To think that it is ok to jump the queue when with an infant?

[Eole]

DH, DC (3 months) and I were flying for the first time today to see family, long expected break!
We had booked priority, lounges and everything we could to relieve a bit of the stress.
Priority queue was quite long to check in luggage and we started queuing nicely.
Another mum came along and told us we could jump the queue which we did gladly as baby started stirring a little bit.
However it enraged some of the people in the queue, literally shouting that it was very out of order and that was no such thing as baby class, and what is wrong with you people etc.
Interestingly, every other step in the airport (security, customs, boarding) we were invited nicely by the staff to jump the queue.

So YANBU, of course you can jump the queue when with an infant
YABU no, you should queue like everyone else

So everyone must train their offspring to be badly behaved. Must make you so proud! I've 'been there'. travelled quite a lot with the children, never expected special treatment.

I don't know why anyone cares- everyone has booked their seat so what difference does it make?

Good the British love of queueing…you can kick and scream about it but babes in arms will always get priority over us in cattle class. You’re welcome.
disclaimer: I don’t have a baby and I would rather not fly with a baby, thank you very much.

I didn’t claim it did. I claimed it helped keep babies in the best possible mood (by making the whole experience less stressful for them and their parents) and meant fewer people would be stuck in lines with crying babies next to them.

Which are good things for those of us traveling without babies, as well as for the staff at the airport and on the plane.

I worked for an airline and if there was a family in the queue with an infant getting upset or agitated or screaming their heads off then yes we would offer to process them quickly through the queue.

Everyone is stressed at airports, especially with screaming babies in tow. It never upset anyone when we did this. The world needs a little more understanding!

However for busy times with lots of families travelling we weren't able to offer this then as there was too many infants.

Firstly, no skin off my nose because I’m disabled and we speed on through with few queues.
I cannot imagine why two (presumably able bodied?) adults with a small baby cannot manage to stand in a queue to check in! 😂 If OP was a single parent with 3 small humans tearing off in different directions, I can see why skipping the queue might be helpful but this scenario is just ridiculously laughable.
Boarding first is different. I understand you’d need to settle the baby and ensure your luggage is near you in the overhead lockers.

queue jumping is really low, come on!

YANBU. I think a lot of airlines actually advocate bringing families with babies ahead in queues.

Even as a frequent flier, I never really noticed staff bringing people with babies forward, or more likely I just didn't mind. But we recently spent 6 weeks travelling with our baby and in nearly every check in/boarding we were called forward or put into a shorter queue. Which a few people resented but the majority were completely understanding.

I would have been mad, with desks used to check in multiple flights you don't know that the other people in the queue were even on your flight, they may have been in more of a rush than you to get through security and catch their flight. Last time I flew it was 1.5 hrs to check in

OP don’t give this a second thought. When travelling with young children you have to be a NINJA queen/ warrior Princess ready to react as required . You did just that. When your child is a little older you may actually have a weapon in the form of a Trunki which just seem
to be used to terrorise other travellers into moving out of the way to avoid injury to feet, calves and other extremities. With a Trumki children become mini Ninjas hurtling around at great speed with queues and groups of people scattering into submission. You’ve got years of this ahead- so mentally put on that Ninja outfit as you approach any airport or station etc it will provide you with a thick enough skin to ignore the child free moaners.

Then I’m sure the op will name the airline..,

and i fly a lot for work and I mean a lot and I’ve never seen it. Boarding yes, never once witness parents being brought out the check in queue to check In first. Ever.

YABU if you assume you can jump the queue.
YANBU if the staff tell you that it's okay, but then they need to do so loud enough for other passengers to hear.

I've been in that queue (pre children) when parents skip ahead. Yes mildly annoying but actually it can get a crying baby out the way a bit quicker. I think if it's the airports policy then nothing wrong with taking advantage of it! As a parent now I would enjoy that perk myself (if we could afford a holiday abroad)

Yep. This.

Yeah, you go mama, get your kids to hit those childfree moaners around the ankles for daring to question your ninja princess queen warrior SENIORITY!

@BusyAllWeek barbaric? You are fucking kidding right? Torture is barbaric. Rape is barbaric. War is barbaric. Queuing at airport check-in with a baby to go on holiday is not bloody barbaric.

I'd have a lot more sympathy if you had a toddler to entertain in the queue! Your three month old is going to lie in a pram whether you are queuing or not.

@paulaparticles actually my sister parents her toddler. If they need to queue then they queue, the toddler isn't given a choice about it. But hey, way to announce to the world you're a lazy ineffective parent.

Not everyone is on the same flight at check in. You can miss your flight if you don't check in on time.

Sometimes your connecting flight can be 'straight through' so you don't have to check in again but sometimes you do have to check in so it can be very time sensitive and stressful.

Really?
This summer, City Airport and Gatwick both pulled us out of the security line to go straight to the front when they saw our DCs
at Gatwick, they apologised and said we should have been directed to the family line
At city, not only did we get pulled out of line and taken straight to the front, they filtered us to the scanner which means you don’t have to take liquids or electronics out of your bags

At Heathrow T5, BA now has a separate family check in area with loads of open desks to check in so you don’t have to queue, but we’ve also been shown to the business class lines to skip queues

@GivenchyDahhling to be honest I was so relieved to be skipping the massive queues that I didn’t pay any attention and so it could well have been! It was at Luton just before half term and so I dread to think what it has been like these last two weeks.

My kids are now in double digits. When they were infants and toddlers, I frequently flew alone with them across oceans due to living abroad. Sometimes we were beckoned to the front of passport and security queues, sometimes not. I wouldn’t mind at all when families with young children are allowed to go to the front. Honestly, it’s such torture tracking with very young children. The best you can hope for is to survive with everyone still wearing the same change of clothes they started off in. Which never happens.

Also, I think it’s unreasonable to expect OP to say no to an offer to go to the front. If you were in a long queue and the staff came along and said, “Mr/Mrs Tired Traveler, you are invited to skip the queue”, even if you had no reason to do so, surely you would happily skip to the front and ask questions later.

What can't you queue with a tiny baby?

I don’t know if they still do, but when my youngest was under 5 airlines would offer to board us quickly. I wouldn’t just assume I could walk up to the front though, someone would always come and invite us up.

Airports are the last place anyone should be questioning queue jumping.

You can skip a queue because if the type of seat you have, how many flights you have taken previously, what sort of credit card you have. You can queue jump because you’ve turned up late, or because you’ve paid a few quid extra, or because you work for the airline, or if you need extra assistance

Why on Earth is someone going to suddenly get upset because there are now 102 instead of 101 reasons to queue jump?