To wonder if child free cabins on planes will ever happen?

[MrsJaxTeller]

Am I the only person who would happily pay for a child free cabin on a plane? We have 4 children and have flown with them both long and short haul when they were younger. I would never have allowed my children to kick seats or be a nuisance to other passengers on flights. I'm actually dreading our holiday in a few days after last years experience when a child had an iPad and watched bloody Paw Patrol for nearly 4 and a half hours. He screamed at the top of his voice "Chase is on the Case" every bloody episode then gave everyone a blow by blow description of what was happening in every episode. Yes, I understand children need to be entertained on long flights BUT the family in question eventually were spoken to by the cabin crew as a lot of passengers in our cabin were complaining about his behaviour. He was jumping on seats and hanging on to back of my seat while he jumped up and down. I tried to put my headphones in but that didn't help when he was rocking my seat by holding onto the headrest and jumping on his. As I said, am I the only person who would happily pay for a child free cabin?

If we went back to airline organised seating, could families not be filled from the back if the plane, and adult only groups from the front of the plane. That would generate the smallest possible cross over. Except of course, then families will be cross at getting split over an aisle, as those single travelers aren't there to fill in the gaps.
And I suspect there are limits to how many babes in arms can be assigned to a row of seats, and other algorithm issues making it harder.
And that, if course, wouldn't work for us. DHs ticket is booked seperatly from mine and the kids, so having sat there and carefully booked seats so we were in a central block of 4, they "helpfully" moved DH away from the rest of the family.
You are never going to please everyone!
But Dan someone please tell me how to get kids to sleep on planes??? DS1 just won't (from about the age of 3 to current age of 7). We get awful flight times here - last was 2am, next one is 4am, iirc. So we put him to bed at 8, got him up at 11, and he was then awake til bedtime the next day

Yanbu. I won't take DD on any long haul flights ever again (unless we're being evacuated from a war torn UK in a few years' time half joking). Or at least until she is old enough to sit reasonably quietly. We took her on a 3 hour flight recently, and though she really wasn't that badly behaved and I managed to prevent her kicking the seat in front most of the time, I could tell she was pissing off the other passengers by making noise. I did what I could to keep her entertained but I'm sure that was equally irritating to people sitting near us tbh. We have to fly quite a lot to visit family but it's a very short flight so can deal with it, but it's just not worth the aggravation for us or the other passengers on longer flights. If there was a family cabin I probably wouldn't really want to use it as I don't want to be kicked in the back throughout a long flight either! I'm quite happy to holiday near home for a few years.

Hmmmm just realised I contradicted myself a bit there... On second thoughts YABU about family cabins as I wouldn't want to use one long haul, but are NBU to find young DCs on long flights a bit stressful.

"I'm surprised to see such intolerant views to children on a parenting forum."

I'm not. You are under-estimating just how irritating lively children are to other passengers on planes, regardless of whether they are parents or not.

I think this is where the problem lies. We do tend to become immune to our children - most parents do. We then have to remember to curb their enthusiasm when confined in small spaces with lots of other people.

I stated earlier that we all need to show consideration towards our fellow passengers whether it is trying to make your child sit still and behave, not drinking to excess and causing a riot or even not tipping your seat back without first asking the passenger behind you.

One of the reasons we like flying with Jet2 is that you can't recline your seat.

zad There is zero discount for my kids tickets when we fly. Their seat costs exactly the same as mine. I fly with BA. Those discounts you state have not been available for at least the past 5 years.

Under 2s pay 10% of the ticket price only if they are on you lap. If you buy them a seat you pay full whack.

I would love for a kids discount to apply but it doesn't. Flying twice a month on routes where a seat is about $1000 return right now it would be a huge money saver!

Want2bSupermum these discounts were available today via the BA (UK) website for the Heathrow to New York route.

Well I know the flights I booked last week with United to Manchester from Newark, not JFK, had zero discount for DC. I tried to book with BA but the planes were full. Heathrow does not work for me as when flying to the UK I will only fly direct.

Kids tickets are typically the same price but with a lower tax, where that is applied. So the overall cost is a bit lower than an adult ticket but not much - our children's tickets from the US to the UK are something like $60 less than the adult fare. Not significant in the overall cost of traveling

Surely the best solution to problems on planes is a decent set of earplugs or some music?

A couple of years ago there was a thread started by a poster who said that on a flight from Orlando a (very fine) woman had put her kids (about 6 and 4) alone in economy whilst she was in first class. "Oh, no, rubbish!" roared following posters. Except that I had been on that very flight and witnessed with my very own eyes that it certainly had happened.

It was the most amazing piece of bald-faced cheek I have ever seen. The woman said, "These good people will look after you," looking around at the passengers seated nearby. Someone misunderstood and thought the woman had been unfortunately separated from her dcs and was elsewhere in economy. When she offered to swap seats, the woman laughed and said, "Oh, no, I need my sleep." Needless to say it was a bumpy flight and the kids were crying. Someone went and fetched their mother from 1st class and she was still wittering on about people helping to look after them. Everyone around them was completely gobsmacked.

True, on that occasion, the children hadn't caused that much trouble and everyone was sorry for them, but I can't believe it's an option to dump your kids in another part of the plane.

I used to think that people who wanted child free planes were being ridiculously intolerant but my recent flights have been affected by parents who really couldn't be bothered with parenting. I had
A pre-schooler pulling and kicking the back of my seat for 2 hours whilst having an ipad on full blast
A toddler -shouting-- singing a tune to Old McDonald whilst listening to a blaring ipad
I was sat next to two children whose champagne drinking parents were several rows back. The children ate 4 large bags of Haribo aand tonnes of biscuits and became increasingly bad tempered and of course both had very loud ipads watching different things. And they knocked over my drink.

The problem isn't the children but the parents who don't give a stuff.

My children are not perfect but they are able to quietly sit on a plane without annoying anyone else. If they were to kick a seat it would happen once and it would be sorted. They have headphones for devices etc.

Adults can be just as annoying. There are a huge number of people who don't realise how inconsiderase they're being.

Um... angelos people bring their kids on planes for more than a simple holiday. We lived abroad for 10 years and travelled home to see family. Should we not have seen family, help look after a sick relative or go to my father in laws funeral in case my kids were noisy?
Though I think they should have noisy kid zone. My KIDS were complaining about the behaviour of other kids on a flight........ but also sympathising with the mum with the crying baby.

you can't help a crying or distressed child, but as a parent you should be able to restrain your child from kicking the seat in front, you can't " zone" out and ignore the problem. Mine were not perfect, but I was always very aware of others around me, same goes for behaviour in restaurants.

I think you're mostly right Tooty, but I also get that when you have an 18-2yrold on your lap there will be times when the seat in front will get knocked due to proximity, especially if the seat in front is reclined so I'd hope people would have some tolerance if the parents were making a good effort to prevent it from occurring. Basically, if everyone could try not to be an arsehole it would all be fine.

The airline don't give a shit about children disturbing you if you are an economy class pleb.

I'd pay good money for a child free flight, can I pay a bit extra to leave my kids in the other cabin??
Actually, I just wish people would be a bit more considerate when flying, full stop. (Actually, a bit more consideration in life generally would be good)
I don't want my seat to be kicked by an annoying child, thank you very much. I had a night flight with my 7 year old recently, I thought she'd sleep - no chance on the way out! She played on the onboard computer ha,Es and watched films all night. At no point did she make a fuss or misbehave. She slept on the return flight and I had entirely underestimated how much she wriggles in her sleep. I stayed awake all night to ensure that she didn't kick the seat in front of her and disturb anyone else. I also flew with my 3 year old nephew, who has special needs and he was good as gold as well. His mother knows his trigger points and headed any potential issues off before they escalated.

Every single flight I have been on, I have the seat kickers, once I saw the girl behind, put her hand thru the gap by the window and pinch my daughter on the stomach, the one behind me was pulling my long hair, hard, I turned round the Mother was with them, but my Husband said I mustnt say anything, because they were people of colour (as aparently we have to say these days) We didnt go on holiday when the children were small. I totally agree, young children and babies dont want to be on night flights, we stupidly booked them although we didnt want to thinking there would be no small children, and yes, by the time they were 8 or 9, they were taught to behave properly and respect other people!

Would be happier if there was a play pen at the back of the plane. Wriggling 1 year old on flight is torture, airlines should have thought of something by now!

Tooty, my 21mo is a metre tall and almost 3st. Technically I could fly with him on my lap (not that I would ever consider it! But if I did) and given the close proximity of the seat in front, there is little I could do to stop him kicking and flailing around if he wanted to. Apart from stand with him in the aisles. There would be not much else I could do.

"airlines should have thought of something by now!"

How many passengers would be prepared to fork out the extra costs involved?

I have to agree that if you're sitting in front of someone with a "lap child" (as United Airlines charmingly refer to under 2s) and you recline your seat, you probably deserve a few kicks in the back.**

** before I get my arse flamed for this, when this did happen to me on a 9 hour transatlantic flight I still did my best to stop my leggy 22 month old from kicking the seat, even though thanks to inconsiderate arsehole in front of me I couldn't even eat because there wasn't room to put my table down.

I haven't had chance to read every comment, so apologies if I am repeating anything. What an utterly ridiculous prospect, having adults only on a flight. What about an adult with severe learning difficulties that makes loud noises and bangs their head onto the seat in front. Would you ban those too?! How about learn a bit of tolerance.

When my son has my attention 100% he is still noisy and bangs and kicks everything. The only way to keep him still and quiet would be to drug him.

We recently traveled on a plane for the first time with our 3 year old - 3 hours each way. We were very aware what could happen if she kicked off (as toddlers can do) and were a little concerned. I am happy to report that all was well except for some moaning about a short delay on the tarmac but once were were underway she was fine. Ipad with headphones and drawing stuff were perfect distractions and also food.

We were towards the back of the plane each way but there was a family up front with a 2 year old and an almost 1 year old (i would guess). The 2 year old kicked off all flight unless he was allowed to walk up and down the aisle so when we were taking off and landing he was being held by his dad on his lap screaming. I felt very sorry for everyone sitting around them and also the parents because there was very little they could do. We once had a 6 hour car journey like that and it wasn't fun. At 2 you can't reason with them but at 3 its easier.

Yanbu. Your 4 well behaved children are a credit to you.... shame on those who don't believe you (jealous ?).
I too put a lot of effort into making sure my kids were entertained and not a nuisance. its nat always easy but thats my problem not my fellow passengers. Nobody should have their chair kicked or rocked nor should a child be allowed to shout constantly.
Babies or kids with learning difficulties are an exception. But usually those aren't the kids that were talking about.
Parenting is hard and part of the job is respecting other people and getting your kids to understand that too.