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 would definitely pay for this!

I don't think that would be a good solution to the problem. This would be a complete discrimination. I understand it might be annoying but they are just kids! You can't always have full control over them, especially if they are younger! Sometimes, you just need to put up with it and let it go. In most cases, its not the parents' fault that their baby wouldn't stop crying! Then again, when kids are a bit older and their behaviour is unacceptable, it is down to the way their parents educated them. But you cant discriminate all of them, based on a single case.

The economics of it wouldn't stack up for the majority of flights
The major airlines needs a certain % of the plane to be premium tickets - fully flexible, business class etc to be profitable. And those travelers pick flights based on convenience of flight time and arrival airport.
You'll never get enough 'child free' ticket holders to match up with premium ticket holders to make a flight profitable for them

You could always do what ExH did on a long haul flight when a child sat behind refused to stop kicking his seat...
After many attempts to ask him to stop, he was told that if he did it again, the pilot would have to come and tell him off, and then the plane might crash while he wasn't in the cockpit.

It probably didn't do much good for the child's future happiness to fly, but the parents had ample opportunities to stop him but did nothing.

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.

Those cabins already exist though. They are called First Class. A ticket is several thousand pounds, so while you might be prepared to pay a bit more, you aren't prepared to pay enough

Sometimes I'd rather have a cabin full of children than some adults.

So, you'd ban children from some planes just because you met one unruly child?

I would op!
I don't mind screaming, i have headphones, i just can't take seats being kicked.
I have chronic pain so i feel things more than the average person and severe anxiety.
I think a quiet zone all round would be good. No kids, no noisy adults

So, you'd ban children from some planes just because you met one unruly child

That's not what I said or asked. I'd be happy with a child free cabin, there's plenty of room on planes for cabins to be adult only. It's not just one unruly child I've met either. I've had a few horrendous flights due to children running up and down aisles, kicking seats, and generally annoying other passengers. My pet hate is the peek a boo game as someone else mentioned upthread. Not everyone wants to play bloody peek a boo with the child in front. I've also had my hair grabbed when I was sleeping through the gap between the seats at the window and toys stuffed through the same gap.

I had an absolute peach of a mother ask to swap seats with us last year as we were in the front row of the cabin. She wanted those particular seats so her child could have room to play on the floor. She drew me daggers the rest of the flight when I went to the loo after I refused.

As someone else said upthread I've never met rowdy passengers on a plane either.

I guess I'll just need to have a couple wines and hope I sleep

I know the legroom in Economy is dire, but surely if they are seat kicking then these unruly children must be quite old, as a toddler couldn't reach if sat in their seat.
As someone up thread said, why can't you just turn around and ask them or the parents to stop.

The majority of crying that happens is on take off or landing because their ears are hurting!

This would be a complete discrimination.

Oh is it now? So I'll be fine to go to a toddlers soft play and hang around in the ball pit will I?

Queenbean an adults only softplay is my dream. I think we should start working on a business plan right away!

RestlessTraveller
I Thought i was the only one

kali110 you are not alone, it would be awesome!

I had a seat kicker behind me on a long flight to Tokyo last year. I turned round and spoke to his mother frequently but she did nothing. I asked the cabin staff to talk to the mother and child, which they did, but nothing changed. I was a mass of seething fury by the time we disembarked. So yes I would pay extra for a quiet/no small children cabin.

The backseat kickers that have annoyed me the most have been adults.

I must have been going in the wrong planes, clearly.

When i used to fly pre-dc i thought those front (i think they are called bulk head seats) which have all the space in front and a sort of ledge for carry cots, were only for passengers with children and i remember thinking this was a really good idea. They used to sit on the floors colouring and stuff and could stretch their legs and babies could be laid in cots etc. Then when we had dc i tried to book them and was told o one under 16 could sit in them for health and safety reasons (blocking fire exits). Which i do think is a shame as they were quite perfect for entertaining children so that they didn't bother other passengers. So when parents come up with solutions to prevent their dc from being a nuisance they can't and then are blamed for the child not sitting perfectly still for hours on end. You can't have it both ways. Wouldn't you have preferred to give up the front seats for some peace?

I think peoples expectations of children's capabilities are often very unrealistic. Also their expectations on how much power a parent has over a childs behaviour - particularly in a confined space - it usually unrealistic too. I cannot stop my child from repeatedly shouting something or doing something. I just can't. There is nothing bar removing him that will stop him (if he really wants to do something he will). It has nothing to do with being an ineffectual parent. I cannot make another human behave in a way they don't willingly want to.

Again those front seats would stop the back kicking too.

RestlessTraveller and Kali

They had them on Clapham Common last summer! I would go but be really dubious about people having sex in there and dropping beer in too. Yeuch!

Not understanding why the OP is being flamed by some posters - she doesn't want to OUTLAW children on planes, she merely asked if people would be interested in child-free cabins. AIBU madness as it's best

I would very much be in favour of quiet sections/cabins. I have no issues with babies/toddlers crying, because I'm sure their ears hurt or whatever, but older kids running up and down the aisles is simply not acceptable. It's a fucking plane, not a bloody playground and it is both disruptive and very dangerous.

I'm not a kid hater at all, in fact I had a lovely flight to Vancouver last year sitting beside a mum with a newborn and a toddler. I asked mum if she wanted me to hold the baby while she ate her dinner and had a snooze (mum was only delighted) and then myself and the toddler watched Frozen on my iPad. All in all a very enjoyable flight! But seat-kickers and aisle-runners are another matter entirely.

I'm afraid mine are aisle runners and the alternative is much much worse for everyone!

Mrs Koala on the Dreamliner in the Premium cabin the two seats at the front aren't next to an emergency exit and children can sit in them. I remember the seats at the very front of lots of cabins were for people travelling with children years ago.

I was thinking the opposite, that maybe there should be flights / cabins which are just for families and children so you don't feel stressed out the minute your child starts making a noise. We've changed the times that we fly to accommodate him (eg we used to take the last flight back when visiting the in laws, whereas now we take the afternoon one) and I noticed that there's tons more children on these flights anyway, because of the timing. We've now done four flights with DS who has largely been good (he's 4mo) but on one of the flights the couple in front started making judgy noises when he started crying at take off. It lasted about 5 minutes (he then fell asleep and was quiet the rest of the flight), but I got stressed which means he got stressed. The wanker in front of me also put their seat back the whole flight, on a daytime flight. I really enjoyed knocking his seat to get up and down. There was one guy (early 30s, very good looking ) who let me go in front of him to change DS in the bathroom and when I was waiting for our luggage, came up to me and told me how well behaved he was.

The middle front seats (bulkhead) are prioritised for people with disabilities and children (had long discussions with airport staff about getting them when pregnant). They are the ones where the cots go. it's emergency exit seats that children / babies / pregnant women can't use for safety reasons

I think a lot of airlines now sell those seats as "extra leg room" so it's a lot harder to get a bassinet position.

I have no issue with planes having adult only cabins if there's a market for it.

However, I disagree with the pp who said people who want to take their children on a plane should pay more. No way, you want yo avoid them, you pay the price.

Op your comment about the child who watched Paw Patrol the whole way through a flight. Surely you can understand that the parents were trying their best to stop that child from misbehaving using distraction?

And as for the comment about "parents having to have their jolly to Torremolinos". People do have family who live abroad you know.