Kids in F - parents of Tristans and Hamish's
Sep 23, 2014, 10:36 am
#1
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Kids in F - parents of Tristans and Hamish's
Just off BA11 to SIN in F. 1A/K were occupied by the grandparents, 4E/F the parents, and 3A/K by young Hamish and Cameron, aged 4 and 6 who spent the first 3 hours of the flight using the area between rows 1 and 3 as a playground. The parents blatantly ignored this and didn't once ask the kids to calm down.
Fair enough...i have a 5 year old myself. But when this descended into screaming at 11pm when mummy tried to put the kids to sleep (which from the sounds of it, she had not done many times before) it became a bit hard to listen to.
Then about 6 hours later, the kids decided to set up a train set in the same rows, as well as bring their toy barking dog up to grandma in 1A and make it woof consistently. This went on for about 1 hour, and the crew did nothing about it despite my asking them to see if the noise could be subdued. More worryingly, mummy and daddy were oblivious to the whole thing. Never thought I'd say this, but "I blame the parents". If I had paid north of $7k for my seat and listened to all that through a night flight, I'd be pretty annoyed. As it stands, I was on a J ticket using a GUF. Slept reasonably all things considered - which on this flight was a pretty poor service (had to ask for 2nd drink post take off, dinner menu was pretty rubbish, no offer of dessert, no offer of making up my bed, no sugar provided with tea - yes all first world problems, but yet another example of inconsistent service).
Flying home with SQ. Am hopeful it will be more in line with how it is marketed.
Fair enough...i have a 5 year old myself. But when this descended into screaming at 11pm when mummy tried to put the kids to sleep (which from the sounds of it, she had not done many times before) it became a bit hard to listen to.
Then about 6 hours later, the kids decided to set up a train set in the same rows, as well as bring their toy barking dog up to grandma in 1A and make it woof consistently. This went on for about 1 hour, and the crew did nothing about it despite my asking them to see if the noise could be subdued. More worryingly, mummy and daddy were oblivious to the whole thing. Never thought I'd say this, but "I blame the parents". If I had paid north of $7k for my seat and listened to all that through a night flight, I'd be pretty annoyed. As it stands, I was on a J ticket using a GUF. Slept reasonably all things considered - which on this flight was a pretty poor service (had to ask for 2nd drink post take off, dinner menu was pretty rubbish, no offer of dessert, no offer of making up my bed, no sugar provided with tea - yes all first world problems, but yet another example of inconsistent service).
Flying home with SQ. Am hopeful it will be more in line with how it is marketed.
Sep 23, 2014, 10:48 am
#2
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I sympathise with you, and have two children around that age myself, but I guess that it is difficult for the cabin crew to intervene and parent the children or chastise the parents - what would you have had them do?
Sep 23, 2014, 10:50 am
#3
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Are you saying that when you spoke to the crew they didn't speak to the parents?
Sep 23, 2014, 10:57 am
#4
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 847
Ouch and I am so sorry about your experience, parent factor and not so parent factor = Inflight Service (not) offered to FIRST standard.
I know you are not that bothered about it all, but to me, it sounds like the Crew need to be spoken to, definately in the shortfalls of the Inflight experience.
If I was you
, I would definately submit a comment to BA about this
I know you are not that bothered about it all, but to me, it sounds like the Crew need to be spoken to, definately in the shortfalls of the Inflight experience.
If I was you
, I would definately submit a comment to BA about this
Sep 23, 2014, 11:18 am
#5
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"Children should be seen and not heard" would be what my parents would be saying - and if I'd misbehaved to that extent on the flight then I'd have been given a good hiding 
Bring back 1970's discipline is what I say!
Bring back 1970's discipline is what I say!
Sep 23, 2014, 11:24 am
#6
Join Date: Mar 2014
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I had a similar situation a few years back on a flight from LAX.
The crew didn't do anything following my comments, seemingly because the parents were asleep. I went back into the cabin and woke up the child's mother myself and asked her to take control of her child as he was disturbing the rest of the cabin. She looked pretty sheepish to be fair.
If an adult were causing disturbance to other pax the crew would speak to the individual themselves. Clearly the crew aren't there to discipline pax children but they should be given clear instructions that they are to wake up parents if their children are causing a disturbance to others.
The crew didn't do anything following my comments, seemingly because the parents were asleep. I went back into the cabin and woke up the child's mother myself and asked her to take control of her child as he was disturbing the rest of the cabin. She looked pretty sheepish to be fair.
If an adult were causing disturbance to other pax the crew would speak to the individual themselves. Clearly the crew aren't there to discipline pax children but they should be given clear instructions that they are to wake up parents if their children are causing a disturbance to others.
Sep 23, 2014, 11:28 am
#8
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I would have no problem speaking to the parents, and I am surprised that the crew didn't do this.
Sep 23, 2014, 11:30 am
#9
Join Date: May 2012
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As a youngster, I was frequently disciplined in the 1970s but never by physical means.
It drives me nuts that 'discipline' now seems synonymous with physical abuse.
It drives me nuts that 'discipline' now seems synonymous with physical abuse.
Sep 23, 2014, 11:36 am
#10
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Sep 23, 2014, 12:04 pm
#11
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I'm sorry to hear about both the poor service and unruly children with lack of intervention from their parents.
I too have had such flights with unruly children - too many of them in fact - but with more helpful crew although they could not get any result as parents remained thoroughly uncooperative, and with multiple such sets of children I got no sleep - and I was doing SYD. I was pretty wrecked by the time I reached home/destination.
It really is horrible when you are stuck with that kind of parents. I so wished for a soundproof box (they were noisy enough to be clearly heard through my in-ear headphones with noise isolating earbuds + active noise cancelling and playing music on them, preventing me from getting any sleep beyond about 10 minutes, same with the rest of the cabin except for the parents of the unruly children).
Indeed. It's really unfortunate.
My most feared disciplinary measure was not physical punishment but not being allowed to be in an "adult environment", where I was expected to behave to the same standard as a properly-behaving adult. Should I put a foot wrong (everything from table manners to the volume of voice), I would be told that I would no longer be allowed into an "adult environment". I slipped up once by making a slightly inappropriate comment, which was promptly punished by being banished from an "adult environment" for a while! It worked. I was a horrifyingly well-behaved child because I genuinely enjoyed being in an "adult environment" (restaurant, cafe, department stores etc) and I wasn't going to lose the 'qualification' by behaving inappropriately again.
Discipline definitely doesn't necessarily mean physical punishment. I think at that point I'd have much preferred a smack to being banished though...
I too have had such flights with unruly children - too many of them in fact - but with more helpful crew although they could not get any result as parents remained thoroughly uncooperative, and with multiple such sets of children I got no sleep - and I was doing SYD. I was pretty wrecked by the time I reached home/destination.
It really is horrible when you are stuck with that kind of parents. I so wished for a soundproof box (they were noisy enough to be clearly heard through my in-ear headphones with noise isolating earbuds + active noise cancelling and playing music on them, preventing me from getting any sleep beyond about 10 minutes, same with the rest of the cabin except for the parents of the unruly children).
My most feared disciplinary measure was not physical punishment but not being allowed to be in an "adult environment", where I was expected to behave to the same standard as a properly-behaving adult. Should I put a foot wrong (everything from table manners to the volume of voice), I would be told that I would no longer be allowed into an "adult environment". I slipped up once by making a slightly inappropriate comment, which was promptly punished by being banished from an "adult environment" for a while! It worked. I was a horrifyingly well-behaved child because I genuinely enjoyed being in an "adult environment" (restaurant, cafe, department stores etc) and I wasn't going to lose the 'qualification' by behaving inappropriately again.
Discipline definitely doesn't necessarily mean physical punishment. I think at that point I'd have much preferred a smack to being banished though...
Last edited by LTN Phobia; Sep 23, 2014 at 12:16 pm
Sep 23, 2014, 12:36 pm
#12
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I'm sorry to hear about both the poor service and unruly children with lack of intervention from their parents.
I too have had such flights with unruly children - too many of them in fact - but with more helpful crew although they could not get any result as parents remained thoroughly uncooperative, and with multiple such sets of children I got no sleep - and I was doing SYD. I was pretty wrecked by the time I reached home/destination.
It really is horrible when you are stuck with that kind of parents. I so wished for a soundproof box (they were noisy enough to be clearly heard through my in-ear headphones with noise isolating earbuds + active noise cancelling and playing music on them, preventing me from getting any sleep beyond about 10 minutes, same with the rest of the cabin except for the parents of the unruly children).
Indeed. It's really unfortunate.
My most feared disciplinary measure was not physical punishment but not being allowed to be in an "adult environment", where I was expected to behave to the same standard as a properly-behaving adult. Should I put a foot wrong (everything from table manners to the volume of voice), I would be told that I would no longer be allowed into an "adult environment". I slipped up once by making a slightly inappropriate comment, which was promptly punished by being banished from an "adult environment" for a while! It worked. I was a horrifyingly well-behaved child because I genuinely enjoyed being in an "adult environment" (restaurant, cafe, department stores etc) and I wasn't going to lose the 'qualification' by behaving inappropriately again.
Discipline definitely doesn't necessarily mean physical punishment. I think at that point I'd have much preferred a smack to being banished though...
I too have had such flights with unruly children - too many of them in fact - but with more helpful crew although they could not get any result as parents remained thoroughly uncooperative, and with multiple such sets of children I got no sleep - and I was doing SYD. I was pretty wrecked by the time I reached home/destination.
It really is horrible when you are stuck with that kind of parents. I so wished for a soundproof box (they were noisy enough to be clearly heard through my in-ear headphones with noise isolating earbuds + active noise cancelling and playing music on them, preventing me from getting any sleep beyond about 10 minutes, same with the rest of the cabin except for the parents of the unruly children).
Indeed. It's really unfortunate.
My most feared disciplinary measure was not physical punishment but not being allowed to be in an "adult environment", where I was expected to behave to the same standard as a properly-behaving adult. Should I put a foot wrong (everything from table manners to the volume of voice), I would be told that I would no longer be allowed into an "adult environment". I slipped up once by making a slightly inappropriate comment, which was promptly punished by being banished from an "adult environment" for a while! It worked. I was a horrifyingly well-behaved child because I genuinely enjoyed being in an "adult environment" (restaurant, cafe, department stores etc) and I wasn't going to lose the 'qualification' by behaving inappropriately again.
Discipline definitely doesn't necessarily mean physical punishment. I think at that point I'd have much preferred a smack to being banished though...
Sep 23, 2014, 12:52 pm
#13
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
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Even then, I was not allowed to travel in premium class for two reasons - when I was a very young child, just in case I misbehaved, in which case they can't just remove me from the environment and they would feel really bad towards other passengers and my mother considered the risk unacceptable even though it was remote.
Second was so that I would not take it for granted and I wasn't allowed to travel in premium class even when it was cheaper than Y. I was told that I'd have to be in a position to pay for it myself before I'd be allowed to fly in premium class. It did me good - I don't consider flying Y to be some kind of an utter horror (just a minor horror)
But going back to the subject at hand, I'd love an insulated compartment on a flight where misbehaving people (adults or children) can be sent to! People really should not have to put up with disruptive behaviour that is not appropriately (at least attempted to be) controlled, regardless of the class of travel.
Last edited by LTN Phobia; Sep 23, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Sep 23, 2014, 12:53 pm
#14
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bullroot - I would seriously consider feeding back all of your poor experiences to Customer Relations.
Sounds like a couple of crew need to have some refresher training - adds up to a full set of 'snapshots' to me!
Sounds like a couple of crew need to have some refresher training - adds up to a full set of 'snapshots' to me!
Sep 23, 2014, 1:00 pm
#15
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