I've never really had many problems with children on flights but we tend to go out of school holidays.

My friend would, I think, after she flew home from Australia & a baby never stopped crying for the whole duration of the flight.

Would definitely pay more to sit in an Adults only section - I stay (where possible) in adults only hotels which is my choice, I love children and my own son is an adult now but I prefer not to be surrounded by them in a Hotel, as I have been there done that!, so if I could have a seat in an Adults only section (especially long haul) then I would

Very much like Glynis , never had problems on flights probably due to the same reasons , and like Miss Pink generally I prefer adult orientated hotels .
Would I pay more for an adult only section on the plane ?? Not really ,but I do pay for what I want in terms of seating , lounge access , in flight service , that matters more to me than whether there are children around .

I don't very often stay in the same hotel for more than a couple of nights so noise from children doesn't bother me but I would probably choose an adults only hotel if staying for any length of time.

The problem with an adult only section on a plane is although you may be protected from the dreaded kicking the back of your seat that often happens but any children crying will pretty much be heard anywhere.

I think similar to Andy66, the seating and services on offer are probably more important to me than a child free space.

I must say that I have been on flights where the adults have been much worse than any child I have ever seen on a plane.

I'd definately pay more for Adults only section... I've had some horrendous flights with kids screaming, kicking my chair and all the usual stuff....and as for babies... why oh why do people take them on holidays that can wait until they are toddlers? - they don't fly well....

JMHO

ATB,J.

Not a problem with children on comparatively short flights, but I am never likely to forget a 14 hour flight to
Mauritius 30 years ago when a minimum of 1,000 (well, it seemed like that) little children were allowed to run riot around the plane for the entire journey. I love kids but wanted to shoot the lot of them but not one of the parents seemed to bother. I staggered off the plane like a zombie and to the horror of the crowd of my waiting Mauritian friends, said that I never wanted to see one of their children ever again!

It's all very well having a family section but realistically how would it work?

Unless they close the section off completely, someone somewhere may end up sitting in a row behind a whole pile of people with kids. Bad enough if you're in close proximity to a child who kicks and screams throughout the flight but imagine maybe 12 or so rows of them all together!

I'm pleased to see that some people have owned up to having problems rather than sweeping it under the carpet... I too cannot understand why parents take babies so young on aeroplanes, I'm sure it cannot be good for their eardrums.

I suffer enough with sinus pain when flying but at least I'm old enough to understand why I have the pain and how I can try to combat it but you cannot explain that to a baby or children under 4 years old.

I would definitely prefer not to be in a plane or a hotel full of children and again for the same reason, we used to take our holidays out of the main season to avoid this.

Saying that, I have travelled on flights where kids around us have behaved perfectly well but that's mainly because at least one of the parents stayed awake and spent time making sure their child was entertained or had stuff to do during the journey. Recently, flying out of Cyprus to UK for the first time in 10yrs there was a single guy behind us with his young daughter (no more than 3 yrs old) and he spent the whole 5 hours colouring in books with her, reading stories and watching stuff together on an iPad. She dropped off to sleep at one point during the journey and when she awoke, he just carried on as before. I'm sure he must have been exhausted at the end of the flight but that little girl didn't have chance to get bored and didn't moan or complain at any single stage of the flight.

I've seen so many parents just climb aboard, hit the duty free or slap on a headset and ignore their children whilst they jump around in their seats, mess with the overhead switches and just generally be a pain. It's not always the child who is to blame...

I could just about live with a journey of 2 hours but any more than that, for me - it's a trauma if there are too many kids around me. I will openly admit I don't have much time for them, I never wanted any of my own and my family additions all have four legs and fur...

The worst kids on flights are those where the lazy adults with them don't make an effort to entertain them and can't control them if they misbehave . I've had seat kicking and the kids doing it were with several adults who only made half baked efforts to look after them . When my boys were little they weren't allowed to sit together , we sat with one of them each and kept them entertained for the flight duration ( my husband still remembers the 4 hour game of top trumps he played on the way to cyprus !! )
To be fair most kids on planes are no bother but the ones that aren't are
I don't think I would pay more for an adult bit of the plane though.

Agreed that parents are responsible for their childs behaviour.
One a recent Qatar flight the stewardess came round with activity bags for 3 children, which the parents straight away confiscated "for later on".
the children were still running around whilst the aircraft was approaching, and almost landing, at Manchester.
Their little brother(or sister) filled his/her nappy straight after take off and obviously mum couldn't change him/her until the seat belt signs were switched off..... YUK!

should kids be carried as 'hold luggage'?

Just as we now have lots of adult only hotels, I reckon it would be interesting for tour ops to run a few adult only flights each week (at a slightly higher cost) to popular destinations. We would then see how much demand exists
I know I'd pay significantly more to avoid the screams of babies and .the seat kicking of out of control hyperactive children.

No way would I pay - they get enough out of me already

should kids be carried as 'hold luggage'?

I'd put a few adults on the wings

Sanji x

del949 wrote:

Agreed that parents are responsible for their childs behaviour.
One a recent Qatar flight the stewardess came round with activity bags for 3 children, which the parents straight away confiscated "for later on".
the children were still running around whilst the aircraft was approaching, and almost landing, at Manchester.
Their little brother(or sister) filled his/her nappy straight after take off and obviously mum couldn't change him/her until the seat belt signs were switched off..... YUK!

should kids be carried as 'hold luggage'?

Oh my word I had the exact same problem last year on a flight from Gran Canaria, the kid in the seat in front had fell asleep and filled it's nappy. I had the smell wafting back to me for two hours. I heard the mother saying she wasn't gonna wake him/her to change the nappy. I thought I t was lovely when the kid fell asleep because previous to that it was playing with the arm rest, up/slam down/up/slam down....over and over. Then came the smell. Very selfish parents.

I have teenagers and I didn't take them on a plane until the youngest were 6. I would definitely pay more to sit apart from babies and unruly kids!

We didn't take our children abroad until they were in their early teens, but that was only because we couldn't afford to! If people pay for their childrens' flights, then why shouldn't you take a 2 year old on a plane ? They're just as entitled to go as an adult As far as family sections go, what would you gain? You might get a few less kicks in the back, but the noise would be exactly the same. Perhaps adults only flights would be the way to go, but I bet they'd come at a price, which few would be prepared to pay

I think that it cuts both ways - i remember one horrendous return delayed flight from Tenerife where a group of middle aged couples had clearly passed the time away drinking in the bar. They then started drinking their duty free on the plane and had a right set too with the cabin staff about it. They weren't very drunk but had clearly lost any inhibitions about shouting and swearing in front of families with young children and if asked I'm sure that the parents would have been might glad to have been in a separate family section and away from adults behaving like that.

What it boils down to is that it is awful being in a confined space with rude, bad-mannered, noisy, ill behaved fellow passengers whatever their age but I don't know what can be done about that.

SM