Air Asia takes a marketing move on children

[PAXboy]

BBC News - Should there be child-free zones on planes and trains? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19728508)
Budget carrier Air Asia says from February it will provide a "quiet zone" for passengers aged 12 and over at no extra cost.

Separated from the rest of the cabin by toilets and bulkheads, these seven rows of economy class seats should be immune from the sound of infant tantrums, the company claims.

It is following the example of Malaysia Airlines, which in April announced it would limit families with children sitting on the upper deck of its Kuala Lumpur to London service.Only seven rows? But keeping the whole upper deck of an A380 as childfree sounds good. Worry abuot the small print that will state 'for operational reasons we may have to blight your journey in the way it always has been ..."

[Load Toad]

A quiet area would be nice - but honestly children are a small problem compared to the every increasing number of passengers who exhibit bhoorish behaviour; playing hand held games or such without headphones, talking loudly, nearly shouting to each other, using handphones as long as possible before take off and straight after landing, insisting on bringing on far too much hand luggage, having bad body odour and doing such as picking toe nails & dry skin...being worse for wear on drink and not being able to handle it, not being able to use an aircraft sit down toilet without creating an unhygienic mess...

Flying is no longer a pleasant experience and it's about time this was adressed.

[davidjohnson6]

Load Toad - when has it ever been nice to be around the masses ?
100 years ago, it was just as unplesant, but in different ways.

The myth that flying was once some heavenly experience is no more than a myth. Would you prefer to go back to being on aircraft full of cigarette smoke in the 1960s instead ?

[Load Toad]

I don't really agree with the position in a debate 'It could be / was worse...' progress would be still born with such an attitude.

[Espada III]

I fly several times a year with my family on five hour flights with plenty of other families. The children are generally well behaved and particularly so if the parents are prepared to act as parents.

I think LoadToad has it right. Its the other passengers who seem think it reasonable to walk from departure airport to destination making life miserable for the CC.

[ExXB]

Damn it, why can't everybody else stay at home when I want to travel. :rolleyes: And why can't everybody else be just like me ... :E

[Rush2112]

If there was an airline that banned kids, I would abandon all my SQ airmiles and sign up like a shot. I have lost count of the number of flights I have had made unbearable by the little uncontrolled b*st*rds running amok while their blissfully ignorant parents swill into the free alcohol with their headphones on.

[PAXboy]

I recall one of my regular LHR~JNB trips around 1999.

I had had a full working in Munich, connected over to T1, got to T3, boarded and sank into the PE seat with relief. Even before the doors closed, a baby started wailing in the front of Y about five rows behind me.

The elderly lady in the aisle seat next to me, took a small electronic remote control out of her handbag - pressed the buttons and replaced it. She saw my quizzical look and said that she had digital hearing aids and had adjusted their response to 'tune out' the baby and that she could no longer hear it.

Having all too good hearing, I ordered a drink ...

[lenhamlad]

Load Toad

not being able to use an aircraft sit down toilet without creating an unhygienic mess...

So you have actually seen this happening or are you assuming that the adult who exited the loo before you made that mess - or is it that the adult (like me for instance) could not be bothered cleaning up the mess that confronted me when I entered the facilities.

Your response is typical of the defensive knee-jerk reaction to any type of noisy kids on planes comments.

[Load Toad]

Oh pull your neck in y' malcontent. You have toilet issues? Clean up after yourself. Other people have toilet issues - did I ask you to be the cleaner?

I've seen filthy toilets caused by squaters who can't work out how to use a sit down toilet & I've seen toilets in a state of disgrace because of the number of people using them or the inability of some to use toilet paper or water to clean up correctly.

Put it down to hundreds of flights, very many in Asia.

Knee - jerck reaction? Yours.

[lenhamlad]

You have toilet issues? Clean up after yourself.

I do, but I refuse to clean up after others -I do not pay to go on a flight to do so.

Put it down to hundreds of flights, very many in Asia.

Join the club. I flew hundreds of flights in the Indian sub-continent mainly out of Pakistan in the early eighties and also a fair few in Africa. BA CC used to have to explain how to use toilets to people who had never seen a sit down loo before. But that was a cultural issue. Noisy kids being allowed to treat aircraft cabins as their living rooms by holier than thou parents is rudeness and inconsideration for fellow passengers. I don't blame the kids, I blame their parents who want special treatment (first on, bulkhead seats, extra hand baggage, meals first but to name a few) and expect Joe Public to put up with the little darlings.

[Load Toad]

Where did I ask you to clean up after others or insinuted that you were the cause of the sh1tty toilet?

I didn't did I?

All the rest - fine - agree with yers.

[radeng]

Yesterday (28th) I was on a flight from Minsk to Prague, admittedly in Business Class. Mother was in 2B and little girl across the aisle in 2C. looked as if she was 4 or maybe 5, certainly no older. Not only was she very quiet, but she studied the safety instruction card during the briefing and was careful to keep her seat belt on - so unlike many of the 'business men' pax.

Now kids like that are NOT a problem......

[Load Toad]

My kids, even when teeny were OK - basically with books, inflight ent & toys they'd be happy. Even on a long flight when IFE failed they would eat, sleep and look out the windows.

Only flight one of them was a pain was a young couple behind were teasing one of ours when they were but a toddler - making the bairn excited and causing grief to calm 'em down.

The parents, not the children are oft the problem.