Kids. Love 'em love 'em love 'em. They are, I've been told, The Future. Except when they're on a plane, and they're screaming their heads off because they can't vocalize that their ears hurt. Two airlines in Asia have heard the pleas of the childless, and are now offering baby-free seating. Finally.
Look, babies, I get it. No one has yet taught you about air pressure and the need to equalize the difference between the outside world (in this case, the interior of the plane) and that of your inner ear, usually by slowing or chewing gum or what have you, mainly because you are a baby and you don't speak English yet so how are you reading this post? And then the parents don't seem to care because they've been through it a million times and they feel all guilty about it but there's not much they can do now that the kid is in pain but the seatbelt light is on, and then you want to cry because it's just awful, and on and on and on.
It's a miserable situation for everyone involved. Now, two airlines that fly from Australia up to northeast Asia are allowing travelers to finally have some peace and quiet, according to Marketwatch:
Scoot Airlines — a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines — announced that it will let passengers pay about $14 to sit in a “child-free” zone. Children under the age of 12 are banned from sitting in this “ScootinSilence” area, which will span rows 21 to 25 on its flights. This area also offers a few inches of more legroom. Scoot offers flights to Singapore (its hub), Sydney, the Gold Coast, Seoul and Nanjing.
The airline joins Air Asia X, which also offers child-free zones. Air Asia X launched its “quiet zone” in February. Children under 12 aren't allowed to sit in this zone, which is composed of rows 7 - 14 in the premium cabin on some of its flights to Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Nepal and Korea.
Hot damn, only 14 bucks? And you get more legroom? I am failing to see the downside of this one, except for the fact that by age 11 most kids have stopped with the whole crying during flight thing and maybe their parents think the "no kids under 12" policy is a little unfair.
UPDATE: Via Peter Leung, this is totally not how the airlines will be doing it, although WestJet made a great joke about it on April Fools a while back:
Think this is a good policy? A bad one? Worth paying $14 for, or maybe even a little more? Let us know below in the comments!