Vent - babies on longnhaul flights

Jamie_Yorkshire

We were recently on a flight from MAN - PUJ which is about 9 1/2 hours long. Unfortunately we were unlucky enough to have 2 families with babies put in the rows next to us. The rows in the middle were empty and the crew moved the families into them, I am assuming as they had not paid for a seat for the baby. I know they will end up next to someone so this isnt my gripe. The problem was that one of the babies did not stop screaming for 9 hours which as you can imagine is extremely annoying. The parents got some very disaproving looks from my OH.

What gets me is why do people feel it is appropriate to take babies on long haul flights for holidays? Surely if you make the decision to have children you realise you may need to think about your holiday choices more, the child obviously did not appreciate the 9 1/2 hour flight and neither did the other 320 people onboard the aircraft.

On another point, on the same flight the cabin crew made an announcement that someone had a severe peanut allergy so they would not be selling peanuts and requested no one ate peanuts they had brought with them. We both thought this was odd as if your allergy is that severe woud you really want to go to another country to a hotel where the chefs speak very little English and the risk of nut contamination in your food would be much higher than the UK?

System

You're right if you have a serious food allergy you should do absolutely nothing. Never leave your house or go on holiday. If something happens to you when you are on holiday it's your own fault and you should rightly die.

notanewuser

Jamie_Yorkshire wrote: »

We were recently on a flight from MAN - PUJ which is about 9 1/2 hours long. Unfortunately we were unlucky enough to have 2 families with babies put in the rows next to us. The rows in the middle were empty and the crew moved the families into them, I am assuming as they had not paid for a seat for the baby. I know they will end up next to someone so this isnt my gripe. The problem was that one of the babies did not stop screaming for 9 hours which as you can imagine is extremely annoying. The parents got some very disaproving looks from my OH.

What gets me is why do people feel it is appropriate to take babies on long haul flights for holidays? Surely if you make the decision to have children you realise you may need to think about your holiday choices more, the child obviously did not appreciate the 9 1/2 hour flight and neither did the other 320 people onboard the aircraft.

On another point, on the same flight the cabin crew made an announcement that someone had a severe peanut allergy so they would not be selling peanuts and requested no one ate peanuts they had brought with them. We both thought this was odd as if your allergy is that severe woud you really want to go to another country to a hotel where the chefs speak very little English and the risk of nut contamination in your food would be much higher than the UK?

Is this a wind up? I assume you don't have children.

I took my daughter on a long haul flight to visit family who lived abroad when she was very small. As it happened she was good as gold and star of the flight both ways, but I had no way of knowing that until actually doing it!!! Okay, it's annoying if a child is upset on a flight, but is it really that much of a big deal? It's 9 hours out of your life. People with babies and children are just as entitled as you to be there.

I'm now looking to take DD (now 2.5) to Cuba. We'll have to compromise on where we do and what we do because of that already. Having to drive there to avoid having to share a plane narrow-minded, selfish adults who should know better is a bit of a step too far.

Perhaps you should consider a private jet in future.

(Just spotted your username. Explains everything. )

Jamie_Yorkshire

goater78 wrote: »

You're right if you have a serious food allergy you should do absolutely nothing. Never leave your house or go on holiday. If something happens to you when you are on holiday it's your own fault and you should rightly die.

Thanks for the sarcasm, I'm not saying they shouldn't do anything. I was actually quite concerned as how can you enforce on a plane that no one eats nut products they brought with them. Some people may not even think about it. Also the standards in the Dominican are a lot different to the UK, the buffets always have people using the wrong scoops in each dish, which the staff can't control which inevitably leads to cross conamination.

Valli

I presume that the problem on a flight would be that, were the allergic person to have an anaphylactic reaction the flight might have to divert/land in order to get the person some medical aid, even if he/she carries an Epipen.

Even more inconvenience for you.

notanewuser

Are people still going to the Dom Rep? It's the Butlins of the Caribbean. :rotfl:

Jamie_Yorkshire

notanewuser wrote: »

Is this a wind up? I assume you don't have children.

I took my daughter on a long haul flight to visit family who lived abroad when she was very small. As it happened she was good as gold and star of the flight both ways, but I had no way of knowing that until actually doing it!!! Okay, it's annoying if a child is upset on a flight, but is it really that much of a big deal? It's 9 hours out of your life. People with babies and children are just as entitled as you to be there.

I'm now looking to take DD (now 2.5) to Cuba. We'll have to compromise on where we do and what we do because of that already. Having to drive there to avoid having to share a plane narrow-minded, selfish adults who should know better is a bit of a step too far.

Perhaps you should consider a private jet in future.

(Just spotted your username. Explains everything. )

No it's not a wind up. We work very long hours each week for our holidays and dont appreciate 9 hours of screaming and neither did the the majority of people sat near us.

No we dont have children but equally have made the decision when we do we would not fly long haul with them as babies and change our holiday choices accodingly as we would not want to upset other people,so sorry if that makes us selfish.

Jamie_Yorkshire

notanewuser wrote: »

Are people still going to the Dom Rep? It's the Butlins of the Caribbean. :rotfl:

Agree, but its hot

notanewuser

Jamie_Yorkshire wrote: »

No it's not a wind up. We work very long hours each week for our holidays and dont appreciate 9 hours of screaming and neither did the the majority of people sat near us.

No we dont have children but equally have made the decision when we do we would not fly long haul with them as babies and change our holiday choices accodingly as we would not want to upset other people,so sorry if that makes us selfish.

People with children work hard for their holidays too.

No reason they should be banned from planes.

As I said, work harder and you can fly by private jet.

yangptangkipperbang

goater78 wrote: »

You're right if you have a serious food allergy you should do absolutely nothing. Never leave your house or go on holiday. If something happens to you when you are on holiday it's your own fault and you should rightly die.

Quite right - then Booths supermarkets wouldn't have had to clear the shelves of those packets of peanuts which didn't have a warning on them saying that the packet "may contain nuts" :rotfl::rotfl:

tibawo

Dear mum

Working in Africa has opened my eyes to a new culture and place. However I am sorry you won't be able to see your grandkids grow up as the man on the plane wants children not to go on long haul flights.