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?

I'd pay extra. I had a flight with a wonderful little baby in the seats in front of me. She was a delight! No crying, just gurgles and smiles. It turns out the parents were syringing drugs into her at takeoff to make her sleep. I'd rather they felt comfortable in a family section than drug their child!
I'm travelling next year with my friend and her toddler. We were not meant to travel together, but decided to try and lessen the impact on others by having two adults to try and keep him happy. I'd rather be in my own section with a gin and my earplugs to be honest, but I feel I should try and help make the journey less traumatic for the people sitting around my friend's kid.

I'm with you on this - our kids don't piss about on fights because they have been taught not to. I HATE when people do the whole 'they are just kids' spiel which is basically the equivalent of 'they are just arseholes and I couldn't be bothered to be a decent parent'

Most airlines will not allow young children in business class and first class,

Since when? I always book business class when travelling long haul, and DS is right there with me. I've never been told he couldn't.

I'd also pay a premium for a "quiet section" - which applies to all passengers of all ages. Works perfectly well on trains (mostly).

I'd also be quite willing to pay an entrance fee to free museums and attractions like that for a guaranteed child free experience. It's no fun when you have to stand back and let the kiddies have all the fun with the hands-on exhibits etc. Shoving them out of the way to have your turn tends to be frowned on, even if they do it to you.

I'd go for it because at least then when I travelled with children I'd feel more relaxed knowing the other passengers near me opted for the 'with children' space.

YANBU OP in the slightest. As a parent, I think there is a need for both services. When travelling alone, or for work, I'd happily pay extra

Some children take longer than others to learn to 'behave'. For some it can take forever. We would not fly for pleasure with ds because his severe disabilities would make it very stressful for him but if we had to he will probably be very noisy and possibly seat kick even when he is an adult.

Actually he is likely to be be to tall to seat kick but he would bang on everything around him instead.

Most airlines will not allow young children in business class and first class,

This is not true. I have travelled business class with my kids with Cathay, Air Canada, BA, Air NZ, Dragon Air...
I wouldn't pay for a child free cabin, but would pay for a quiet zone.
I have been flying with my kids since they were babies and the issue is usually parents who are 'on holiday' and don't want to parent who are the problem, not the children.
Babies and toddlers who are distressed on the flight for whatever reason - I empathise - have been there.
Recent experience of mine - Two families travelling together who after take off move all the kids (aged 6-10 ish) into a row of 4 seats together so the parents can relax in 4 seats behind them. Children are behind me kicking the seat, jumping up and down and shouting at each other - and generally not showing any consideration towards other passengers is not acceptable.

Adding KLM to the airlines who let kids in Business - tho I didn't pay for that one.

Can we add in a cabin where the seats are permantly reclined, so there is no bastard who reclines his seat before take off, and leaves it there for the whole flight. That's asking to be disturbed when it's a day flight, as it's tight to get in\out of the seats behind then.

As a mother of two toddlers, who I've just flown from Australia with, oh yes!!! I'd pay for a child free cabin

At least one airline (Scoot) have offered a quiet zone (child free) for several years, but it is purely a zone (a few rows of seats) and not a cabin. Malaysian airlines also where possible ban children from the top deck of their A380s (though let them up there if the flight is full...).

Doesn't though appear though to be something most other airlines think is actually a good thing to do.

Someone made a comment about there not being sufficient demand or airlines would be doing it by now.

There is clearly demand on cruises. You used to get the occasional "exclusively for adults" cruises with P&O. Now two of their seven ships are permanently designated "exclusively for adults".

Demand is clearly growing and I think it is only a matter of time before some more long haul flights start offering quiet cabins or some such. And about time.

I'd like an arsehole free cabin. I've had more bother from adults than children on flights.

My 4 year old DC is a dream to travel with and wouldn't disturb people, not that I allow her to. She's better behaved than many adults who recline their seats as you're eating or spending the whole bloody flight fidgeting and shaking so you can't get a moments peace.

DC2 however is a total screaming nightmare so they'd have to go into arse hole class too

Op, YES I WOULD! I think standards of acceptable behaviour have fallen.

Liking the idea of a quiet cabin, I don't fly often but I do like to just relax and not have my bag rifled through, my hair pulled or have to say to my DS 'don't you dare slam back into your seat so the little shit hanging off the back of it goes flying' (granted that last one is my problem, not the annoying kid's). 99.999% of the time it's not even the fact that the kids are being loud and obnoxious, it's that the parents aren't doing shit about it. I mean if a kid wants a paddy, it'll have one but can you please at least TRY to keep them quiet? I honestly don't care if it doesn't work, just try!

There are a lot of very defensive replies on here. I don't understand why some parents don't parent their children on planes. I realise that there are some families with children who have extra needs and I am not aiming my frustration at these families.

"I've never been on any flight where a child had been intolerable"

I have. Having your seat kicked for the entire duration of a flight is enough to give even the most tolerant person the rage.

"Surely you have the "tune out" button that a normal parent would have."

Nope. I am far less tolerant of other people's children than my own. For a start I can try and control my own. Also, when your children get older you do forget how irritating small children can be in a confined space. When DD was little I used to find flying and long train journeys rather stressful because I would spend the entire journey keeping her occupied. As soon as she was old enough to read for herself it became a lot easier. We didn't have smartphones or iPads in those days either.

I agree that having separate areas on planes where they seat families together and child free adults together would be a good idea.

I tend to fly to destinations that don't appeal to stag/hen parties and have never come across drunken or obnoxious behaviour on a flight.

To all those who have had chair kickers behind you, do you not turn round and ask them to stop? Surely that would be the first thing to do? Then if they continue alert the cabin crew?

WRT kids in business and first, my major problem is the flight having 3 seats available to purchase when we book flights. BA are great but the direct flight to Manchester is a full flight. Business has about 20 seats and by the time I book they are not available or there are only 1 or 2. It's the same with United. I'm not a fan of stopovers if they can be avoided. Flying to denmark is awkward because DHs employer have told us it's unpatriotic to fly with anyone else but SAS. I fly with Lufthansa through Frankfurt (who are great but again enough business seats are hard to come by) or with KLM but the flight from NYC is often full hence I go with Lufthansa.

SAS are an awful airline and deserved to go bankrupt. Their staff are arrogant at best and just rude. Flying on my own with two kids, I've never been offered help. When DH had a seat in business and I was two rows back in economy with the two kids, I got zero help and my requests were met with distain. Once up in the air DH swapped with me. All of a sudden 4 flight attendants fell over themselves to help him. He made exactly the same requests as me and they were all met. I was furious so plonked my arse down in business and slept. DH hadnt believed me until he experienced me being ignored on that flight. He always thought I was exaggerating and apologized to me afterwards.

I was told on here i was incredibly selfish and completely out of order to fly with children in business class. Apparently whether they allow them or not, is irrelevant, they shouldn't be there and that's that!

I'd pay extra for a quiet cabin...
Quiet children welcome. Quiet adults welcome.
Noisy adults and children not welcome. No endless requests for more cans of lager. No 'adorable' playing peepo through the seats for over nine hours. No drunken hen parties.
A quiet reading cabin. With nice meals on actual plates. And help-yourself coffee, tea and soft drinks.

I'm always amazed at how many parents can't go without a holiday for a few years.

We are raising children far away from their grandparents. It isn't ideal, but that is life and so they have all taken transatlantic flights since before their first birthday. I want my kids to know their grandparents and cousins. Most of those flights were fine and very, very hard work. I would say since they When they were little, I was always really happy when we were seated near all the other families because it was more relaxing to be around others suffering alongside you.

Don't be so snotty about the reasons people might fly. You have no idea.

OP - yes, fly first class. Very few children there. You can pay for that privilege and should sort you right out.

YABU - Upgrade. You can't rid the world of kids when it suits you.
If you're happy to pay the extra for a child free flight then move yourself up to Plus or Biz. I fly for work and rarely see children in those cabins. I have however experienced - noisy drunken adults, whingy adults, rude adults, adults who are up and down like bloody yoyos disturbing everyone, adults have really loud conversations disturbing everyone, adults spilling out of their seats into mine because they're huge/tall whatever/a man who needs to sit with his legs spread as far apart as possible...
And I've been in cattle class with perfectly well behaved kids so... swings and roundabouts...