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?

That's what you get with a plane full of fucking lovely selfish Canadians. So true. I had a couple of people sour-faced at the thought of me and DD sitting next to them and me apologising in advance knowing it would be a shitty flight. Lovely Canadian man swapped his two seats together for my one seat next to the couple. Just so DD and I would be OK. Fucking hero. The flight attendants kept bringing him drinks and telling him how lovely he was.

There is a special place in heaven for him. With free drinks, extra leg-room and full reclining.

When we went to DomRep when I was a teen, my younger brother was 6... Mum let him have too much coke on the flight... Come landing, he was projectile vomiting all over the plane and the poor people next and in front of him!... No one was allowed to move as the plane was landing, so they had to sit there and be puked on 😂

So when a child is kicking your chair or crying, just think.. Meh, could be worse!

It's called Business Class...

I tried to get my DC's put in the hold but they said it would disturb the doggies
So I went in the hold and it was lovely, of room, animals to pet, a tad chilly but a quick browse through a couple of cases and I found a lovely mink coat to stay warm

Hmm - how did you get a time machine and travel forward in time to the plane journey I'll be taking with my 4 year old later this year? He loves Paw Patrol and talks NON STOP. It's going to be a 10 hour flight to see family we haven't visited in 2 years... I'm really looking forward to it

actually, i would prefer to be with my children but have those who are going to be particularly irritated by, say an autistic meltdown, (they can be hell to be in the vacinity of) to be somewhere else. there is nothing worse than having the tutting when you are trying to deal with them calmly.

I don't think a quiet zone would be bad thing.

Some people irritated by autistic meltdowns may have autism themselves Susan - yes I may be more understanding than many people initially due to having the condition myself but I do have my limits and could suffer a meltdown if cooped up with a screaming child for hours.

I'm with you, OP! I am going to the USA in a few months and dread the thought of a long haul flight. At the best of times, it's uncomfortable and tedious - but at the worst it's almost a form of torture!

I agree that children should not be permitted to make other passengers' flights a misery. Parents should keep their children under control. Maybe we could give all the kids a sleeping pill when they board the plane?!

pacific Thank you. I have the attitude that we must just carry on and do the best under the circumstances. DH would love to start with the private plane but I am very hesitant to do it because I don't think its healthy for young children to grow up like that. I am very torn though because it would make life a lot easier.

As to flights to Canada. I LOVE flying up to Canada. I fly to Vancouver to see my mother and, while Canadians complain about Air Canada, I think they are amazing. I went up to visit my mum with the three kids for a long weekend on my own. Baby was something like 10 weeks. Everyone on the flight were amazing. So proud to be Canadian!

Child free cabins aren't going to happen any time soon because (surprisingly) most travellers are generally families with kids going on holiday.
Most airlines will not allow young children in business class and first class, and if older kids do end up in there the cabin crew can be quite assertive with the parents to control them.
Airlines are public transport , and the public use them so you've got to expect some annoyances from other passengers and that includes kids.
That said, parents should control their offspring if you're stuck in such a confined space for hours.
My parents never took us kids on long flights until we were much, much older. The furthest we went until we could be trusted to behave was the south of France, and then they did their best to ensure we were knackered so we would sleep.
DW and I do the same, we have 3yo DS's and won't be taking them abroad until they're a bit older. I would hate to put up with other folks kids on a long flight too, so that's why we fly first class (or at least business). Obviously not an option for everyone though.

SuperMum, if you can afford a private plane and it makes yours and your kids lives easier then I personally wouldn't worry about whether it's unhealthy for them to grow up like that. Go for it! Lush to have that option. Children are grounded or not mainly by their parents attitudes.

YANBU OP, it's hard for everyone - parents trying to keep children calm and other passengers trying to ignore it, a child free cabin would be fab all round. We used to live in Antigua, last flight back with the DC was grim. Now when we go on holiday we ferry, (it limits the options obvs we tend to take it to Spain mainly) one day I'll forget the horror of trying to control them on a long flight and they'll be older and more controllable and we can go back to planes.

Well aren't you just lovely OP! FGS children have as much right to be on a flight as you do, we were all children once and sometimes it can be really difficult to keep them calm on flights. I am sick of other people treating my children as second class citizens, they are not, they are the future and deserve to be treated with respect and tolerance!

I am actually lovely. I would choose to travel in a cabin without children present. Unfortunately that has never been an option although I would love that option. My children are 21, two are 23 and one is 24. I also work with children every day (521 to be exact). By the time my summer break comes around I do prefer to travel without children in the cabin. We also go to adult only hotels. We have booked premier class, we normally travel business or first class. We are happy to pay the extra cost. I simply do not wish to have a child kicking my seat/screaming/narrating every word of a film or download etc. As I said in my OP am I the only person who would happily pay extra for a child free cabin? A lot of people who have replied appear to be missing the point. Not everyone loves children nor wants to be near them on a flight.

inion I'm glad you're looking forward to 10 hours of Paw Patrol. Other passengers won't! Unless of course you supply earphones and your children don't kick seats, jump on seats while holding onto the back of other people's seats and scream "chase is in the case"

I'm sure I read that an airline was planning to arrange their planes in "zones" rather than the traditional set ups.

So family zone ranging from more to less luxurious in the same part of the plane etc.

Clearly hasn't happened yet but I don't think it is such a bad idea.

Child free cabins aren't going to happen any time soon because (surprisingly) most travellers are generally families with kids going on holiday.

Actually, that's not really true. Most flights are full of business travellers or adult tourists. However, most flights on some routes at certain times (e.g. school holidays) are full of children. The issue for airlines is that children are most annoying when en masse (yes I have children). Therefore child free zones probably won't happen because on flights where there are a lot of children they're not profitable and on routes where there aren't, they're not required.

I've seen loads of children in business class including my own two toddlers. You just normally can't hear them because they're drowned out by the guffawing and snoring of middle aged men.

I'd just like to see a plane with an auto eject button so that anyone who annoys me can be dumped over the ocean. Naturally, I will be in control of the button.

God you must be a bit obtuse as well as rude MrsJax. I was obviously being sarcastic. Let me spell it out for you a bit more slowly this time: I am actually NOT looking to flying with my 4 year old at all, funnily enough. I was making a joke about how the plane journey will not be fun.

Flying longhaul with young kids is stressful for parents. Most do their best to mitigate the stress for others but nobody really enjoys taking their young kids longhaul.

My lovely fellow Canadians. Have you not come across Westjet Cargo Kids??

www.westjet.com/guest/en/deals/promo-code/april-fools.shtml

I didn't fly with my children until they were reasonably able to cope with sitting still, but my sister had to travel with her two to visit her dh's family in Australia every couple of years. I tend to feel sympathy towards families with children. I'm a hell of a lot more tolerant of children than noisy or disruptive adults, and I've experienced worse behaviour from adults than children too.

I had a long three flight journey recently and the small children were part of what made it slightly more bearable. I especially enjoyed watching the flight crew cuddling one unhappy baby back to happiness. I don't like being forced to give Air Canada all my flying money, but they can have very nice crew especially on the longer routes (my little hop home not so much!).

maninawoman. Where do you get your idea that most airlines don't allow children in First and Business?
Do you think that Business Class is reserved purely for Businesspeople?
Do airlines turn away the money of people in First who have children?

Everyone needs to unclench... Reading through this thread is more stressful than a cabin full of toddlers!

Have some light relief: Ideal Plane Design :)

at that link.