BlooJoo

Translation: I know damn well my children will be poorly behaved and disturb others. But I don't care, because I'm looking forward to some fun in CW, and if it interferes with my fellow passengers' experience, that's their problem.

You should look at changing to Economy.

VSLover

no, that would be me lamenting fewer routes with first meaning i'd have to sit in club with a toddler or two near.

one positive of smaller first cabins i suppose is indeed a smaller chance of toddlers abound.

babyg_wc

or greater chance being closer to toddlers in first. Look I've said it once, and ill say it again, I've had far more adults impact my flight experience vs children.. and this is by a factor of at least 10:1.

JessicaB

You've obviously never flown PUJ (Punta Cana) or MCO (Orlando) then. Chock full of couples who normally leave the kids with the nanny and have zero idea what to do with them on a 9 hour flight.

Flexible preferences

This is a ridiculously extreme and unfair interpretation of another poster's words. Children can be very well behaved on an aircraft, as can some adults.

I've done MCO many times in CW, and I've never been disturbed by a child. I remember one flight back from MCO where there must have been at least 10 children in my cabin and they were all quiet and kept themselves to themselves. Anyway, maybe I've been lucky, but that's my experience.

Swanhunter

Agree, and I say that as someone who really isn’t interested in kids and finds them generally annoying and irritating. Adults seem far more capable of being idiots on planes.

babyg_wc

I raise your MCO with our LHR to LAS on virgin, the bar area in upper became such an uncontrollable zoo that cabin crew needed the pilot to put the seatbelt sign on to get the drunks back to their seats.

Hopefully we can agree that in both scenarios the fault lies with adults, not children, so fix the problem at the source and perhaps be greatful that not all adults make ...... parents.

VSLover

adults or not, i shouldnt be impacted by a persons choice to have children.

• first on my list is crying. i know at a certain point crying cant be helped. but even the best headphones cannot block that out.
• second is when i have to ask a flight attendant to ask a parent to remind their children to use headphones or not have the volume on their device at full blast.
• third is when parents have no concern for their children wandering the aisles ... for quite some time. this is just not safe.

it doesnt happen often, thank god. plus, fortunately, it is more a function of my main US ports of entry being SFO/LAX/JFK/DEN. i'd never do a MCO or LAS for a lot of the reasons mentioned above, adults and children.

the nice thing about CS or F has been my ability to block out any problematic adults--though after hundreds of flights maybe i have just been that lucky to never see or be impacted by an adult on any flight or am simply more easily able to block out such concerns

HOPEFULLY CS remains strong to block out such nuisances in the future, but i do not see why a business product should necessarily need to cater to families in design since the number of families who could afford business is somewhat small, relatively, and it is meant to cater to business persons in the old sense of the word--people who want more privacy, peace and quiet.

Ladyfliestheredwhiteandblues

Or you could have the experience we had a few years back on our very first First, JFK to LHR. Twin babies, only a couple of months old who took it in turns to cry for the whole flight. It’s public transport and we get the fellow passengers who have paid to share that cabin. It was frustrating but not anything the parents, cabin crew or we could have done anything about.
I think the parents were in the more money than sense category but that’s up to them.

KSVVZ2015

wow. I agree with you about some of the bad parent behaviors but “I shouldn’t be impacted by a persons choice to have children”? You realize that umm, your entire existence was impacted by your parents choice to have a child right?

also - while I take more J flights for work - we are expats and always fly in J for trips back to the US. At certain holidays times - such people make up the majority of J cabins on BA flights. Same on the many long haul leisure destinations. It’s a relevant demographic. I agree CS is better than old CW despite its shortcomings but single business travelers isn’t the only market out there.

JessicaB

I distinctly remember a flight from PUJ > LGW where I sat next to a guy who worked for the government, had an important meeting the next day and therefore paid a lot extra to fly back in Club so he could get some sleep. Two babies cried for pretty much, and I mean pretty much, the entire flight. Their mother was exasperated, the crew were trying their best to stop them crying to no avail, and eventually the guy next to me asked if he could be reseated, and was offered a seat in economy. Which he accepted to get away from the noise. I can just imagine it will be a lot worse with Club Suites as people will probably tend to book the middle pairs thinking that they're together and not realise that to give the kid a cuddle will involve a run round the entire cabin.

VSLover

lol, well my mother has made many hair style and color choices over the years that i choose not to emulate either.

what i do wish is the divider between the middle seats was more open because when i do travel with my partner, or my lovely and very well behaved parents, it would be nice to communicate a bit more easily.

but even with a more open divider, i cant see how it would help anyone where there is a reverse herringbone seat pattern and youd need to attend to your child in a urgent situation with the seat divide.

deep_south

At one time, Virgin had removable dividers between the centre pair of seats, which left them quite open to each other. Shame BA couldn't do something similar to cover more bases.

babyg_wc

At the end of the day we are all flying on public transport - your first class ticket doesn't buy you any more rights than an economy ticket - how do you suggest parents with children (that might cry) travel?
Are you suggesting that they should fly economy because the pax flying economy are different than you? If anything (using your logic) the parents who fly first/bus are actually the most considerate, because their crying child impacts the least amount of people when flying in less dense cabins.

babyg_wc

Think perhaps you are thinking of the virgin "love seats". These were on planes that virgin leased (a330s i think) when they were having all the engine issues and a large portion of their 787 fleet was grounded. The planes had the full virgin paint job, but non virgin seats.