In your case, I think the FA should have been more considerate. Albeit your child was acting up, but lots of FA's accept that. In addition, as well all know, the airlines know all to well that HI routes are ones often used for vacationers/families. If they are going to scale back their service because of the large amount of leisure travel, they should atleast ackknowledge the increased volume of familes and adjust their attitudes accordingly. All in all, the FA acted without compassion, I am assuming that no one in the cabin complained, so why ruin your flight.

Nobbi

If you have ever truly spent 2 months of your own take home pay on a first class ticket, I think you may want to consider the possibilty that you have bigger issues to resolve than kids in FC.

dhacker,
Thank you for your concern about either my financial and/or mental health well-being. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Kids in First is actually not an issue I need to resolve. Haven't really had the problem. I was just trying to share my viewpoint with other community members. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif


Unfortunately some of us have neither an expense account nor do we fly enough to get elite status/upgrades while we still enjoy being able to have a flat bed to sleep on a flight.

[This message has been edited by Nobbi (edited 01-09-2001).]

Unless they are independantly wealthy, I sincerely hope that anyone who is spending 16% of their annual salary on a FC seat is not disturbed by babies or anything else.

Nobbi, you may just be the exception that proves the rule!

The worst that can happen it when a baby (or several are screaming) are screaming or just talking very very load "baby language" - and the parents encoruage this with the "O how sweet - doesn't everybody else feel that also"-style.

Badr!
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif


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Goldlust
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Worth a look: http://travelwithkids.about.com/

It seems that all parents think their children are the ones who aren't a problem! :-) And maybe all the parents here are right about that - most of us are frequent flyers and know the ropes of travel better than the average person.

But I will say that as a childless person, I do my best to be patient with and polite to any parent who is trying to manage the situation, even if their efforts aren't successful. The instances I have little patience for are the ones where the parents simply don't care. On a flight from Paris to New York, I spent 7 miserable hours in Business Class with a family of four. The parents put on their eyeshades and slept the entire way, while their toddler ran amok and their baby screamed the entire time. Repeated complaints from both passengers and flight attendants didn't phase them a bit. These parents simply didn't care about anyone but themselves, and they are the type that I think most of us in this thread are objecting to.

sggolf, no offense to you intended, but I believe you may have erred in your judgment by upgrading yourself and your husband and leaving your parents and your child in Coach. If your child is going to need you during the flight, it's my opinion that you should be sitting with him. Your child is certainly entitled to ride in First Class if he's ticketed there. But it is a disturbance to other passengers when people "play musical chairs" between Coach and First, and most flight attendants won't allow it. While some FAs might permit you to trade once (and you should always ask permission first), more than that will generally get you a reprimand. In my opinion - which granted, isn't worth much ;-), if you couldn't upgrade your child and you knew he would be unhappy away from you for that length of time, you would have been better served to upgrade your parents and sit with your child in Coach. If that situation ruined your experience in First Class, imagine how others around you must have felt.

I have 2 young children who fly fairly regularly, and, I am not ashamed to admit, are not always perfectly behaved. Mrs. BIM and I attempt to do all we can to manage the behavior (bringing the right toys, snacks, soothing them, etc). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But let's face it - kids act up. They fight. They may be loud, or in the way, or kick the seat. When they do, I am embarrased, and feel bad for those around me. Sometimes I even get angry that they aren't perfect. That's when Mrs BIM, in her infinite wisdom, reminds me that children are "works in progress". Something about that phrase gets to me, and it's great reality check as a parent (flying or not). As with myself, my children will never be without their faults. I can only hope that some small percentage of what I'm trying to teach them about life gets through, and 25 years from now, they'll be blessed with kids who behave on board the Space Plane...

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Take a deep breath, and remember what's really important...

[This message has been edited by BIM (edited 01-10-2001).]

When I am traveling together with my wife, and there are small children nearby, I cannot stand the crying, whining and carrying on.

So, if I knew there were kids onboard, I would book my wife on another flight so I could travel in peace.

(Sorry, wendolene...)

I knew I'd seen something on this topic recently. It's even better on second reading:
http://www.herald.com/content/archiv...docs/dec17.htm



[This message has been edited by GG (edited 01-10-2001).]

We just returned from Hawaii over Christmas with out 7 month old. Fortunately for all she was VERY well behaved. On the trip out from DFW-HNL on Delta, we were unable to upgrade but the gate agent gave us the center row of five seats in the L-1011. We were able to put up the armrests and let her crawl over the seats during the 8 hour trip. No crying, and a very happy baby. We got a lot of dirty looks from other passengers as we boarded with the baby, as I think they assumed she would be a problem, but after about 5 hours into the trip they were coming over to visit with her, smiling and talking to her. I guess she proved she could be a good little passenger.

On the return we flew back in First, and at the beginning of the flight the FAs were just short of rude to us, taking our meal request last, never coming to check on us. But again, as she stayed quiet, slept most of the trip the FAs warmed up to us and to her.

There is a bias against infants on flights from Flight Attendants. I never believed it before, but after seeing the change after travelling with (fortunately) a well behaved baby.

My advice to anyone travelling with a little one is to bring plenty of things to occupy them, so they don't get annoying to other passengers. Take as direct a flight as you can, it might cost more but you want to keep the little one happy, and several connections with possibly delays don't add to a happy travel experience of an infant. Also try to travel at times the baby will be at his/her best. Should you really take that 5 AM flight, or the redeye? Sometimes you don't have a choice, but when you do think about the little one's schedule.

As a very frequent flyer and being around screaming children, I vowed never to be "one of those parents" who ignore the screaming. I know there was some luck our 7 month was so well behaved, as sometimes little ones get cranky, just like 30 year olds, 40 year olds and 50 year olds who fly, but you need to do everything you can to make the flight pleasant. You don't need any more stress crammed into that little overfilled jet.

ctuttle: Welcome to Flyertalk. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

rotflmao http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Some radio station in LA has launched a petition....
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/karel2/

[This message has been edited by Droneklax (edited 01-19-2001).]

I guess I must go to a lot of resort or "fun"-type destinations ... Hawaii, Cancun, Las Vegas ... and the screaming, seat-kicking kids are bad (since unlike when it happens in a restaurant and if it is bad enough, kids or adults, on the ground, I can just ask to be moved or walk out) - but the groups of loud, drunken, apparently first-time adult flyers are the WORST.

How many flights have I been on where there were large groups of party animals heading to Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend to "party hearty", or spring-breakers heading to Cancun and already starting to get wild the minute they get on the plane, and on landing treating the locals really badly and so on - talk about the Ugly American - it flourishes at Spring Break. I travel then too because I am also on spring break otherwise would love to avoid it. Nothing to do but get out the walkman again and try to be extra nice to any locals I meet ... on another note, my first trip to Hawaii I was staying in a fancy hotel and at breakfast was unhappy to be seated right next to a woman with really unruly, screaming, fighting, running around, coming up to my table, etc. kids, (what am I, a kid magnet? seems to always happen!) and SEEMINGLY doing nothing to prevent it. Many of us did give her dirty looks, I have to admit, and her response - "If you look at them, you have to keep them." Pretty funny I guess but ...

Finally, the sound is bad enough but what about assaults on the olfactory senses? Admittedly maybe I don't understand the process but I was on a late-night SWA flight - a one-hour hop CHI-DTW - and someone was changing her baby right in the seat. It didn't make any noise but the smell ... I was feeling queasy anyway and that just made it worse. I can empathize with the need to change the baby but in a small, crowded plane, breathing the recirculated air, and probably more than one person feeling queasy, I don't know, don't most people do this in the restroom?