The airlines are normally willing to do practically anything for their first class passengers. They aren’t even bothered if the demand they are making is reasonable or not. There only aim is to satisfy their elite clientele so that they can retain them. The most recent example is the ban on babies from the first class cabins announced by Malaysia Airlines. This ban will be applicable in all of their aircrafts including the A380. The bassinets, the in-flight cribs required for babies to fly in will be removed from the existing aircrafts and the new aircraft including the Airbus A380 will not have the facility in the first class.
Tengku Azmil, the CEO of Malaysia Airlines confirmed that parents with babies flying with the airlines will be restricted to the business and economy cabins that have the facility if bassinets available. Azmil was candid enough to accept on twitter that it was a tough decision to take but the repeated complaints from first class passengers who could not sleep on the flight because of crying infants, forced their hand. The first class passengers feel let down as they spend the extra money for the first class so that they can sleep through the flight and not waste a day on arrival recovering from the fatigue.
The premium passengers contribute a significant portion of the airline’s profits and so it is no surprise that their concerns get top priority and the parents with babies get relegated to the lesser classes. The bulk of the premium passengers are business travelers who are travelling for work and generally travelling alone. There was another example of no children policy adopted by the British travel agency Thomson Holidays who launched their ‘Thomson Couples’ vacation experience that guarantees the couples that there would be no children at their destination.
