Japan Airlines Lets You Choose No-Kid Seats

Book a flight on Japan Airlines (JAL), and you dont just get to select whether youll sit in an aisle or at the window; you can also see if theres a child slated to sit next to you, and choose your spot accordingly.

According to the airline, people traveling with kids between 8 days and 2 years old will have a child icon displayed on their seats. The subtext being that if you dont like screaming kids around you, you can get as far away as possible.

Except, apparently, you can't get away from controversy about it on the Internet.

Tweets praising the JAL technology ranged from Ive been saying for ages we need a 21+ or 18+ only flight, to All airlines should do this. I have 2 little monsters and they love screaming for 6 hours nonstop on planes. I always feel bad for person sat beside us [sic].

The pushback

But defensive people and dissed-feeling parents quickly came out of the woodwork, criticizing the initial Tweet by Rahat Ahmed and other seat-selection lovers for all sorts of atrocities, from being insensitive to entitled and worse.

Were all young once! All these people who cant stand sitting next to young kids need to get over themselves- try and be considerate and realise that there are worse things in the world than sitting next to a crying child. Mimi Pollard (@thestrawbster)

Others chimed in with "Oh, the horror...a baby, babying on a public plane." And plenty suggested a more personal solution to blocking out the crying: "Buy some headphones!"

The tool isnt foolproofflights change, seat assignments change, and the BBC reports the airline as saying that the icon may not appear if the arrangements were booked by a third party.

Of course, age doesn't always have a lot to do with how annoying the others around you on a flight are. In the words of one commenter: "Spent 10 hours on a flight with a 1yo yesterday, no crying at all. Have seen far more fully grown adults crying about their seat, refusing to give up a seat that wasn't theirs, generally being a pain than I have had issues with little ones."