First Class Crying Baby bumped off Flight

Back to Forum
Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 64 total)

  • jsn55
    Participant

    Love the ‘beyond daft’ description of barring babies from airplanes – perfect! The more I travel, the more I learn from other travellers, the more I am grateful to have an adaptable personality. This crying baby thing is a perfect example. Why would an experienced traveller be without headphones? Listen to your music and enjoy it while ignoring the baby, the snuffler, the loud talker, the snorer – whatever noises you find annoying. Trust me, you’ll have very much better travelling experiences if you take responsibility for your own happiness at all times.


    esselle
    Participant

    Morning hueyjudy

    Thank you for posting the most sensible comment of the entire thread.


    canucklad
    Participant

    Morning esselle and hueyjudy
    Allow me to seemingly digress and talk about our clever little companions that share our homes with us. Our cute furry family members have learnt to successfully manipulate their owners by learning to meow at a certain pitch that makes it instinctively impossible for us to ignore them.
    They’ve learnt this trick of subtle manipulation by precisely imitating the pitch of distress calls of human kittens. When a baby cries it does so at such a specific level that it triggers distress/concern in the adults brain.
    So sadly unless there were headphones designed to block that very specific pitch in a babies wailing,then I’m afraid we just have to cope with our inbuilt instinct to be uncomfortable until the little bundle of joy returns to its blissful life in babyland.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Its not the babies that are the problem, any responsible parent can manage their own child, its the adults with no parental skills that should be banned!


    jsn55
    Participant

    Well thank you, Eselle! I do believe that canucklad’s response is one of the funniest. What is it about men that they have to defend their stance even in the face of being completely incorrect (referring only to my husband of course)? But it’s a GREAT theory! Not having much maternal instinct, and being able to train my pets to behave the way I want them to (mostly), I reject this explanation, canucklad.


    jsn55
    Participant

    Thanks for this, I hadn’t seen it. In the current climate of political correctness, this is every funnier. 3 cheers for WestJet, whoever they are.


    stevescoots
    Participant

    It’s not babies that annoy me, good headphones are all that’s needed there. Its Adults with no consideration or basic manners that annoy me. I was on EK F to HKG on friday and whilst everything from the airlines side was excellent (especially the shower before landing) i was constantly aware of some numpties who were very loud, constantly moving around taking photos. Yes, guys your first time in F is a memorable experience, just that the rest of the cabin dont want to hear it, feel it or be in your photos


    blacksheep
    Participant

    As a (relatively) young parent, I’ve read all of this thread. To start, I would probably never travel premium with a young child – I assume most travelling with children are flying for pleasure, and I associate flying first class with relaxing; something that travelling with children definitely is not.

    However, when a parent is trying to comfort a screaming child (who they care for, and are responsible for, rather than just observing), when nothing anyone does seems to help, it’s worth considering that parents probably feel pretty terrible too. Eyes staring at you, judging you. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve wanted the ground to swallow me up and made a hasty exit from a cafe or restaurant because I don’t want to put others through it. Flying is a bit more finite that – it’s difficult to up and leave.

    I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with views in the article that was posted. Just noting that the general intolerance to those with children is evident in whatever class you fly.

    I’ve received abuse on an Iberia flight (Y) after the check-in staff assigned us the wrong seats. When we were moved the anger of the person previously in our seats was disproportionate. Even explaining that we needed to move (at the request of the cabin crew) so our child could have oxygen in the event of crash didn’t calm things down.

    Someone else made the point that these are small human beings (which we all were once), that can’t control their emotions. Just because a child is crying doesn’t mean it’s the parent’s fault. A bit more tolerance is needed.

    Flying First Class doesn’t mean you’re paying to sit away from certain people. You’re just paying to sit with other people who can afford to pay the fare too (even if they have children).


    SimonS1
    Participant

    Indeed blacksheep I agree.

    Our kids are long since grown up, but we spend several years living in different locations when they were young and sadly we found there are plenty of “business” travellers who are stuck so far up their own backsides that they genuinely think the work revolves around them.

    In the end we just developed a thick skin and learnt to ignore them. As you say the only point in common is that people are able to pay a premium fare.


    esselle
    Participant

    Flew in J on QR CPH-DOH yesterday.

    A young child, maybe two years old, who had been brilliantly behaved during the flight, decided to vomit in spectacular style on final approach.

    The reactions of his fellow passengers was very polarised. Some clearly thought it was outrageous and some were clearly sympathetic to the plight of his concerned parents.

    Once off the runway, the crew set about cleaning up in very caring fashion, which in itself helped the frazzled parents relax, but I was astonished at the way some folk decided the best thing was to cluck loudly, shake their heads and mumble.


    thebigseats
    Participant

    Fair enough but equally I have seen soooo many parents (too many, actually) travelling with children who believe that the world revolves around themselves & their darling children….YMMV.


    canucklad
    Participant

    Cross threading a bit here, and it’s just popped into my head akin to a lightbulb moment, but I was on a BA flight from EDI to LHR a couple of weeks ago, and quite a few rows behind was a pretty distressed baby.
    My colleague surmised that the poor tot was suffering from earache.

    For once, my ears were also a bit painful, and my 2 other colleagues were really suffering. And I wonder if BA have instructed their pilots to reach serving altitude quicker on short hop flights?


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Unlikely because BA use cruise-climb techniques to save fuel although on short flights ATC constraints may require a different procedure if there was conflicting traffic and that may have been the case on your flight? N.B. conflicting only to the ATC rules not actually to your aircraft!


    esselle
    Participant

    I am sure it was ears that did for this poor lad. Always assumed, though, that it was descent that was worse for ears than climb as the rate is much lower.


    FCTraveller
    Participant

    For those of you who are so irritated by children on planes, fly Westjet in Canada, they’ve found the perfect solution 😉

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 64 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Be up-to-date
Magazine Subscription
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below
Polls