Every parent who has travelled with a young child knows their trip will be stressful. There are babies you just know are going to cry and yell and scream. Toddlers who will get squirmy and bored despite the seat-back TV. Even the best-behaved little kids have pretty much a 50-50 shot at completely losing it before takeoff.
So, really, should we be surprised that some airlines are starting to establish kid-free zones? Back in April, Malaysia Airlines announced a Kuala Lumpur to London route that doesn’t allow kids on the plane’s upper deck, and now Air Asia-X flights have launched a program to keep noisy kids away from you. They are calling it “quiet zones” and children 12 and under are no longer allowed in the first seven rows on certain flights. To sit in these seats you have to pay and extra $11 to $36
Certainly, there are plenty of parents who are outraged by the idea of a kid-free zone. After all, a 3-year-old’s seat cost the same as a 40-year-old’s seat, right? And there are those who will argue that the guy who throws back a few too many Scotch-and-sodas is more of a nuisance. (Though both often eventually fall asleep.)
But there are also sure to be a whole lot of travelers who would welcome a little separation from the crying babies on the plane. When one mom and dad recently had to fly with their 14-week-old twins, they handed out bags filled with lollies along with a note offering free earplugs should their infants be disruptive (read about that here). “Why can’t all humans be this way?” one commenter wrote. While the other side of the debate countered with comments such as: “This is considerate, but aren’t we all adults who can understand that babies are prone to bouts of crying?”
We honestly don’t think adding a few rows for people 12 and older is that big of a deal. Is it eally so awful for airplanes to follow suit? Wouldn’t you rather be surrounded by other families or sympathetic travelers than kid-haters anyway? We say go ahead and give them their own section. Just as long as we get to board first.
What do you think? Would you pay extra not to sit near kids on a plane? Would you prefer to sit with other families on a flight?
