Airline launches solution for passengers who want to avoid sitting near children on long flights

13 September 2021, 10:37 | Updated: 14 September 2021, 11:14

By Heart

@thisisheart

A new online system allows passengers to avoid sitting near kids on long flights.

An airline has been praised after coming up with a solution for passengers who don’t like sitting next to children on long flights.

Most companies allow you to pre-book your seats using an aerial view of the plane.

Usually, there’s an icon which shows which seats that have been taken, those that have extra leg room and those that are free for you to pick.

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Now, Japan Airlines has introduced a small picture which shows which seats have been booked by children under the age of 12.

The website explains: "Passengers travelling with children between eight days and two years old who select their seats on the Japan Airlines website will have a child icon displayed on their seats on the seat selection screen.

“This lets other passengers know a child may be sitting there."

It does note that the child icon won't apply for any seats booked through third-party websites, which means you could end up next to a child anyway.

This comes after one mum sparked debate after she tried to enlist the help of a stranger to keep her seven-year-old son busy.

In a post on Reddit, an anonymous woman. said that she was boarding a flight from Budapest to London last year, when a mum and child sat next to her.

The user started to watch a superhero film on her phone with her headphones in and the child began watching over her shoulder.

When it got to a particularly gruesome scene, the mum asked if the movie was appropriate for children, to which the woman responded to say it was rated a 15.

The mum then suggested she put on something more child friendly or turn the film off completely.

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“I was shocked,” the Reddit user said, continuing: “'Uh, no. I'm still gonna watch the movie I picked for my flight' I responded.

“Now the kid pipes up, 'Have you got any games I could play?' 'No, because I'm watching a movie'. 'Come on, he's bored' [the mum] said.”

To which the woman furiously replied: "Not my problem though is it?

"It's not my problem that your child is bored, you should have planned ahead.”