airline to restrict under 12 year olds

I hope they go bust
Whether you agree with the premise or not, one flight per week to one destination and you hope the company fails with the loss of how many jobs? How very kind and tolerant!

I always wear ear plugs when flying as I find the noise unacceptable. I have asked children to please stop when they have been kicking my seat. I think some of them are quite unaware of what they are doing. I did realise the other day that I still do my "teacher stare" sometimes, quite naturally. I did it, over my sunglasses, to a child in a supermarket the other day. He stopped what he was doing and went to hold on to his mum's trolley. My GCs think it's hilarious and keep asking me to do it, then rolling about laughing.

The article in the DT said it would be an adults only zone, not the whole plane, separated by a divider and curtains. So you might still hear some noise but wouldn’t get the kicking.

My son emigrated to Germany less than 2 weeks after his son was born. His wife had to wait until my GS had a passport and as I'd just retired I then accompanied them to help. Plan was to feed on take off and landing to prevent ear issues but he went to sleep straight away and woke up when we landed.
Unfortunately he then required feeding while we queued for ages in a line for Covid tests with nowhere to sit down! My DiL did amazingly to feed him standing in line! At least I could manage the bags etc.

I never travelled when mine were really young but I can't understand parents who don't do all they can to keep their children from disturbing others.

I can live with the crying and wailing babies, earplugs help, and I do have sympathy. To avoid the kicking toddlers and, even worse, the disgusting sticky fingers reaching and grabbing my hair I would pay a premium. If parents can't control their offspring so that they do not assault others they should be penalised in some way.

My immediate feeling is that the airline restricting the sale of tickets to children under the age of twelve is actuated by sheer laziness.

Their cabin personnel should be trained to deal tactfully with children whose parents are ignoring bad behaviour and to deal firmly with the parents who let children kick other passengers' seats,

Crying babies is a different matter - the change in air pressure inside a plane affects infants' ears, Sometimes rubbing the child's neck just below the ears very gently can help. The flight attendents ought to know how to do this and how to demonstrate it to the infant's parents.

Might it not be possible to sell seats to travellers with young children - infants to 10 or 12 say in the same part of the plane, so everyone there was so to speak in the same boat?

Most parents do still dread their children being seen as annoying, and anyone who has tried to stop an infant in arms from wailing all night, knows how embarrassing this is anywhere outside your own home.

Ear plugs are advisable on any long night time journey, and telling a child who is old enough to kick or push your seat firmly to desist does work you know. And if the accompanying parent gives you a mouthful of abuse or sleeps through it all, tell him or her firmly that it is their job to prevent their children making pests of themselves.

I have the same effect Glorianny my adult children still say " give him one of your looks Mother"

What I heard yesterday was that the airline had introduced adults only zones separated by walls and curtains from the rest of the passengers. To book an adults only seat there will be a surcharge of £12. The growth if people taking very young children via plane on holidays has surged in recent years. Do they really need to subject them to 4 hr flights being cooped up and needing to sit and be quiet. Yes, people will travel for many other reasons with children. Why should adults have to pay, families will probably be happy at not having to cope with children in a restrictive environment.

Well I've been on flights where even toddlers were well-behaved but some of the adults were obnoxious after a drink or two.
Most parents do their best to settle their young children. I think they need our sympathy, not scorn.

Never yet been on a flight with drunken youths but would really hate that. Worse than screaming/rowdy children are the adults who insist on reclining their seats meaning the person behind can't even see their TV screen or even comfortably read a book or tablet.

ANITAJ I have events from the late 1960s and early 70s scarred in my brain, of chikdren eating out of table sugar bowls (which they had then) with damp sticky hands and of one child whose table manners were so disgusting I had to get up and walk out of the restaurant. before I was sick.

When we were flying to and from a posting abroad with my dh’s job it was common for parents to fly first or business class while they plonked their children in economy. Now that really was a zoo! How the poor cabin crew coped, I don’t know

knspol

Never yet been on a flight with drunken youths but would really hate that. Worse than screaming/rowdy children are the adults who insist on reclining their seats meaning the person behind can't even see their TV screen or even comfortably read a book or tablet.

I don't think there should be reclining seats at all on short haul flights.

We could all be a little nicer to each other. The woman in front of us on one flight was so unpleasant before the children had done anything and then reclined her seat, without warning, while we were eating. The kids kicked her seat for the rest of the flight and we didn’t stop then. What goes around, comes around.

Several pupils at the school I occasionally work at fly in as unaccompanied minors, and the airline looks after them. I think the maximum age for this is 12 years old. Presumably after this they turn into impeccably behaved travellers!

I've co-existed with far more senior travellers who are more disruptive to my comfort than children under 12. I think people are intolerant where children are concerned. On a flight back from the USA, my daughter's small child behaved impeccably all the way back but on the way down, his ears hurt him and he cried. The people in front of him were so horrible, my step-daughter left the flight in tears and felt she was a terrible mother.

sodapop

I have the same effect Glorianny my adult children still say " give him one of your looks Mother"

I used to frighten myself if I caught ‘that’ look as I passed a mirror!!

Juliet27

My Canadian grandchildren having heard from their dad about my "stare" take great delight in asking me to do it.... but it has definitely worked on the odd occasion their behaviour has been less than perfect in public places 🤣🤣🤣

4 hour flights are short ones by Australian standards! I think of anything under 8 hours as short haul. Even to Singapore it is 8 for us, and Perth is around 4. I’d love a child free plane for some flights but it won’t happen here I am sure.

Distance is relative. Most of Western Europe is within a couple of hours flight where places like Cyprus or Canary Islands are 4 hours, Dubai 5 and to me any more than that is long haul.

I don't think there should be reclining seats at all on short haul flights.

Oh, I agree, Blinko, having flown behind someone who crashed his seat back into my lap before we’d even taken off. Maybe if he hadn’t spent the previous two hours necking pints in the airport bar he wouldn’t have needed that sleep.

I’ve travelled next to noisy children and noisy stags and hens and give me the children any day. With the best will in the world it’s not always possible to quieten little ones or to pin them down, and the well planned routine for keeping them calm can go out of the window if there’s a flight delay. Most parents aren’t being lazy or negligent, they’re just harassed.

I’ve nothing against child-free zones in general, but I think I’d rather take my chances with the families.

nanna8

4 hour flights are short ones by Australian standards! I think of anything under 8 hours as short haul. Even to Singapore it is 8 for us, and Perth is around 4. I’d love a child free plane for some flights but it won’t happen here I am sure.

4 hours is short haul. A brief hop 🙂

Bring back Concorde, updated and improved.

I'm not complaining about the babies and toddlers, I feel sorry for them, especially if they wail in a high-pitched tone for hours, rubbing their ears and looking distressed.

It's when the parents just ignore them it annoys other passengers.

Funny you mention about the Indian parents TerriBull. We returned on a flight from Singapore and there was a family sitting 3 rows in front, 1 man, 2 women, a child and a baby. The man kept the child entertained and held her to soothe her to sleep. When we arrived at Heathrow the woman thanked the Indian man profusely, turned out he didn't know the family!

Brilliant, nandad!!