To think children should be banned from long-haul flights in economy?

[OneGreenLeader]

Before I get jumped on - I don’t hate children. But I do think it’s unfair that someone paying hundreds or even thousands for a flight has to endure hours of screaming, kicking seats, or being disturbed constantly. Some parents try, but let’s be honest, others just don’t care. Shouldn’t there be designated “family zones” or restrictions on certain routes/times? AIBU to say it’s inconsiderate to bring babies or toddlers on 10+ hour flights?

To be honest I’ve had more flights ruined by obnoxious adults than any child. Even long before having children it never bothered me. It’s never intentional especially with little ones.

I’ll be travelling business in the next two weeks. Long haul 12 hour with an almost 2 year old. I’ll prepare as best I can, lots of activities and snacks and hope they sleep on a lie flat bed with me. That’s all I really can do. I’ve paid the same as everybody else. I think as long as the parents are responsible and try their best to avoid disruption to others there really isn’t much else to do.

it’s the same mentality with people who don’t think children should be allowed in restaurants. How are we supposed to raise children into a society if, by some peoples beliefs are that they should be excluded from it until they are teenagers?

That would be lovely. Thanks. That’s exactly what I wrote in my first post on this thread.

If there was enough demand for adult only flights, there would be adult only flights.

It’s not penalising people by hypothetically charging more, the airline would need to charge more to cover the loss.

Babies and children are part of every day life. We have to live alongside them and frankly it’s a bit childish to get wound up about it.

The worst long haul plane passengers I’ve encountered are drunk men. Can we ban them first?

Yes, badly behaved children on flights are just the worst. I’m sick of flights being diverted because a child has tried to open an exit door mid-flight, or because a child has assaulted someone or a child has drank far too much and is being abusive to staff and other passengers.

And don’t get me started on when, after explicitly being told to remain in their seats until the aircraft comes to a stop, all those children who stand up and start blocking the aisles to get their luggage down so they can get off the flight “first”. Nightmare!

@OneGreenLeader - you’re completely and utterly unreasonable

There are many things I could say which breach Talk Guidelines.

But basically YABU and if children offend you stay in your house.

You wish.

Airlines currently don't have age restrictions on flights for multiple reasons, one of which is because it means shrinking the pool of potential customers. If you want adult only flights (or any other group) you need to be willing to pay enough to compensate for the loss of excluded customers. You have to be more financially attractive than they are.

Any loss of flexibility in which passengers can travel when would also mean airlines couldn't engage to the same extent as they do now in other practices that keep costs down like overbooking. This cost would also be passed on to the consumer.

Basically, you don't get these kind of restrictions gratis just because you've decided that charging the same price as they do now is sufficient. Not your call!

And what is with people whining about babies. They cry. That’s life - get noise cancelling headphones (and before anybody starts I am Team No Kids here so not speaking from a position of defending my kids.)

I’ve flown several times to and from various places in North America and the Caribbean and the U.K. with children as well as around Europe. They have never screamed or kicked or caused any disturbance so why should we have to sit in a family zone or pay more? My children know how to behave.

People watching porn with no headphones made me laugh too. But on reflection - if this were even true - maybe it was a dastardly plan by the porn watcher to get parent to remove child from his vicinity

The other half of my children’s family live in Australia including their grandparents. Do you suggest we just never see them ever again? Entitled arseholes should pay for business class. A plane is public transport.

Drunk idiot adults are far far far more disruptive than any child.

I fly a lot in both Economy and Business. 100% agree with the OP. Selfish parents not tending to their kids, screaming, one women was asked again and again to strap her approx 3 year old child in for landing. Child wouldn’t obey so when the cabin crew took their seats the Mum ended up having her child standing in the aisle while she clutched the front of her top.

The other flight from hell was when a family got on, demanded to be sat together and then when they weren’t created merry hell with the child just messing around, family en masse tried to get involved resulting in one passenger telling one of the family to stop stretching over him and also pointing out he reeked of BO….

I have also personally had a Mother and child sitting next to me in Ecomony. Child started waving the cutlery around and then split their drink on me. I asked the Mother to stop the cutlery waving near my face to be told that it was illegal to tell off her child and that she was going to tell the Captain!

Honestly, the most annoying people on flights in my experience have always been other adults. People pulling hard on the back of my seat every time they get up, not using headphones, talking loudly all the way through a night flight, getting drunk and talking to me when I just want to sleep / watch a film, taking up a lot of room on the armrests, etc… but we can’t ban other adults sadly… and adults should know better/ be far more considerate…

Alright. Calm down. I don’t think putting on the odd adult (or ‘quiet’ flight is what I really mean) here and there is that big a deal. As I have already said it’s not actually children that are the problem. It’s the inconsiderate adults. Loud, badly behaved kids are simply a consequence of inconsiderate adults.
No one has tried it yet so no one really knows how successful it might be. One flight a week or a fortnight or even once a month to one or two destinations as a trial could be looked at.
It doesn’t need parents to froth and be so dramatically offended about it as some are being.

Yep! It's the height of entitlement to imagine that a private business ought to narrow their customer base to your preferences but not pass on any of the costs. What a financially attractive idea!

It’s the parents who think it’s ok for children to watch things on their iPads without headphones that make my blood boil- and yes- I will always ask them to stop and I do the same with inconsiderate fool adults as well.

Calm down, don't get so offended at the whopping great flaws in your idea being pointed out. Stop frothing!

Again, if it were that attractive it would happen. There wouldn't need to be vague suggestions about trials from clearly uninformed randoms on Mumsnet. Businesses don't actually operate on a principle of nobody has tried it so we can't say how successful it would be. Or they don't last very long if they do! It has to actually be worth trying.

But out of interest, which one or two destinations do you want to see this trialled with and who will pay the additional costs of your idea? What would happen when if none of the airlines were interested, should it just be drawn out of a hat?

Children are people and are entitled to exist in the world, same as you. If you don't like it, wear headphones.

We have recently flown from UK to Australia, with a 7 year old and a 3 month old. As the plane boarded, a very loud individual sat in the next set of seats (along the “extra leg room” seats where babies/infants are seated during long haul) and stated “I hope this baby doesn’t scream the whole way” and scoffed at my 7 year old also being present.

My kids were amazing, slept most of the journey, what wasn’t so amazing was this individual for the whole 12 hours sniffed his disgusting mucus into his throat every few minutes, coughed it back into his mouth then swallowed it.

Who would you rather have been sat next to?

So people in business class should spend even more money and have an unruly child ruin it?

Children are not the only antisocial or obnoxious passengers. Unfortunately, we don't get to choose who else boards the flight.

Should people listening to music on their phones on speakerphone on trains be banned too ? What about annoying city types having loud phone conversations on the train ? No one cares about your latest client Brian.

My point is that we're all annoying to other people and we just have to learn to be a bit more tolerant of others in public spaces. You've bought one seat in the plane, not all the surrounding seats and areas. Buy first class if you want more control over who you fly with.

While we're at it, let's ban anyone over a certain BMi and anyone that's had more than 2 alcoholic drinks at the airport.

Already suggested this. OP suddenly backtracked....

I agree. That’s why I fly my kid in business or first only.