canolakid

I noted the 'no kids in J' thread has been closed by the mods, so have started the new thread...

Mar 11- YYZ to LHR. the one that gets in at 6:30 am UK time. Last to board in EF is a family of five infants (the parents might as well have been infants for all the use they were for child rearing). OJ gets spilled in the suite (oops); diapers get changed in the suite (yuck) and just as the cabin was settling in for the quick but much needed doze, mommy not and papa not really decide to pop the baby into its own pod (yes they had booked five pods), put on THEIR noise cancelling head phones and ignore the beastie for the next two years, er hours as it howled. and howled. and howled.

Service team did their best to make parents care, but my question- if we can divert planes for unruly passengers, what do we do with unwilling parents? FA went around the cabin asking EF passengers- mostly biz types- to write to the Pres as reports from the flight crew were not seen by them to be as 'impactful on policy'. which I will do- seeking clarification on whether buying/securing EF suites for use by a baby in arms is appropriate. I do note that they did hold the thing during take off and landing- except when they were passing it back and forth during descent...

ffsim

Ouch, sounds like a rough flight. IMHO I don't think unruly passengers = unwilling parents, and in this case, I don't think AC could care less because they sold 5 J seats.

I think the crew reacted well by suggesting letters to the President. It shows that they care and makes the passengers feel like their feedback is valued.

RooFlyer

Can only sympathise. Have had experience of a number of parents unwilling to mollify a long-bellowing infant in J. And it IS the parent's responsibility/fault, not the infants.

Malaysia Airways and I think Asiana have "no children" areas in their J cabins (ie between two bulkheads), or some of their routes.

canforce

I am usually one to defend a parent and childs rights to fly in the J cabin, but in this instance.....

It is a parents job to keep their kids quiet. Flight attendants should have turned their screens off and not stopped pestering them until they actually parented their children...

canadatosiberia

I will defend my right to fly my kids in whatever cabin that I pay for, but this sounds ridiculous. What a gongshow.

This evidence aside, it looks to me like an abnormal situation. For anyone to insist that this is reason to ban kids all together, I would disagree with that 100%. Make parents responsible for their kids, but don't paint everyone with the same brush - or we can start banning adults who complain about everything, stink of BO, and demand impeccable service, all while on eUps.

I would like to see a "flyer code of conduct" written and adhered to for all. This would include provisions for kids, jerks, etc.

slashd0t

Yeah I don't really see what this thread has to do with the J cabin at all.. Looks more like terrible parenting to me.. I would be equally annoyed by this in economy..

canolakid

lot harder to dump your baby into a E- seat... also, in EF, the sleep is the reason for the $$ differential esp if one is supposed to be in meetings at 9 am London time...

The Lev

There's unfortunately only so much the crew can do to put pressure on the parents. The fellow travellers in J needed to be the ones pestering the parents up to the point where the captain gets called back there to deal with a "situation".

Stranger

Actually I don't think a passenger should get involved with other passengers. I would complain to the crew. If possible, loud enough that the parents hear. But I don't think addressing directly the parents is appropriate.

Perhaps suggest the cabin crew to talk to the captain, yes.

canadatosiberia

[QUOTE=Stranger;20406361]Actually I don't think a passenger should get involved with other passengers. [QUOTE]

Agreed - this has mid-air fight written all over it!

fly-yul

Not to take away from the OP's right to annoyed for what happened on the flight but, something does not add up.

An infant is a child under 2 years old. An infant must be secured in an approved child restraint device. No child restraint devices are allowed in EF suites.

Also, you are only allowed to travel with one infant per adult. Three infants would exceed that limit.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...ant-child.html

Stranger

I suspect the OP means three small children, not technically infants. Old enough to sit in J by themselves.

KathrynInCanada

You see, that's what makes the OP's complaint start to ring hollow since there is so much over exaggeration.

I was part of a J cabin that worked together with a single parent so we could all get sleep/quiet on YYZ-HKG. We took turns walking the crying infant so that the father could rest while the preschooler slept. One of the passengers succeeded in getting the baby to sleep so settled into his suite, still holding the baby until the father awoke. (This was just one leg of a very long day for the father so he needed to rest and was obviously beyond being able to relax enough himself, to let the baby relax to go to sleep.) Three pax and crew worked together to help. You see, if the baby was crying, I knew I couldn't rest at all, so therefore, it was in my best interests to help the parent, rather than stew in my seat.

canolakid

one in arms one in diapers one with shoes. the baby was not restrained- ever- and was dumped in a/its pod to sleep... when I asked how they got so many pods for the little ones, one FA said 'their company pays for it'.

canolakid

not so much over exaggeration... my question remains: what does one do when a baby is left, not in the parental seat, but alone to cry itself to sleep whilst mommy watches her movie and daddy does whatever he was doing? a single parent situation on a long haul this was not.