TRAVEL: Malaysia Airlines is instituting a new policy that creates no-child zones on several of its flights.
By John Burke, Staff Writer
Malaysia Airlines is attempting to make travel more appealing to high-yielding business passengers by prohibiting children under 12 from sitting on the upper deck of economy class flights. “They [business passengers] value their peace and quiet and can rest assured that they won’t be disturbed by kids on long-haul flights,” Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying (an airline branding company), said. Malaysia Airlines had previously removed bassinets from their first-class section, effectively prohibiting infants from flying first-class. According to a June 2011 report from Australian Business Traveler, Malaysia Airlines CEO Tengku Azmil made that decision because of first-class passengers’ complaints about crying infants.
Some say that this policy is discriminatory towards travelers with families, who are paying just as much as their business counterparts. But Malaysia Airlines has said in a statement that these arrangements are more convenient for families. The lower-level economy section has eight bathrooms, and an aerobridge that makes it easier for travelers to embark and disembark from the plane. Also, child-free zones during travel are really nothing new. Many trains offer “quiet cars” for passengers on long rides. Even Disney Cruise Line has child-prohibited areas on board. In a live poll done by traveltoday.com, 92 percent of voters believe that airlines should offer child-free zones.
Malaysia Airlines’ new policy may not prove to be very rigid though. Joe Brancatelli, a publisher of the business travel website joesentme.com, believes that parents will be allowed to pay for access to premium cabins with their children. “It comes to this: if a parent wants to pay to bring a child in a premium cabin, well, it’s hard to turn away the money,” Brancatelli said. Malaysia Airlines also said that if its lower-level economy seating becomes full, then it will begin to allow families with children into its upper-level economy seating.