly, he needs to get his head round the fact he can't afford long-haul business class for the family any more. Plenty of people are facing far worse cut-backs. Take a holiday somewhere nearer, or put up with economy and fly back a day earlier so he can get his precious bedtime before going back to work.

Bet his jolly important job isn't anything genuinely important, such as brain surgery.

Even if it was brain surgery, he'd probably have the common sense to come back a day earlier one would have hoped

Yellowstone, I would expect that a 3-year old needs a parent there to help with a spilled drink and someone to tell them to stop kicking the seat. An average 10-year old, not to mention 13, would manage this. If this particular 10-year old does not then I'm pretty sure OP would not even consider seating them separately.

SoupDragon, I've always understood that you pay extra for the service that someone escorts your UM to the aircraft and meets them after the flight to hand them over, and not for special assistance on board - the UM would just get the normal in-flight assistance cabin crew is already paid for.

Fox you were there if there was a problem of any sort I think is the point.

OP, what is your DHs' job?

Nope Hazle, they get looked after throughout the flight - a member of the crew is specially assigned to look after the UMs on board.

OP may think she can predict all eventualities in an attempt to justify her indulgence but the reality is that no-one can. The fact that thousands of peaceful flights have been made by 10 year olds doesn't mean that this particular flight with this particular 10 year old and a random set of stangers around him or her will be uneventful.

I had a memorable flight to the San Diego fifteen years ago when all six of my children were perky and apparently well until the moment we taxied. At which point one after the other was violently sick all over its neighbour, including the poor lady who told us proudly that she had checked in three hours early to get that particular bulkhead seat....

Yes but for me a 10 and 13 year old are perfectly capable of looking after themselves while travelling, especially if seasoned travellers with mum and dad no more than 10 feet away.

It's the fact the the OP is clearly happy with all of them flying premium economy and he isn't. That seems like a sensible compromise to me (all flying premium economy) and one that the op has very reasonably suggested. She doesn't sound happy with his response and nor would I be.

I think it's a matter of how you view holidays and your time with dcs. For me, holidays exist mainly for me to see the dcs and dh precisely because I work long hours so I like being with mine as much as possible.

For some people, they exist mainly so they get a break and that can mean getting a break from their dcs (which is also fine i suppose just not my thinking).

It sounds like he's in the second camp!

It might or might not be 10ft I guess.

I assumed the OP was pretty spoilt too in that she seems not to contemplate another middle option which would be for her to sit with the kids rather than with DH.