Originally Posted by
peachfront
I'm not picking on her to pick on her. I've already said I defend the right of bloggers to make money and share information. I certainly don't think MP is ruining flyertalk or that her blog is the terror of the internet. However, I do feel a need to use peer pressure to point out that travel with small children should be generally DIScouraged, not ENcouraged. If you have no common sense and really would drive 14 hours straight with a small child, if you have DUIs or use drugs, if Grandma lives across the pond, if there is a family emergency and for some reason air travel would actually save time rather than costing time with flight delays and security lines...by all means, FLY! But, much of the time, small children are put through a lot of unnecessary stress and hassle, and we've all of us frequent flyers seen how miserable they are. Yes, everybody on flyertalk has a genius child who doesn't act out on long plane trips, but I'm talking about the actual children I've seen at the airport and on the plane, not your child who I've only heard about on the internet. I'm going to have believe my own lyin' eyes on this one. Fair enough?
Originally Posted by
LowFlyOver
If you think that a 26-hour drive with children to Orange County, CA, or a 20-hour drive to Orange/Seminole/Osceola County, FL, even if broken up with multiple days of travel, is better for a small child than a direct 2.5-3.5 hour flight from ORD, DSM, CID, or MLI (or even a flight with a reasonable layover), you are clueless...absolutely clueless. Didn't you just recommend trips to Disney several pages back? If I ever need advice on caged birds, I'll ask for it. Until then, we will try our best to avoid you in the skies and at the airport.
Originally Posted by
DavidAL
I guess we may have to agree to disagree. Have you thought that you only notice the kids that are crying, and not the other dozens that aren't in the airport? I don't think it's any "unnecessary stress and hassle" for my kids to fly. What's not to love about seeing all the big planes take off? I guess what we could do is post where we're going with our kids to make sure you avoid our routes. And again, I'm assuming you don't have kids. So, if you're an AA/AS person, don't get mad when you see my wife and kids in FC going to PVR in a couple weeks. They didn't take your upgrade, nor will they be screaming and crying. They might even let you watch their movie on their iPods if you ask nicely. Just make sure to avoid DFW and PVR on the 22nd, and PVR, SFO, and DFW on the 29th.
My 2 cents on flying with kids: Although I have no doubt that the FTers who post in this thread do travel with their kids and manage to control their behaviour, you have to admit that Flyertalkers are not representative of the traveling public overall. It is extremely irresponsible to go out encouraging every Ma & Pa Kettle to take their kids on long flights when the majority of parents do not know how to keep their kids under control. So I have to chime in on the side of Peachfront here. I realize it is probably also a miserable experience to drag small kids on a long road trip as well but either way the travel is going to be uncomfortable and small kids are going to start cryinging and throwing tantrums so at least with the road trip the misery is confined to the car containing aforementioned kids and parents, not shared amongst 330 people on a plane.
I am not a parent, nor do I ever wish to be one. Nor am I a forensic scientist (but I watch those kinds of shows on TV), but in this day and age of internet predators, is it considered prudent to be posting pics of an attractive blonde toddler and one's travel plans/speaking engagements online for all to see? Not something I would be doing if I did have a kid.
Originally Posted by
LesBesTes
Interesting timing that this article touting the blogs just showed up on HuffPo:
The article seems to extol all the virtues of the credit cards without the caveats as to responsible management of credit. People who can't pay their bills in full every month and don't have the discipline to stick to a budget are NOT going to get "free" travel, they will pay for it in interest charges which is exactly why the credit card companies bribe us with these deals in the first place.