But aren't the same total number of people flying either way?

If it costs 100 thousand dollars for a flight.

100000 divided by 300 is ~333 per person.

If we take 50 off for family flights then that's 2000 per family ticket or 400 per non family ticket.

They consider themselves (at a minimum) entitled to disturb the peace with impunity. They consider themselves entitled to bring a screaming child anywhere they go, regardless of how appropriate or not it is to bring a child. You would never again think parents aren't entitled if you'd ever in your life tried to carve out a space away from them. Look at the reactions to any suggestion a wedding not need to have children present, or any other solemn occasion, mombies and daddicts lose what passes for their minds as soon as you put up an "adults only" sign. They want that sign taken down, and if it's something that's actually harmful to their kids and not just some adults wanting peace that they can invade with their shrieking germ spewers, then they want it banned altogether.

Every vice banned to protect children, and every restaurant with table cloths whose owner is afraid to put up a "no children under 12" sign are a testament to the entitlement of parents. It's a force of the universe only slightly weaker than gravity.

The only entitled person here is you, who somehow thinks that the rest of society should bend over backwards to accommodate you.

I'm sure the irony of saying this in defense of bringing babies on airplanes is utterly lost on you, but thanks for the laugh nevertheless.

You exist in a society, so you do sign up for those sacrifices.

Fuck that. A screaming baby brought to a public place and where it can't be taken outside when it starts to be a nuisance to everyone around is every bit as anti-social and entitled as a blue tooth speaker blasting music at full volume.

Plan ahead. If you're hellbent on ending every interesting part of your life to become a diaper slave, then get your travelling out of the way before you start. Plan for family to come to you or tell them they'll have to wait til the kid is old enough to fly without being a public nuisance. What you shouldn't get to do is bring your loud, smelly little bioweapon into a metal tube with hundreds of other people and make it everyone's problem at 35,000 feet in the air. Idgaf how inconvenient that is for parents, we should really make parenthood a lot more inconvenient in general so people will actually give it some due consideration before opting in instead of acting like there's nothing psychotic about just deciding to keep an unplanned pregnancy on a lark like it's an interesting knick knack from a thrift store.

But why would they take any off in the first place?

I mean, if you consider forcing adults to actually pay attention and watch the little shitlings they're responsible for a downside (as most parents absolutely would) then I can see how it's scary.

Then I'm confused what you meant by family flights.

Bold to comment on parenting after your own bad experience being parented!

Same prices, marketed towards families.

I don't get upset about the baby crying. That's just a baby being a baby.

What I get upset about is when the parent yells at the baby for crying. As if that would do anything other than make the baby cry harder. Maybe they think it'll show the passengers that they're trying to do something? It only shows that they have no emotional intelligence and are probably not stable enough to raise a child. Especially when the yelling is accompanied by shaking.

Yes, I've seen it. On a plane.

It's so common though. At least in America it is. I once walked into a restaurant and there were two kids play-screaming in the back. Parents didn't give a shit. We walked out.

On airplanes, some parents let their kids roam free. This is why iPad parenting is so effective. Shuts them up, even if it eats away at their future.

Man, fuck that. Kids who are young enough to not know any better becomes everyone's problem. Every year when I fly trans-Pacific, I end up sitting next to sick kids. They're too young to practice even polite coughing. It's just open-mouthed germ spreading the entire flight. I've gotten sick every single time. The last time, I ended up coughing so hard that I herniated a disk. Why do I have to be considerate to them and the same consideration isn't afforded to me? If your kid isn't old enough to be in society, don't take them on planes.

Keep that sense of humour with you next time you hear a baby crying, it might help :)

Airlines price things out so that they can fill up each flight as close to full as possible. A specialized flight like that isn't going to reliably fill up close to max capacity, so they can expect more open seats, which means they'll have to drop prices, and collect a lower average fare across that flight.

Am I crazy, or is everyone else completely overstating the frequency of this problem?

I've flown next to other people's babies maybe 20-30 times, and maybe within a row or two of other people's babies another 50 times. I can only remember 1 time where a baby cried for more than a minute or two in my own row, and maybe 2 or 3 times where I could hear a baby crying somewhere on the plane for more than a few minutes.

I also find the drone of an airplane to be very loud and unpleasant, so I tend to want to wear noise canceling headphones anyway. I genuinely can't understand being upset at plane noise + baby over just plain plane noise.

I'm sure that made sense in your head.

Maybe next time workshop your bon mottes a little more before publicly posting them.

I bet you were just like them. A baby. How about now?

I didn't fly until I was about 10. I just had better parents. How about you?

I just had better parents

Just keep telling yourself that.

I mean if your parents were never quite considerate of others, they really passed that onto you

Coming from someone who thinks a crying baby isn't allowed in a public space.

I didn't mention crying, did I? Were you homeschooled?

Fine sick kids substitute sick kids and look up narcissism. Don't bother replying if you think I will ever see it cause that is my diagnosis and my response to it is textbook.

Yeah, I'd agree you and your parents are pretty narcissistic. Glad we've come to the same conclusion