Now that I have a kid of my own, I'm very sympathetic to parents flying with kids. I've been on both sides of the aisle (pub intended) so I can see other passenger's frustration with kids and the parents frustration.
Malaysia Airlines is trying to make everybody happy by declaring the entire upper deck of the monster A380 jumbo jet a kids-free zone. Any child under 12 is not welcome. The kick is, the upper deck is economy class. Not business. Not first class. It's the cattle car of airplanes.
An article from the Australian Business Traveler explains how it works:
Banning kids from the upper deck economy cabin of 70 seats – which is next to the 66 seat business class section – will restrict them to the main economy cabin on the A380s' lower deck.
This is not the only time Malaysia Airlines has made kid-free zones on their aircraft:
Infants are also not allowed in the A380's first class cabin, in keeping with a similar and controversial 'baby ban' for the first class section of its Boeing 747s.Last year MAS managing director and CEO Tengku Azmil took to Twitter to defend MAS' decision not to install bassinets in the 747's first class cabin – as a result of which parents with infants are not permitted to travel in first class and have to book in the bassinet-equipped business or economy sections instead.
If I was traveling alone, I'd be applauding this move. But since most (if not all) of my travel now includes bringing my DS along, it's kind of a pain.
As I said before, I see both sides of the issue. Screaming kids and crying babies are a huge annoyance on any flight. They make it hard to concentrate on getting any work done, or taking a snooze.
What do you think? Did Malaysia Airlines make a good decision? Should all airlines have "kid free zones?"
No comments:
Post a Comment