Honestly, I will never wrap my head around how people can happily bring infants on any flight where you can expect people to try and sleep, it’s incredibly lucky if they don’t spend some of it screaming their heads off—I would be mortified if my choices were preventing hundreds of people from sleeping. But I’m not going to rant too hard about that.
Why on earth hasn’t any airline started marketing adult-only flights?
It seems like a complete no brainer to me, I would choose it every time and pay extra for it.
Disclaimer: I may or may not be on a 36h day with only an hour of sleep right now
Parents are mortified when their kids are screaming on a flight. They didn’t want this either.
A good pair of earplugs (e.g. loop) can help tremendously.
e.g. loop
Or a pair of non-meme plugs that’s designed to actually block all noise. Mack’s Ultra Soft are quite excellent.
Well kinda said I wasn’t looking to rant about this part, but okay:
When the child is two seats over, my loops are not helping. When another child is running up and down the aisle every 20 mins, ear plugs aren’t the solution either.
I simply would not choose a flight where the majority of people would be trying to sleep if I were a parent. I would not want to put myself in a situation where it could even happen, no one wants to be mortified and on a long flight it approaches certainty.
A screaming child on a 4h middle-of-the-day flight is annoying but bearable. Screaming children on a double-digit hour overnight flight ruins many people’s days.
Some people have families in far away countries. I hate to say it dude, but it’s just one of those things.
No one enjoys screaming children in an enclosed space, especially not parents who already have to deal with child nonsense on a daily basis.
Maybe you don’t see it, but these situations are really distressing for parents and it would serve humanity well if we could have a little empathy for them.
I don’t mean this as a criticism, but I’m guessing you don’t have kids. I used to get annoyed whenever I ended up sitting next to infants on flights, but now I only get annoyed when said infants/toddlers are going wild and the parents are totally checked out.
If the parents are trying to calm their kids and it’s not working, I have nothing but sympathy for them.
It seems like a complete no brainer to me, I would choose it every time and pay extra for it
This part obviously isn’t true, or else you would have paid for First or Business class. There’s no guarantee that the expensive seats are kid-free, but it’s much more likely. They’ll give you free booze, too.
When I last flew international, my mum took business and the rest of us took economy. There was no noise on economy, but crying babies in business. The reason OP won’t pay extra for that is probably because there is no guarantee at all that it will be any quieter. It is not the same thing as what they want.
I have kids and when I took them on trips when they were little, I would book the most direct option. I didn’t consider the option where I could inconvenience the most entitled people.
I’ll never get why people get so worked up by babies crying on airplanes. The kids parents are just trying to get somewhere, same as everyone else. The plane is not your bedroom, or office, theater, or library. You know what you’re getting into when you board. You’re going to be in close quarters with strangers. Some of them might be kids that cry, some might be so old or weak that they have trouble stuffing their oversized carry on into the overhead bin. The difference is the weak person could have chosen to check the bag. Can you tell what my flying pet annoyance is? You just never know what you’re gonna get.
Like someone already said, the airlines don’t do it bc there’s no money in it.
If you’re an adult who doesn’t have or don’t work around children it’s hard to overstate how irritating they are. The noise, lack of self-awareness, the energy, the stickiness, and you have to censor yourself around them. Additionally, they’re way harder to reason with (if they even can communicate) and parents are notoriously shitty and self-righteous. Finally adults have consequences. If an adult screams their head off, runs up and down the aisles, or hit people around them then flight attendants can do something
You also act like that child HAS to be on that plane. You can drive, you could leave the kid with someone else, you could take a train, a bus, or you could just not go. We know planes specifically are really uncomfortable for babies because of the pressure. You chose to have a kid presumably knowing that you’d be making sacrifices for them. Maybe one of those sacrifices should be flying until they’re old enough to behave
I don’t mind kids on planes. They can be loud or obnoxious but adults can be worse, so whatever. If you have such a problem, you can drive, take a train or just not go, you know?
Same. I’ve flown more than most, sometimes with screaming kids nearby. Normally I don’t mind beyond the extra noise, provided that I’m well rested. The times when getting proper rest onboard is important, I book business class, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen kids in there.
I’m an adult with adult responsibilities and obligations. Occasionally I do have to be on a plane. That child’s presence is almost certainly not required somewhere with such urgency that they simply must be on a plane. Also I can and do behave myself so I don’t need to be justified. Babies usually can’t and don’t, which is why we’re having this conversation in the first place
This is patently rediculous. Babies exist. They cry. They will be out in the public space. I personally think people should not have babies at this point in history but they do, they will, and thinking its entitlement that people with kids will have them with them is again, redic.
Fuck off. OP wanted a way to avoid children while traveling on a public mode of transport. There’s no box to tick to make that happen. Children and parents have the same rights to make use of air travel as anyone else. Tough shit. Kids exist. You were once one, maybe still are.
We share this planet and there have to be a million examples where we moderate our own behavior in consideration of others. Be one of those examples. Or don’t, but live knowing the rest of us hate you.
I said I booked the most direct option, not the cheapest. Yes, of course I’m the entitled one here.
So because you have trouble with noise, parents should be stuck at home until their children are old enough to be certain they won’t make noise in public? Kids have the right to just exist and go places, for fuck’s sake. Their parents’ lives don’t just pause while the kids grow up, they still want, and sometimes need, to go places, and those places being sometimes far, may have to be reached by plane. What are you expecting them to do, exactly?
Disclaimer: I may or may not be on a 36h day with only an hour of sleep right now
Lemme guess: kids?
Also to answer your question https://www.alternativeairlines.com/child-free-flights . No child-free flights, but child-free zones on flights.
All the people here talking about “just use headphones with ANC” haven’t been a seat or two away from a crying child. It’s not the child’s fault and often not that of the parents (they have to travel too), but having adults-only flights would be amazing. I’d pay extra too to be on a long-haul flight without kids. Some adults do act like kids too, but it’s not possible to ban them.
And to the people acting mortified and all high and mighty: there are adults only places. Are you going to get offended about those too? The proposal isn’t to ban kids from all flights. It’s to offer some flights without kids.
Honestly thanks for getting it, I expected the odd parent to take some weird personal offence at me wanting an option to not fly with kids around and get all defensive, but I didn’t expect quite this level of vitriol. It’s not like I want them to not fly, like it seems is the suggested solution for me—or y’know the practical solution of chartering a bloody private jet(?!). I just want to sleep on a 14h overnight flight by removing myself from the situation preventing it, and will even (or rather, actually tried to) spend a bit more to do so, but clearly that’s just me being an entitled arsehole.
Cheers for the great resource, it’s a shame there’s only a few options currently, but perhaps the list will grow. Tbh even just explicitly quiet zones being more prevalent would probably be a good solution for me. There are quiet carriages on pretty much all the trains in my country that don’t even cost extra, and I’ve never seen young children in those. That’s never seemed like a remotely controversial idea—I’m basically just looking for an equivalent for planes.
Agree on the ANC comment too, I’ve had top of the range Sony, Bose and Google ANC headphones and none can actually get rid of kid noise like screaming, they’ll distort it a bit maybe. If anything the cancelling of the plane engine noise can emphasise it at times because it’s the only thing that makes it through.
Not gonna pile up any more than others already have lol. But to answer your question, airlines don’t do it because it’s just not feasible at scale. You say you’d gladly pay extra but then you’ll get a flight 50% cheaper and you’ll think “eh I’ll take the risk”. Or maybe you won’t, but a lot of people will. Planes are expensive and they have to consistently fill them as much as possible, which they won’t if they exclude such a vast demographic.
I mean, it’s technically feasible, but then you’d have to pay 5 or 6 times the price to cover for empty seats.
Haha. Are you comparing a strip club to public transport? That’s a new one for me
I think you’re telling on yourself a little here. If someone says “adults only space” and you immediately go to strip club instead of bar, club, comedy clubs, lounges, etc. then maybe that’s about you
Telling on myself about what? That I’ve been to strip clubs. A lot of adults go to those. Not sure what I’m supposed to be ashamed of
I never understood why people jump on planes without noise canceling headphones and expect to be sleeping while sitting in a uncomfortable chair.
You can choose to bring noise canceling headphones but you choose not to. The infant can’t choose.
Kids aside, I don’t know how anyone is able to sleep in an upright chair to begin with.
If you’re tired, you’ll sleep in almost any position. I’m not talking good sleep, 8 hours and waking up well-rested.
Recently, I feel asleep on a train, sitting in a jump seat, going sideways, my head against a window. Some evenings, after work, I fall asleep in my living room chair.
Some people even fall asleep while driving a car.
