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?

Luck does partly come into it in not having a child with disability related behavioural difficulties.
Adults with the most severe learning difficulties tend not to fly. All those I know with teenage or adult children with severe learning difficulties ( even if the only problem would be noise) wouldn't contemplate it because they know how intolerant people would be.

very pleased for you that were apparently blessed with 4 arch Angel Gabriels. However not all parents are as lucky.
Sometimes. It's nothing to do with bad parenting.

When I spoke to my paed she said of all the children she sees under 5, displaying the complete lack of ability to follow instructions, only 50% will eventually be diagnosed with anything and will grow out of it

Far more adults than children annoy me. I'd pay extra to be away from adult fuckwits.

Plane travel is very testing for some families for all kinds of reasons and with a few exceptions, I usually feel for the parents.

Most people try to do the right thing. Trying to be tolerant of other people's situations is usually a better idea than judging/being an arse.

I once travelled to France next to family of four. The parents sat together in front of me and put their two little girls next to me. The parents then abdicated all responsibility and I was almost like their nanny for the trip. The children were lovely but the parents were appalling frankly. I would have paid extra not to have to do that.

Frilly... You missed out on a chance to teach them all the good swear words and set up a cage fighting ring to take bets on who would win. Or feed them lots and lots of sugar and caffeine 30 minutes before descending commences.

That's what I always threaten to do if placed in a similar situation.

AlpacaPicnic We are siblings in the soul! The thought of setting up other people's troublesome kids with a sugar and caffeine high for just after landing is inspired.

In my job I'm used as a threat to children "if you do that, the lady will tell you off!" And one day, on a bad day... I just might do that!

Haha Alpacapicnic. I so should have done. The father in particular was awful. When I stood up to get off they all stood up in front of me and started really slowly getting all their stuff do I asked politely if I might go past them and he said to one of the children 'move over darling this woman appears to be in a hurry'. I was so cross. No - thank you so much for being so sweet to my children, helping them colour in and letting get in the aisle whenever they wanted (v v often)

You would have hated my flight earlier in the year with two school trips on it [including ours]. One of ours was violently ill all the way to America [had been checked by paramedics before flight and mum was a colleague was in touch until take off and contacted again on landing]. Pupil made awful sounds when sick [ no one can help that] and just wanted to be left alone. Some busybody complained to the school when we got back saying we neglected said child and that we were awful teachers! This person didn`t ask to be moved ...there were seats available in business class [as they moved some of the girls as their screens were not working to watch films etc] and said nothing to any member of staff or cabin crew. The rest of the children were fine and we had no complaints whilst on the flight there and back and strangers had nothing but praise for the when in USA. Perhaps she would have liked such a flight!

YANBU.
And yes, it is actually possible to bring up polite children and keep them quietly entertained on long flights - even if some people don't believe it.

Why on earth was a violently ill pupil allowed on the flight? Nice to spread a bug around the whole plane - to children and adults alike. I know we're not to know if someone is harbouring norovirus before they get on the plane, but when you do know it would seem a no-brainer to stop them from flying. Returning home is another matter, but it seems that this pupil was on the departure leg of a trip. How selfish.

I agree Rhoda - I spent a transatlantic flight watching/smelling/hearing a woman projectile vomit the entire time. I asked to be moved and was told no because the other passenger had declared "fit to fly" by a doctor over the phone so there was no risk to me

I agree with PP who have pointed out that it's not really children per se that are the problem. I've made two trips abroad in past month, and on all the flights any issues have come from adults. Adults who drink too much - really why is it you want to drink bucketloads of alcohol at 6am? Adults who take other people's seats because "it doesn't matter". Adults who don't seem to understand how a plane works - no, the toilets aren't "through that door" (the overwing emergency exit ).

Nine times out of ten, problem children are accompanied by problem adults. Not fair to blame the kids.

I agree with the posters saying that it is possible to have perfectly well behaved children on flights. I have a handful of them and they always behave well on flights. With smaller children (babies/toddlers), parents can't switch off because they are on a plane, they have to make sure they keep their children entertained/content. This is just basic politeness and respect for other passengers but some parents clearly seem ignorant of those basic rules.
However I don't think this is the norm as whenever we fly with them, we often get congratulated by the crew/nearby passengers on how well behaved they are which tells me it must be quite unusual...

As for the original question, I don't think this is realistic to have child free cabins, it's already complicated enough for airlines... Just get yourself a first or business class ticket, there is much more space on the cabin and if there happens to be other children in the cabin they will be more remote than in a cramped economy class.

Rhoda...the child did not have a bug as the paramedics had checked the child over before the flight. No fever, blood pressure was fine etc. Mum was happy We had a member of staff on standby to take the child home. Child wanted to go on the trip. Np one forced him and the airline were happy. Said child was fine by the time we reached the hotel. I think it was nerves. We sought medical advice and was reassured he would be fine and no one else in our party was ill. I ended up with a migraine when we arrived at the hotel due to all the stress but I just sucked it up, medicated and went to bed.

Wow u lot r a miserable bunch. She asked would u pay for a child free cabin not Wed u sell the annoying child behind u to the devil for a slice of cake. Seriously. I have four well behaved children also. We have been on several flights and unlike a lot of ppl here understand they were raised with manners and respect for other people so they were all extremely well behaved. But I'd definitely pay to get rid of the kids aren't :)

I think some people are missing the point of the OP. She's saying a quiet part of the plane not that children shouldn't travel.
We live abroad and regularly fly a 7-8 hour flight. DD (6) has done this all her life and has never misbehaved. She knows she has to be quiet and will happily gorge on TV for the whole flight.
I'd love to be able to go into a quiet part of the plane but would need to take her with me!
We flew on Friday and there was a woman with a screaming baby and a restless toddler. I offered to help her out btw before anyone judges. My Dd couldn't sleep for the screaming. Not the babies fault but the option to be in a quiet area would have been bliss!
I've encountered toddlers and children running riot up and down the aisles, banging into air hostesses, a child pulling all the loo roll out of the toilet, seat banging, a child that kept reaching over and turning off my TV, a child ran off with DD's sweets etc etc. Parenting doesn't stop when you get on a flight!
I've also had the delightful experience of a man deciding to have a cigarette in the toilets which almost caused the plane to divert and land! It was quite satisfying to see him being arrested at the other end
On the other hand I've had the pleasure of flying next to 2 unaccompanied minors who were impeccably behaved. The sky nanny spoke to them like dirt and ignored them the whole flight! I ended up fixing one of their screens and helping them navigate it lazy sod!
Flying business class doesn't mean there will be no children. I have a friend who takes her child business class. She can't even get her child to sit down for take off...

Christ on a tricycle, these threads are tedious.

We are going on holiday in a few weeks and DD, 11 and I have paid a small premium to book (£25 per seat) in the 'bump' of the aircraft, still economy but not a massive open plan area like the main part of the aircraft. It won't be guaranteed no screaming children but having travelled in the bump before it does have a smaller feel and they don't normally have the bassinets provision there. I have travelled with DD when she was small but we waited until she was two as I suffered with small eardrums and the thought of travelling with a small child and staying sane didn't fill me with much joy, let alone feel holidaylike. I have also had the zoned out parent behind me and ended up playing peek-a-boo with a child for two hours solid while the mother had what seemed like a mini nervous breakdown. Once she recovered she was very grateful, calmed down and unsurprisingly so did her child. She was actually grateful for the small factiod that it is harder for a child to kick the chair in front if the aforementioned child's shoes are removed, it becomes much more hard work for the child and also has less impact for the person in front - yes because I've been there in the past and had a screaming two year old (albeit for only half an hour) and she is normally the most well behaved child but she just didn't like being strapped in for the take off or landing and there was nothing I could do about it, the person in front played peek-a-boo and was so tolerant, so in a way I learnt from them to be tolerant (to a degree) of others.

If I really want child free I just jump in a hired plane from my flying club (can't quite afford the private jet you know ). However seeing as my licence is for Visual Flight Rules only, the major downer is the British weather which makes small screaming children seem a far lesser evil.

Another one who has had far more trouble from adult passengers over 30+ years of travelling. A fuckwit-free cabin sounds good.

Try sitting on a chair with your legs stuck out in front of you without bending your knees or supporting your ankles/feet like a child would. I start fidgeting after 5 minutes. It's really uncomfortable. airlines should do more to make children comfortable.

Can't say i was ever uncomfortable flying as a child

What destinations are you flying to where you get trouble from adult passengers?

I can honestly say that I have never come across this in over 30 years of flying. However, we do tend not to fly to obviously "party" destinations.

Nickname well one of the trips last month was to Geneva - not exactly party central ...