40 replies to this topic

[Orik]

Right, because the current culture in the US (and much more so in protestant Europe) promotes properties in adults that involve repressing some child-like attributes. I agree with you it doesn't necessarily work very well but given that (1) the airlines have stopped medicating their economy class passengers* (2) generate nearly all their profits from business/first, it makes sense that they're trying to find ways to deal with complaints and stress.


* this merits a study in economics - everyone wanted all the free booze they could drink over the duration of the flight, but almost nobody wants $5 booze.

[mongo_jones]

oh, i completely get the trying to deal with the issue part. i don't have any sympathy for parents trying to lug their entire nursery around as cabin baggage (though to be fair, inappropriately sized cabin bags are carried by people traveling without kids too). i think reserving separate areas in the cabin for families is a great idea*. it might lead to fewer instances of families not being able to get seats together--on dec 28, the jones clan will be returning from los angeles to minneapolis. we're currently in three separate rows; and if people don't want to help us out by moving, at least two of them will be deeply unhappy: whoever is next to the older brat, and whoever is next to whichever parent will have brat #2 in their lap.

the near psychotic part is the over-the-top exaggeration of the scope of the issue when you're not on a plane next to a screaming toddler but typing comfortably from your home. the near-moralizing about parenting failures etc..

at any rate, i'm glad that flight attendants, who you'd think would be the most frazzled people on the plane, generally don't share this mindset. especially on long flights they always offer to take babies off parents' hands and take them to the back of the plane.


*however, consider the plight of the person traveling without kids who gets assigned to that section when they check in. that happened to me a couple of times in the 90s on singapore airlines, who did have an informal policy then of zoning families together near the bulkheads.

[Rail Paul]

(snip)
at any rate, i'm glad that flight attendants, who you'd think would be the most frazzled people on the plane, generally don't share this mindset. especially on long flights they always offer to take babies off parents' hands and take them to the back of the plane.
(snip).

do they return the kids at the end of the flight?

Noting Orik's comment, I do think that planes were more friendly places when there was unlimited free booze in coach. Smoking, too.

[porkwah]

(snip)
(snip).

[mongo_jones]

(snip)
(snip).

no, vasectomies are NOT the solution.

[Rail Paul]

Meanwhile, up in the front of the bus, now that the infants have been cast out...

Nothing compares with the experience of flying first class, said Geoffrey Fischer, a 33-year-old social media consultant based in Seattle. Even after his 15-hour flight on Cathay Pacific landed in Hong Kong, he did not want to get off the plane, he said. Throughout the trip, which he also wrote about on the Cranky Flier blog, he was plied with Champagne and wine. He was served caviar as an appetizer on fine bone china and with a linen tablecloth. His seat turned into a full-size bed. He was handed designer pajamas to wear while an attentive flight attendant made up his bed, complete with a pillow, duvet and sheets.

“I’ve never experienced such a private jet atmosphere,” said Mr. Fischer, who snagged his seat using frequent flier miles. “It was the best flight I’ve ever been on.”

NY Times

In France, customs officials will visit passengers in the VIP lounge to review your travel documents. Following that you'll be driven to the plane for boarding

Carriers on international flights are offering private suites for first-class passengers, three-star meals and personal service once found only on corporate jets. They provide massages before takeoff, whisk passengers through special customs lanes and drive them in a private limousine right to the plane. Some have bars. One airline has installed showers onboard.

[Eatmywords]

Just a matter of time before one of them comes up with a “happy landing” service.

[g.johnson]

(snip)
(snip).

no, vasectomies are NOT the solution.

Not even if you get a free transistor radio?

[foodie52]

Meanwhile, up in the front of the bus, now that the infants have been cast out...

Nothing compares with the experience of flying first class, said Geoffrey Fischer, a 33-year-old social media consultant based in Seattle. Even after his 15-hour flight on Cathay Pacific landed in Hong Kong, he did not want to get off the plane, he said. Throughout the trip, which he also wrote about on the Cranky Flier blog, he was plied with Champagne and wine. He was served caviar as an appetizer on fine bone china and with a linen tablecloth. His seat turned into a full-size bed. He was handed designer pajamas to wear while an attentive flight attendant made up his bed, complete with a pillow, duvet and sheets.

“I’ve never experienced such a private jet atmosphere,” said Mr. Fischer, who snagged his seat using frequent flier miles. “It was the best flight I’ve ever been on.”

NY Times

In France, customs officials will visit passengers in the VIP lounge to review your travel documents. Following that you'll be driven to the plane for boarding

Carriers on international flights are offering private suites for first-class passengers, three-star meals and personal service once found only on corporate jets. They provide massages before takeoff, whisk passengers through special customs lanes and drive them in a private limousine right to the plane. Some have bars. One airline has installed showers onboard.

I would have paid to see the guy take off his clothes and put on pj's in those bathrooms.

Now there's a retirement option: just keep flying first class until you die of a pulmonary embolism (sp?) and get tossed at whatever airport you happen to die at.

[Rail Paul]

(snip)
Now there's a retirement option: just keep flying first class until you die of a pulmonary embolism (sp?) and get tossed at whatever airport you happen to die at.

That's part of my family's lore.

My cousin was a nurse on one of the Alaska cruise lines. A patient died overnight aboard ship between Seattle and Vancouver. Canadian authorities were unwilling to allow the body to be offloaded / imported into Canada, and demanded it be carried to Ketchikan to be shipped to the lower 48. The US authorities asserted the deceased had become deceased in Canada, and should be shipped back to Phoenix from there.

As the responsible party on the ship, she and the ship's agent in Vancouver got to know each other in the resolution of the matter. They saw each other a few times during the ship's voyages, later married, and had three kids.

The body was inspected by a Canadian examiner, processed by a Canadian undertaker, sealed in a shipping tube, and exported to the US, I believe.

[prasantrin]

The only flight I remember being on where a child pissed me off was one where the child wasn't even on the plane anymore. My companion and I had the misfortune to sit where a parent and likely young child/toddler sat. Cheerios and other garbage were left on the carpet, in the seats, and in the seat pockets. The trays were sticky with whatever fluids were spilled and slobbered.

But I actually blame the parents for that experience. And the airline/cleaning crew. The child was probably just doing what children do.