If you fly a lot, try to concentrate it as much as possible on 1 mainline carrier AA NW DL. You will eventually earn elite status that allows upgrades to first class. Makes all the difference in the world if you can afford it.
Sure every airline will have children but I've noticed there are more kids on SW than any other airline I've flown. There have been several non-SW flights I've been on that had 0 kids. I've never been on a SW flight with less than 5 kids under 6. The 3.5 hr hell flight I mentioned before had a dozen!! Can you imagine what it was like? And at least on other airlines you can upgrade to 1st or Biz class to avoid them.
You're expecting the rest of us to pay $15k for a flight to avoid your screaming children? airlines need to have a surcharge for each child under 6. The burden should not be on the innocent traveler, it should be on the one who brings inconvenience to others.
First off - if liberal dopes in Congress are going to tell me we can't discriminate against people who look like terrorists when boarding planes you can be damn sure they are not going to be allowed to discriminate against kids. Although I think they should have every right to do it. I personally would have no problem if they let the market place determine whether discriminating against families is a profitable profitable concept. There is a theory among jurists that business with a taste for discrimination will lose out - because discrimination has costs associated with it. As a conservative - I believe that all these laws that help minorities actually hurts them. Every small business in CA is deathly afraid to hire blacks. The new ones that are idealistic quickly learn their lesson. Just one pissed off black worker costs close to 100,000 in legal fees and settlements costs. I know a prop trading firm that never recovered. so who am I to say you have to let me amnd my kids on your plane or in your restaurant. Let the free market work.
That's hilarious! I think a deposit should be held by the airlines. If a kid is a pain on the flight, no money back! And Southwest is definitely the strangest airline I've flown. I especially love the way we get hearded on like cattle because there are no seat assignments!!
A little off topic, but I couldn't resist. Your reference to racial profiling brought back memories. I used to fly for a major airline...retired not long after 9/11. Pilots coming through security checkpoints were pulled aside to have their shoes removed and checked, belts and hats were removed. Meanwhile Habib (name was changed to protect the innocent), standing in line behind me, gets ushered through without complication. How ridiculous! If a pilot were intending to bring down an aircraft, he wouldn't do so by blowing his foot off. I had hoped that things may have changed by now. Your post suggests that they haven't.
Discriminating against one's ethnicity is considered a no-no in our society whereas age discrimination is generally acceptable. (ex: you need to be a certain age to buy a firearm or tobacco or alcohol, and vote, etc..). So those liberal dopes will not discriminate against someone who looks arab but they can (rightfully) discriminate against whining, screaming kids.
I understand what you are trying to say. But there is a difference between age discrimination - which is not allowed as age is a protected status in many antidiscrimination laws including housing- and protecting the health safety and welfare of people (in this case minors)
That of course is the solution. I am a senior so I cannot get a computer ticket. I have to prove I am a senior for each flight. Luckily I get a "C"card almost all the time. I get to see where every kid is sitting so I can chose to go elsewhere (usiually in the aft section at a window on the shady side of the ship. If I feel like it, I check for two grumpy "A"'s traveling together and I sit between them and read prints of ES trading. Southwest gives the best opportunity to avoid sitting with kids because a person has total choice in the matter. Lining in Tucson, makes SWA a neat choice since the hub is LV on connecting flights. Jet Blue is a fun red eye out of tucson since it hits NYC just right and they pay you for delays and give refunds too. Right now I am averaging 45 dollars round trip to NYC. Long ago. I used to fly alaska airlines between Tucson and Phoenix since it was just a dollar a minute (25 min flight) and I had pick ups at both ends when consulting. I commuted to DC from ABE too. 20 bucks one way and you handed bill to desk and walked out on tarmack and up steps; they brought ticket to seat. lol.... Business jets changed everything.
As a Father of a 7 week old boy, I have to ask, are you serious? I just don't understand people that bring infants out to public eating est.'s and such. If the flight was unavoidable, well I guess then there's nothing that can be done. But , my wife and I went to a nice dinner last week, we got a sitter for a 2 hours. Why is that so hard for some?