The Child-Free Flight: Super Idea or Slippery Slope?

The Morton Report

I’ve flown countless hours with my young daughter, who’s been to Europe, Africa, Asia, and back multiple times. Was she cranky at times? Yes, but guess what, so was I. And any noise or inconvenience she may have made in flight was absolutely nothing compared to the gentleman who sat next to us recently with a most unfortunate case of uncontrollable flatulence. Or the lady who was angry at me for having an aisle seat when she wanted it (and didn’t pre-book it), who just decided to keep getting up for the entire five-hour trip, causing me to fold up my laptop and move back and forth, feeling as though she had the right since “I warned you, I need my aisle, I get up a lot…”

What about people who can’t quite hold their drink, and get loud and rowdy, or “loud talkers” or those who sing along with the music piping into their headphones, disturbing the readers around them, or elderly folks who move slowly and block up the jetway? Should we start putting them in a new section too or ban them altogether? Seems to me that the only people who have made the news in recent times for disturbing a flight have been disgruntled in-flight staff, or highly intoxicated people — all adults, not children.

That's not a slippery slope. It's an additional problem without an easy solution, which in no way changes the propriety of childfree seating.

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