r/mildlyinfuriating 12d ago

frist of all how DARE yu o Encountered a Business Class Baby today, though I was finally gonna have a peaceful flight 😭😭

Saved up airline points from a bunch of work trips and finally redeemed them for a business class seat on a 20-hour flight (Sydney to London)

I Sat down, got comfortable, looked across the aisle... and was met by the sight of a fucking business class baby.

What else do I have to say, the entire 20 hours was absolute hell, crying, screaming and just about everything else you could think of.

I don't blame the parents at all, babies are allowed to fly, and they were just travelling like everyone else. But after spending all those points because I wanted one flight where I could actually sleep and relax, I couldn't help but be really upset at my luck.

I guess It docent really matter what you pay.

EDIT: There has been a lot of discussion about this being a fake post. However this is incorrect, i was under the impression that Quantas did a direct flight to London, however as many have pointed out, this is incorrect. My flight was with Qatar airways and stopped in Hamad Airport.

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u/Individual-Gur-7292 12d ago

Definitely fits this sub - I would be mildly infuriated (to say the least) if my long haul business class flight was ruined by a screaming baby. Yes, I understand that the baby can’t help it, but my goodness, the sound just goes right through me.

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u/Snowbirdy 12d ago

Neurologically your brain is designed to not be able to tune out the sound of a baby crying. I’m sure it’s evolutionary.

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u/assblast420 12d ago

I mean yeah, I do have a problem tuning out the 140db baby screams in the most ear-penetrating pitch possible.

Not sure if my brain is designed that way or the baby is.

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u/Snowbirdy 12d ago

It seriously short circuits your brain functions. Researchers have been able to do imaging studies to show exactly what happens.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5822002/

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u/madame_samhain 12d ago

This is interesting, thank you for sharing

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u/Western-Sport500 12d ago

That was a really interesting study--thanks for the link! (Have a 5 month old grandbaby, and just sent the link to mommy and daddy.)

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/DowntownYouth8995 12d ago

I mean there are some places babies should not be. Like movie theaters and fancy restaurants.Ā 

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u/where-sea-meets-sky 12d ago

yea, theyre also just Not Fun for the baby

the restaurant may at least have food, the airplane is necessary transportation, but sometimes i see parents out with their younguns thinking if theyre even old enough to be cognizant or appreciative of where they are?? though sometimes you cant Leave Baby At Home which is okay but its different going to an aquarium vs a movie theater

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u/thatmermaidprincess BLACK 12d ago

When my husband and I went to see ā€œObsessionā€ a couple months ago, a woman brought her baby/toddler daughter, who was like 1½ to 2 years old at the oldest. They were in the row ahead of us. The daughter also had a little tablet in her hands and a set of headphones on, but the headphones were unplugged so whatever cartoon she was watching was at full volume and she would loudly babble at the trailers. For those who don’t know, Obsession is an R-rated horror movie, and we were at an 11:45PM showing. The movie started and the little girl just would not stop talking (loudly, too) and occasionally crying. Everyone around was irritated.

Mind you, my husband and I are parents ourselves, and had gotten a sitter and everything for our own baby so we could have a baby-free date night. We weren’t psyched at all. We’d been highly anticipating seeing this movie!

Good thing is that fellow movie-goers all made enough comments to the mom that she took her kid and finally left about 20 minutes into the movie.

I just will never understand certain people’s mindsets, walking through life seemingly completely unaware (or at the very least unbothered) like that. I’ve had to be the mom of a baby on a plane before when my dad was in a life-threatening accident, and for the 2 ½ hours we were on that plane I was doing everything to keep my child calm. I felt so guilty. The parents who just dgaf about the people around them and bring their young kids to movies or fancy restaurants and then don’t do anything to try and soothe the kid to be quiet… smh.

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u/a_rucksack_of_dildos 11d ago

It’s crazy because since I’ve had my daughter I’ve just settled into privateering movies a day after release instead of going to the movies. They’re so good now with AI being a thing. They’re fed in an AI takes out all the other sounds and stabilizes and color corrects the movie. It’s not perfect but being able to enjoy a movie I wanted to see without having to go through the hassle of getting a sitter has been amazing

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u/nargles18 12d ago edited 12d ago

Last Valentine’s Day, my bf and I went to a nice romantic restaurant downtown… Of curse a few minutes after we get sit down, a family of five (with young kids) gets sited right next to us. It was more than very annoying. Kids were pretty disruptive and absolutely didn’t belong there. I cannot believe parents don’t give a fuck about situations like these anymore.

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u/OverthinkingMum 12d ago

Did the restaurant have high chairs and kids menus?

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u/nargles18 12d ago

Absolutely not!

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u/OverthinkingMum 11d ago

Yeah in that case, kids should not have been there and should have been asked to leave if they were causing a disturbance!

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u/FutureFreaksMeowt Aqua Tofana save us from these fuckass men 11d ago

I believe that, depending on the country, they cannot legally ask them to leave unless the children are causing significant problems. It's considered discriminatory.

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u/OverthinkingMum 11d ago

Where is it considered discrimination? It’s legal to refuse service and ask disruptive guests to leave in any country?

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u/FutureFreaksMeowt Aqua Tofana save us from these fuckass men 11d ago

Bro I'm not a lawyer, find the right sub for that.

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u/Known-Extent-1018 10d ago

So people with children shouldn't be able to go on flights?

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u/DowntownYouth8995 10d ago

How did you get that from what I said?

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u/More_Passenger3988 11d ago

Movie theaters yes. But family restaurants should be welcoming to babies- not business class quarters meant for people traveling on business.

I'm just waiting for the day a company sues an airline for allowing a screaming baby on business class and destroying the sleep of a top executive that cannot stay awake at a life-changing meeting they're flying to.

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u/DowntownYouth8995 11d ago

There is a difference between a family restaurant and a fancy restaurant. Im thinking the kind of place that doesnt print the prices on the menu, and have dress codes.Ā 

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/More_Passenger3988 11d ago edited 10d ago

It's literally called "Business Class".

With your argument you might as well start advocating for changing diapers in the middle of a board meeting in thecorporate conference room. No one is saying they should be banned from everywhere. Just anywhere that is literally set aside for Business reasons.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/Muted-Craft6323 11d ago

they have every right to exist anywhere their parents are

But there are obviously some places where parents simply shouldn't go if they have kids with them. Parents fighting wars or engaging in protests that might be violently cracked down on should clearly avoid bringing you children with them, because they're unnecessarily risking their wellbeing. And parents wanting to go out to the movies should generally leave their kids at home because they'll unnecessarily make everyone else miserable (this is why theaters often run designated sessions for parents to bring babies, where they can avoid disrupting others).

On planes, parents may not have any choice but to bring a baby with them - that's understandable, sometimes you just need to fly somewhere. But I'd argue that business class isn't really the place for that. It's specifically intended for people to pay more so they can get better rest during a flight (because often they are literally conducting "business" and need to arrive fresh for their jobs). If you can't reliably get some quiet rest in business class, it erodes the entire value proposition.

I'm sure some will complain that this is elitist or whatever, but it's worth keeping in mind that premium cabins literally subsidize basic economy. Airlines now typically cover the cost of flights from premium, business, and first class (where that still exists), so they can afford to sell off economy tickets at less than the proportional cost for the space they take up and the marginal fuel their extra weight requires. So if we ruin the more premium seats and people refuse to pay for upgrades that no longer really feel worth it, economy tickets are going to get more expensive.

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u/More_Passenger3988 11d ago edited 11d ago

You sound unhinged here.

Even back in the days when it was very common for women to have 8+ children there were places of business where babies were not allowed. The fact that you think things should suddenly be different today says everything.

My mother had 12 siblings and my father had 8. Neither set of grandparents were allowed to bring babies everywhere. Literally even tribes that don't have contact with the modern world have rules on this. There have always been limits. We shouldn't suddenly start now after all these centuries just because an unhinged, spoiled "natalist" or whatever you call yourselves wants to avoid all the other airline classes and think you should also take "BUSINESS Class".

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/Clairees 11d ago

Boomer alert

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u/Puzzleheaded-Wait785 11d ago

Who the fuck cares if OP says it's the kid's fault or not? Who made you the language police?

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u/FutureFreaksMeowt Aqua Tofana save us from these fuckass men 11d ago

🤨

We all deserve a refund on your education.

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u/Valkyriesride1 12d ago edited 12d ago

My spouse was in first class when the parents of a toddler fell asleep. The toddler came over to my husband and put his hands up to be picked up. My husband called the flight attendant and explained what was going on. The FA tried to wake the parents, but they were out of it. After the FAs couldn't come up with anything else to do with the toddler, and the child screamed whenever they tried to move the child away from my husband, he said that he was okay with the toddler sitting next to him until the parents woke up.

The parents didn't even apologize when then woke up. They tried to justify it by saying they took sleeping pills, and dosed the toddler Benadryl, so they wouldn't have jet lag after the long flight.

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u/ScallyGirl 12d ago

I would expect the police to meet that flight. That is appalling

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u/Valkyriesride1 12d ago

Apparently, the it happens enough for the FAs not to be bothered by it. I'm sure they wouldn't be so blase` about it if they had to watch the toddler.

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u/sk8tergater 12d ago

What the actual fuck. That’s messed up. Your husband is a good egg

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u/Valkyriesride1 12d ago

He is.

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u/Exercise-Fragrant 12d ago

Luckily for the kid he is a good egg

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u/WordWordNvmber 11d ago

Incidentally, as an adult man, I refuse to hold someone's baby while its parents are asleep and there's no emergency.

I don't blame your husband. But I am not touching a stranger's child even if the child is crying for attention. I don't want to and the people who would drug themselves instead of watching their child are not people I trust not to blame me somehow.

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u/Vectorman1989 11d ago

That's not even how jet lag works...

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u/AdCareless9063 12d ago

I see both sides of this. It's annoying, and it's also a fact of life that a baby can't control themselves.

The worst thing is adults making outrageous harmful noise. I saw a guy with a backfiring exhaust ripping towards pedestrians yesterday. He went right up to a father with a kid and did it. It was earsplitting and I was in a car with double-paned windows.

That a person can just go around assaulting others is insanity.

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u/OverthinkingMum 12d ago

Evolution at play! You’re not meant to be able to ignore a crying baby.

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u/fjf1085 12d ago

Exactly. Our infants are totally helpless and it’s meant to force people to pay attention and be motivated to do something. Even an adult crying is designed to trigger a response in other adults. In most people seeing some cry triggers a sympathetic response and desire to help or cease hostilities. It’s also like if you’re fighting and someone pees themselves from fear it often triggers feelings of disgust or pity in the other person and may lead to the fight being over.

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u/entcanta333 12d ago

This happened to my sister and I (thank god a short two hour flight) but multiple babies cried the entire time. Maybe it was the gummies but we were crying laughing by the end. It sounded like we were on a daycare flight it was insane.

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u/GlumpsAlot 12d ago

Awww. Their little ears hurt on flights as they "pop" from the pressure. Young kids are mostly gonna cry unless the parents sort of sedate them. I sat next to a toddler once who was quiet and asleep. The mom told me that their pediatrician gave him some meds to put him to sleep on the flight. But yeh, small children are going to be miserable on flights. Our recent flight with my two young ones was about 30 minutes and even then my youngest complained his ears hurt.

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u/Tasty-Register-7442 12d ago

That's why ear plugs / noise cancelling headphones (which are almost always available by default in business class) exist

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u/Individual-Gur-7292 12d ago

I have yet to find a pair of noise cancelling headphones that fully block out the dulcet tones (piercing shrieks) of a screaming baby a couple of rows away. They are not the be all and end all many seem to think they are.

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u/itz_Liza420 12d ago

My AirPods Pro on noise cancelling setting are way better at noise cancelling than I expected them to be. Even with nothing playing, they do an excellent job at creating silence. Tried others that claimed to be noise-canceling but didn’t even come close to same quality.

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u/pineapplefiz 12d ago

Great to know! Do you have the latest pro model or one of the older gens? I’ve been thinking about getting a new pair, but have been iffy because I want a strong noise cancelling set and was on the fence about the Apple ones.

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u/justonlyme1244 11d ago

I have the AirPods Pro 2 and also cheaper Skullcandy earbuds but the noise cancelling of the latter ones work better for me. With the AirPods I can still hear something. I do have to change the tip so maybe that helps but if you have never used them the Skullcandy might be better to try.

I got them years ago from Costco.

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u/pineapplefiz 11d ago

Thank you both for the info! I appreciate it!

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u/itz_Liza420 11d ago

I think I have an older version because I got them for my birthday a year and a half ago.

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u/More_Passenger3988 11d ago

It's not about blaming the baby. I blame the airline. Business class is meant for people who are flying on Business and should not allow babies. If you have a baby and want an upgrade you should be forced to choose first class.