Business Class and First Class with children [Merged Threads]

So my real question about this thread (speaking as someone without any children) is: Do any of you parents worry that your children who have grown up flying around the world in business class, will get -- how to put it? -- a bit too used to it?

If you all think a screaming baby is bad, how will passengers react to an 18-year old who is off to college and finds himself in the back of the plane for the first time? I hear those can be some nasty temper tantrums...

As they used to say on some forgettable 80s TV series: "Time to take a bite on a reality sandwich"

No, once they fly in Y they will realize how good their childhood was.lol

I've flown seated next to young people who have a lot of miles logged in the front of the planes. Nearly all have been nice and polite. They seem more grown up in behavior even when 12 or 13. Better behaved than a lot of adults. I think they can handle flying in economy.

Taking kids in business is for the benefit of the parents - whether they are disappointed flying economy when they get older should not really be a parents concern.

It is a concern, but I am more concerned that he learns how to be a good traveler, regardless of where he is going or how is he getting there.

My son has flown in Business on occasion- sometimes using points, and once because CO upgraded him on a trip home after they forgot to escort him off the plane and give him back his papers/return ticket when he flew to visit relatives. (He was 12 and unaccompanied.) He reported that he didn't eat the dinner because it had vegetables in it.

He flies Coach all the time and doesn't complain. Once when we were flying to MYR to visit my parents he mentioned it would be nice to fly First Class. I pointed out to him that the cost differential for F was the cost of an upcoming trip to Montreal we were taking- hotel + airfare. He understood the trade-off.

I am 17, and I have had this happen for the last few years. It always seems to be cheaper to buy J class tickets for us rather than Y ones. (often because we buy tickets that need a year validity and the cheapest Y tickets with a 1 year validity are more than a 1 year J class ticket)

Most of the other times we use miles / certificates etc to upgrade to J. However, this summer I flew in Y, and loved every minute of it

Cheers

I (a 35 year old woman) feel like a spoiled child when I'm in domestic first/business class now. The thought of what it used to be like "up front" in the '90's, compared to what it is now, makes ME want to throw a nasty temper tantrum

He's a regular poster on the AC Forum

My kids' first J/F trip was HNL-EWR on CO BF at age 3 (him) and 6 (her). The FAs got a laugh out of my tiny 3 year old reaching for the seat control while lying on his belly on the legrest (pre-pushback), so he could move it up and down.

7 years later, my kids both know to charge their iPods and GameBoys the night before a trip - without being told. They have FF accounts on every airline we fly (except WN...not worth it there). My son asked if I could get him Gold status for his birthday (seriously!) so he could upgrade without me.

And when the u/g doesn't clear, they suffer in the same (mostly) silence that I do.

(Although I did laugh when someone obnoxiously tried to cut the line during AA PLT pre-board by loudly saying "excuse me, please - I'm in first class" and my son said "doesn't he know he missed his preboard and has to wait like the rest of us?" just loudly enough to be heard!)

They're getting younger and younger!

But the real question is, when will you introduce them to Flyertalk?

I recently redeemed Worldperks airmiles for 4 members of my family on a NWA/KLM Codeshare flight to Houston to Amsterdam. The only flights available on the timing we needed were business class, so although I don't like flying Business with the kids, I took the tickets offered. At the same time, I also tried to purchase an infant ticket for my daughter for the same itinerary. I was advised that I would need to purchase a paper ticket, by visiting the NWA desk at IAH, which I duly did.

On arrival at IAH to check in for the first leg of our flight, we were advised by KLM that we would not be allowed to fly, as we had an infant in the party. This despite the fact that we had an infant paper ticket issued in her name, for the flight in question. We were advised that it was a KLM rule that infants are not allowed to fly this sector, however no-one had seen fit to advise us of this when we were purchasing the ticket. When we queried this , we could get no response other than “these are the rules”. However we were advised by the manager of Check In that if we were prepared to purchase a one-way seat for my infant daughter (at a price of USD 6000) then he would “ask the crew if they would consider it”. I found it interesting that a price could be placed on breaking the rules, however I was not prepared to do that, as I already had in my possession what I considered a valid ticket. We were therefore turned away from the desk, and re-ticketed on a different flight the following day.

Has anyone come across this before? Is there anything I can do about it? Can an airline really refuse to fly when a valid ticket has been issued and paid for, based purely on age of the passenger? Its not as if my infant was a security risk or anything...

Grateful for any views?

Yorkie

Ps I'm new to these forums, so if ther is a more approrpiate place to post this, please shout at me!

I am shocked that happened to you... we're about to head to Paris with 2 seats in Biz, wife and me, and 2 seats in coach, son and babysitter. I am going to let my son sit up front, and hope my laptop holds up through the trip.

I've flown business before with my son (at age 3) and never had a problem, but that was domestic US...

Let me guess, as it was IAH that you are speaking of that you are in fact speaking about the KLM Privatair flight that is not a standard KLM a/c?