Malaysia Airlines extends child free zone

[JessicaTam]

Malaysia Airlines have extended their child free zone from the front of the plane to the entire upper deck on their A380:

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Is this going too far, or a reasonable idea?

Will it influence your decision to fly with them if you know you can be guaranteed a child free area?

(apologies but I am unaware how to change the name of the link)

 

[harvyk]

Given it's a section of the aircraft which is child free, rather than a class I don't really have an issue with that...

 

[leemin]

Given it's a section of the aircraft which is child free, rather than a class I don't really have an issue with that...

Agreed. It's just like the 'quiet area' of a lounge.

 

[wingspan]

Is this going too far, or a reasonable idea?

Will it influence your decision to fly with them if you know you can be guaranteed a child free area?

I think it's fairly reasonable. They're still happy to have children onboard, after all. I don't think it will influence my decision to fly with them or not - as even though it is nice to know that there will be some good child-free space to be enjoyed, I am mindful that there are some adults I can't stand having to share a cabin with. So it's luck of the draw. You might not have to worry about screaming and crying, but you might have to put up with drunken jeering. I'm not sure which I prefer.

 

[mannej]

Children aren't always the problem ones though are they?

 

[harvyk]

So it's luck of the draw. You might not have to worry about screaming and crying, but you might have to put up with drunken jeering. I'm not sure which I prefer.

Well you can increase or decrease you risk of drunken jeering simply by choosing the right carrier.

 

[wingspan]

Well you can increase or decrease you risk of drunken jeering simply by choosing the right carrier.

haha the problem with risk is that it approaches, but never reaches, zero.

 

[KLN]

a drunk usually falls asleep, but a crying child usually takes longer especially if they have earache etc, or reaction to phenergan. a big thank you for MH for this. i for one am very grateful, being a J flyer on MH. my kids are nearly finishing their teens, so i've done my bit. sorry. Selfish, yes!!!! and i deserve it.

 

[MH_fan]

I love this new policy from MAS. I find screaming and misbehaved children highly irritating on a flight.

 

[seanpodge]

As long as they don't use it as an excuse to jack up the prices for either zone and the children's zone has a fair amount of seats, then I think this is actually a pretty good move by MH. Apart from giving some people a chance to avoid a crying infant for up to 15 hours, it also would probably be better for parents given that those who really can't stand crying children are upstairs, therefore increasing the likelihood of those passengers around them being more sympathetic to their plight (I strongly doubt that the parents really enjoy their child crying the wings off of the plane for hours either!). Might also allow MH to look at other ways to make their cabin more child/family friendly too. Good to see that airlines are using their imagination with the 380.

haha the problem with risk is that it approaches, but never reaches, zero.

It'd have to be pretty much zero on SV.

 

[JessicaTam]

The only trouble is knowing my luck I would book and the upper deck would be full so I would end up in the 'crying room'. It will be interesting to see if a price premium is applied to stop all child free passengers from booking the 'quiet room'.

 

[Deleted member]

I love this new policy from MAS. I find screaming and misbehaved children highly irritating on a flight.

What about screaming and misbehaved adults ?

 

[oz_mark]

Malaysia Airlines have extended their child free zone from the front of the plane to the entire upper deck on their A380:

Well, actually they haven't. What they have said is that children will not be allowed in the upper deck economy section. This is a section of 70 seats. Children will be allowed in the 360 seat lower deck economy.

 

[DJSYD81]

My understanding is that the current MH child free policy applies to F class on the 747 and once they launch the 380 the same F class policy will apply in addition to the 70 seat Y cabin that will be behind J on the upper deck.

 

[MH_fan]

What MH is implementing on their A380 is the following:
1.No babies in First (no bassinets supplied).
2.No restrictions on babies and children in Business (bassinets are supplied).
3.No babies and children under 12 on the upper deck of Economy.
4.No restrictions on babies and children on the lower deck of Economy.

 

[MH_fan]

What about screaming and misbehaved adults ?

They, at least, can be evicted from the plane. Anyway, these badly behaved adults tend to appear when they've had too much alcohol.

 

[AVC]

I love this new policy from MAS. I find screaming and misbehaved children highly irritating on a flight.

I find smelly people highly irritating. In addition to demanding people, DYKWIA people, morons (sometimes all three appear as on entity), overweight people who encroach on your space, loud adults, intoxicated adults (loud or not), and smokers.

Can we have all these persons banned too?

Maybe we can just have one section of the aircraft reserved for the Master Race.


All sarcasm aside, I think this idea is total BS

 

[Deleted member]

Smelly is much worse than overweight. Some of the BO I have copped just walking down the aisle to my seat would make flowers wilt

 

[Justchecking]

I don't see anything either spectacular or wrong with this concept. It is, just a concept after all. Ever thought that perhaps some part of the reason for it might be the number of crew in respective area's? Maybe the upper deck economy has a lower crew ratio than the lower deck. They could gain efficiencies by not having to stock children's supplies, and kiddie meals on the upper deck. Who knows? As far as I'm concerned a business is allowed to allocate specific area's for specific purposes. No-one gets up in arms about McDonalds requiring children to play in the outdoor playground, or pubs not allowing kids near the bar. An airline has merely seen an opportunity to market a new concept to it's clientelle by dividing it's aircraft up into functional zones. Good on them for trying something new.

It's curious that a business' please be seated where we are willing to supply you with the necessary requirements for your flight is interpreted as a sinister infringement upon the rights of toddlers and parents everywhere....

 

[djfuzz]

I think the gist of this is reasonable.

I'm a bit on the fence about the rule in F, but I don't think that allocating zones that are dedicated to parents (with some attention to that detail, such as change table toilets and bassinets) and corresponding zones dedicated to adult travellers is such a bad idea. It sort of follows from the idea that parents travelling with infants should theoretically have precedence for bulkhead bassinet seats, but other pax complain when they are kicked out of those seats when they've preallocated them earlier.

I'm surprised that the zoning was not applied to J rather than Y, as I would have thought that would make more sense.

Having said that, as noted earlier, you're never going to be able to find a way to avoid all the other problem passengers.