Should Airlines Offer Child-Free Flights?
SodaHead Living
2010/11/17 20:00:00
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If you've ever been on a plane, you know this feeling: You settle into your too-tight seat, only to realize that there's a screaming baby or child on your flight.
And then it hits you: it's gonna be a long one.
Childless travelers have had enough of being in this situation, and now they're calling on airlines to begin offering child-free flights, or to rope off “family-only” sections on planes, The New York Times reports.
A survey of 2,000 travelers released by Skyscanner, a fare-comparison site, in August found that 59 percent of passengers support creating special sections on flights for families. Nearly 20 percent are in favor of child-free flights.
“I would gladly pay extra for a child-free flight,” Ian Burford, a frequent flier from Boston who recently started a Facebook group called Airlines Should Have Kid-Free Flights, told the Times. “Or at least if they made it easier when booking a flight to say ‘I don’t want to be seated next to a 1-year-old.’ That would be helpful.”
Critics say parents don't do enough to pacify screaming kids. But parents counter that it's just as bad for them as it is for everyone else, if not worse.
“Do childless passengers really think it’s all gravy when parents can’t calm down their screaming child? It’s just as stressful for the parent as it is for the child and the other passengers, but it’s a fact: kids cry," read a recent post on Madame Noire, a blog for African-American women.
But airline industry experts see very little chance of creating perks for childless fliers during a time of cutbacks (you're lucky if you get a bag of pretzels). We don't really feel all that sorry for cranky fliers, anyway. Remember: You were a screaming baby once, too.
And then it hits you: it's gonna be a long one.
Childless travelers have had enough of being in this situation, and now they're calling on airlines to begin offering child-free flights, or to rope off “family-only” sections on planes, The New York Times reports.
A survey of 2,000 travelers released by Skyscanner, a fare-comparison site, in August found that 59 percent of passengers support creating special sections on flights for families. Nearly 20 percent are in favor of child-free flights.
“I would gladly pay extra for a child-free flight,” Ian Burford, a frequent flier from Boston who recently started a Facebook group called Airlines Should Have Kid-Free Flights, told the Times. “Or at least if they made it easier when booking a flight to say ‘I don’t want to be seated next to a 1-year-old.’ That would be helpful.”
Critics say parents don't do enough to pacify screaming kids. But parents counter that it's just as bad for them as it is for everyone else, if not worse.
“Do childless passengers really think it’s all gravy when parents can’t calm down their screaming child? It’s just as stressful for the parent as it is for the child and the other passengers, but it’s a fact: kids cry," read a recent post on Madame Noire, a blog for African-American women.
But airline industry experts see very little chance of creating perks for childless fliers during a time of cutbacks (you're lucky if you get a bag of pretzels). We don't really feel all that sorry for cranky fliers, anyway. Remember: You were a screaming baby once, too.
Read More: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/travel/14babi...
Top Opinion
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boberry 2010/11/18 22:47:07Yes, that's a great idea
+7Not that I don't love kids... I do, but sometimes you just want to jump to your death thousands of feet below just to escape the ones that parents fail to control. On one of my trips home from back east, I had a kid behind me screaming songs at the top of her 8 year old lungs for 5 hours straight, while dad sat right next to her with his noise canceling headphones, snoring away. I say, sign me up!
Nowadays you can get kicked off flights for telling a mother to shut her litter up.
You think parents like to have their children screaming 35,000 miles up in a steel tube? Like every time the kid calms down they give them a good pinch to get them going again? I don't think so.
After having to sit next to an incompetent woman with her infant niece for a 4 hour flight, during which I had freshly pumped breast milk spilt on me and ended up holding the baby for the rest of the flight, I can honestly say I've been through it all.
But I still got where I was going in one piece so it all turned out fine in the end.
Once again, people with kids generally outnumber people who are childless; too much of a liability for the airlines.
My son is 15 now and my days of listening to screaming fits are over.If I can avoid listening to a screaming baby I would gladly pay extra.(If I had that kind of money,I don't)
Especially considering that people with children outnumber people without.
In light of the current economy, that doesn't sound very feasible.
Sure, people can claim that they'd be "happy to pay more, for the convenience," ...until they see that the cost of their already over-priced flight has nearly doubled.
Then, I bet it'd be a different story.
If you find kids that offensive, charter your own airplane.