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• Southwest to Kids: No Cutting in Line

  Say it isn’t so. Southwest Airlines announced today that starting Oct. 2, it will no longer allow families to board first. How could they? Apparently, too many people not wise enough to travel with children under five complained that it’s just not fair. Curse you, child-free complainers! Actually, my bet is the curse is all over you, in the form of a loud, whiny, unreasonable seat mate on your next Southwest Airlines flight. Let me lay out the new rules: families with kids under five can no longer board first, but they can board just after those smug early arrivers who win the coveted Group A boarding pass. B and C, you’ll just have to complain a little louder. Read More... Posted Sep 19 2007, 04:37 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: Southwest Airlines, complaining parents, travel with kids, air travel

• Warning: In-Flight Movies are NOT for Kids!

  I hate movies on airplanes. Maybe it's because you have to cough up $5 for a pair of cheap headphones unless you're a lipreader. Maybe it's because my idea of a good film is more on the order of "Amelie", "Les Choristes", or "The Sea Inside" (incidentally, all films with subtitles, thus negating the need for those damn cheap headphones!). Or maybe it's because no matter what you do, even if you don't want to watch the film, you cannot escape getting glimpses of it from time to time. But I think the biggest reason I hate movies on airplanes is that they are totally inappropriate for children. And I usually fly with several. Read More... Posted Sep 02 2007, 11:11 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: air travel, kids and movie ratings, in-flight movies, kidsafe.org, media violence

• Segregating Families on Planes: An Answer?

  Any of us who have traveled via air, either with kids in tow or without, or who even have read any sort of news lately are keenly aware that it's entirely possible that kids and airplanes don't mix. Toddlers getting thrown off planes? Check. Breastfeeding bru-ha-has? We've got those too. Disgruntled business travelers, or, really, anyone who doesn't like to sit strapped to a seat for 4 hours that's being constantly pummeled from behind by small feet? Yes, we've got those too. As someone who has sat for hours in a plane on the tarmac awaiting liftoff with small kids in tow, desperately trying to entertain them and mete out the snacks, or who has shared The Very Last Seat on a flight home from Paris on a plane filled with Chilean card players with a squirmy toddler, or who has snagged the Two Last Seats and lied about my three-year-old's age to get home from Finland on a 10-hour flight filled with Polish people who swarmed the aisles and ignored the seatbelt signs, I know all about travel with children. And I tend to be more forgiving, I guess, of the inevitable wailing on descent and other behaviors exhibited by kids on planes. Hey, so they feel all claustrophobic and bored? Me too. Except I can deal with it better (barely). So Southwest Airlines is apparently experimenting with a variety of boarding procedures involving families. Hey, that pre-boarding invitation is almost worth taking the kids along, just to have time to snag pillows and find room in the overhead bins and snicker privately at everyone else who comes lumbering onto the plane after you (TELL me you haven't been glad of getting on the plane first!). But one of the scenarios they are playing with is having certain rows on the planes set aside for families. Read More... Posted Jul 30 2007, 09:47 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: travel, Southwest Airlines, air travel, planes