New Quiet Zone on Planes

I love kids and I love babies, but when you’re on a four hour flight and surrounded by six babies that screamed the entire way, it’s more than anybody should have to deal with. It happened to me on a flight out to California for Thanksgiving and I felt bad for the parents of those babies. What are they supposed to do? They tried their best to keep them quiet, but I think it was the change in altitude that was driving the babies crazy and they kept screaming.

One airline is doing something about it. Air Asia is creating kid-free zones on their planes. Kids under 12 are banned from the first seven rows of economy class. They’re calling it the quiet zone and it’s separated from the rest of the plane by rest rooms and a bulkhead. It even has softer lighting.

It’ll cost you a little more – between 10 and 35 dollars to sit in the quiet zone, but it’s the same price that you’d pay to select your seat on that airline.

All of Air Asia’s flights are to destinations in Asia and the South Pacific. There are no flights to the United States. That’s too bad because if they did they just might move American-based airlines to consider doing the same thing.

So in the meantime I guess I’m going to have to remember bringing earplugs or an Ipod on my next flight.