no more of coach trips for me

[Royal Blue]

We had a very disgruntled little old lady in the roomette next to us last fall on the Capitol Limited, who spent the first two or three hours alternately complaining loudly to the conductor and SCA and shouting into her cellphone at assorted relatives. It would have been annoying, except that we were getting quite a kick out of her old-school Brooklyn accent.

 

[Cina]

The difference between a loud baby and a loud adult is that a baby doesn't have the ability (or the presence of mind) to control themselves, and so far people have been talking about babies, not children.

However, it's worth mentioning that older children may have autism or a behavioral disorder that may make a meltdown more likely. This is why my first line is always to pay attention to how the parent is handling it. Are they stressed out but handling it or nonexistent? A wailing child isn't fun for parents either, especially when they're just trying to get from A to B and they can feel the other passengers' stares.

I did go full teacher mode on some (totally deserving) teenagers in the back of a movie theatre a while ago. Felt good >

As to those nonexistent parents whose kids run amok? If the parents can't teach a kid that being unruly gets you thrown out, maybe amtrak should teach the parents

 

[cassie225]

Good point Cina

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The difference between a loud baby and a loud adult is that a baby doesn't have the ability (or the presence of mind) to control themselves, and so far people have been talking about babies, not children. However, it's worth mentioning that older children may have autism or a behavioral disorder that may make a meltdown more likely. This is why my first line is always to pay attention to how the parent is handling it. Are they stressed out but handling it or nonexistent? A wailing child isn't fun for parents either, especially when they're just trying to get from A to B and they can feel the other passengers' stares.I did go full teacher mode on some (totally deserving) teenagers in the back of a movie theatre a while ago. Felt good > As to those nonexistent parents whose kids run amok? If the parents can't teach a kid that being unruly gets you thrown out, maybe amtrak should teach the parents

Most of my noise issues have actually revolved around children rather than actual babies. That being said in many cases it's not related to a tantrum or meltdown per se, but rather the perpetual inability to mentally separate public and private places. Parents these days seem obliged to treat public spaces as if they were no different than their own private living room. Shouting for no reason, playing portable music/videos/games without using earphones, making a mess and failing to clean up after themselves. That sort of thing.

 

[StriderGDM]

I used to routinely fly from BWI to ALB and 99% of the time managed a bulkhead seat.

On one particular flight that wasn't possible and I ended up having to pick a seat further back. I noticed a young mother with her baby.

I purposely sat next to her. As a parent, I'm sympathetic to the struggles of travelling with small children and figured why let her end up with someone who hated kids but found that the last seat available. It ended up being a very pleasant flight as we talked the whole way and the baby was well behaved.

On the flip side, my wife was travelling the NEC at one point with our kids (who I will take pride in saying a friend who has said, "I don't like kids... except yours.. yours are great and well behaved").

She purposely sat at the end of the car where the two seats face each other, so 3 people to a 4 place seat.

Somewhere along the way an elderly lady decided that the 4th seat was a great place to sit (despite there apparently being many empty seats elsewhere in the car).

My kids tried their best to not annoy her, but apparently that wasn't good enough because at one point one of them must have accidentally bumped her or something and said, "Excuse me".

Well apparently that's not proper etiquette as the woman very loudly "corrected" my child to her him "It's 'Excuse me Ma'am'".

Yeah, this one still irks my wife and me.

 

[fillyjonk]

They've got just as much right to be there as you do, so stuff it.

Yeah, that's pretty much the attitude I see today.

To be fair, there's plenty of adults with an entitled attitude that are just as bad, if not worse, than most kids. So yes, they do have just as much right as an adult to be there in that they can be there until they cause an unnecessary amount of disturbance to other patrons.

Yeah. I've had worse problems with loud/rude/handsy adults in coach than I ever had with small children or babies.
What drove me to the sleepers were the behaviors of some of my fellow adults, not the kids that rode on the train.

That said: I've seen parents take crying babies at night to the lounge to try to encourage them to quiet (like walking with a crying baby) and that has the added effect of getting them out of coach....maybe the lounge lizards object but meh.

 

[xyzzy]

Bose QC25 is the answer. Accept no substitutes. I fly frequently with the predecessor Bose QC15 and they're marvelous. In the worst case they can be used along with earplugs to block almost anything.

 

[me_little_me]

Be thankful y'all have good hearing. Some day you may not and then you'll be complaining that you can't hear conversations. Deafness can be depressing for people who had "normal" hearing most of their life.

Here! Here! Or is it Hear? Hear?

And, yes, I wear hearing aids too. One advantage over non-hearing impaired. You can turn them off.

I bought the extra-cost "male-only" hearing aids. As soon as she says "Honey, can you ...", they turn off automatically. :giggle:

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Be thankful y'all have good hearing. Some day you may not and then you'll be complaining that you can't hear conversations. Deafness can be depressing for people who had "normal" hearing most of their life.

Here! Here! Or is it Hear? Hear?
And, yes, I wear hearing aids too. One advantage over non-hearing impaired. You can turn them off.

I bought the extra-cost "male-only" hearing aids. As soon as she says "Honey, can you ...", they turn off automatically. :giggle:

Yes, that's an advantage though I'd prefer not to have that advantage right now (I think my hearing is contributing to my not getting a job )

 

[Cina]

Being hearing impaired myself, I sympathize. It is nice to think of the benefits from time to time, like uninterrupted sleep

 

[zepherdude]

I used to routinely fly from BWI to ALB and 99% of the time managed a bulkhead seat.

On one particular flight that wasn't possible and I ended up having to pick a seat further back. I noticed a young mother with her baby.

I purposely sat next to her. As a parent, I'm sympathetic to the struggles of travelling with small children and figured why let her end up with someone who hated kids but found that the last seat available. It ended up being a very pleasant flight as we talked the whole way and the baby was well behaved.

On the flip side, my wife was travelling the NEC at one point with our kids (who I will take pride in saying a friend who has said, "I don't like kids... except yours.. yours are great and well behaved").

She purposely sat at the end of the car where the two seats face each other, so 3 people to a 4 place seat.

Somewhere along the way an elderly lady decided that the 4th seat was a great place to sit (despite there apparently being many empty seats elsewhere in the car).

My kids tried their best to not annoy her, but apparently that wasn't good enough because at one point one of them must have accidentally bumped her or something and said, "Excuse me".

Well apparently that's not proper etiquette as the woman very loudly "corrected" my child to her him "It's 'Excuse me Ma'am'".

Yeah, this one still irks my wife and me.

Yes, that would irk me too.

 

[andersone]

I don't object to the child, I object to the behavior of the child.

To me that is the prevue of the parents.

But as mother often said, you need not look far to realize some should not breed.

 

[jis]

Bose QC25 is the answer. Accept no substitutes. I fly frequently with the predecessor Bose QC15 and they're marvelous. In the worst case they can be used along with earplugs to block almost anything.

Yup, They are an absolute lifesaver. On the flight from Newark to orlando on Saturday we had double barrel issues in First Class. There was a yelling baby and there were two executives too full of themselves talking as if the whole plane needed to know their exploits in a Board meeting.
Solution ... Bose QC 15 blasting out the 1812 Overture! Never heard a thing from either. Well actually even when I hooked into Channel 9 the noise was so muted that it didn't really bother me.

 

[cassie225]

I love kids and often take my grandbaby,6 years old, with me to travel. He knows what we expect of him in public,he is a child and we don't expect him to act like an adult,but he is never rude to adults or children. When we are in our sleeper he laughs and talks and plays with us and if he gets too loud we shush him. We can all teach our children manners,but as it is babies cry and have colic and earaches.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

As a parent, I'm sympathetic to the struggles of travelling with small children and figured why let her end up with someone who hated kids but found that the last seat available.

Just because you have a distaste for noise and disruption doesn't mean you hate kids.

I've had worse problems with loud/rude/handsy adults in coach than I ever had with small children or babies. What drove me to the sleepers were the behaviors of some of my fellow adults, not the kids that rode on the train.

In my experience the difference is that it's much smoother and more practical to ask an adult to quiet down their own noise than it is to ask a parent to quiet down their unruly children. Not to mention that poorly behaved children often seem to have some surprisingly defensive parents.

Bose QC25 is the answer. Accept no substitutes. I fly frequently with the predecessor Bose QC15 and they're marvelous. In the worst case they can be used along with earplugs to block almost anything.

Yup, They are an absolute lifesaver. On the flight from Newark to orlando on Saturday we had double barrel issues in First Class. There was a yelling baby and there were two executives too full of themselves talking as if the whole plane needed to know their exploits in a Board meeting. Solution ... Bose QC 15 blasting out the 1812 Overture! Never heard a thing from either. Well actually even when I hooked into Channel 9 the noise was so muted that it didn't really bother me.

It's hard for me to imagine sleeping several hours in an AmChair or AmBed while trying to keep headphones on. Being stuck next to obnoxious passengers for two or three hours on an aircraft is rather dissimilar to experiencing heavy noise for two or three days on Amtrak. In my experience even ear plugs will eventually fall out and become useless. Moving on, what's your success rate with ATC on CH9 these days? Most of my more recent UA flights were on generic outsourced RJ's and CO 787's that are apparently incapable of providing CH9.

 

[jis]

I was pleasantly surprised to get channel 9 with the moving map on the ex-CO 777-200ERs on the way to India and back. It was announced by the pilot before takeoff. I have had very spotty luck on US domestic flights. But those are not as fascinating as on a flight that overflies Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Russia, and a bunch of Stans and Iran. That is all I listened to on that flight!

My impressions - the ATC folks in all countries, except Afghanistan were very professional and prompt. Afghanistan took so long to even acknowledge any message from us that we were already a third of the way across Afghanistan. Only the ATC folks in Pakistan greeted some flight with "Salam Aleykum", and bid farewell with "Khuda Hafiz". Notably the Iranians were absolutely by the book, none of this deviation for parochial purposes. In India many Indian pilots tacked in a "Namaste" after the "Hello", as did the controllers with only those pilots that did so. Otherwise they were by the book. And boy, the Mumbai enroute center is amazingly congested. The fact that Indian pilots are not as disciplined in using ATC communications we are used to in the US adds to the confusion, with everyone trying to talk over each other. The other interesting thing was when we overflew Pakistan, there were very few Pakistani flights in the air - just one Shaheen Airways and one PIA. In contrast there were 4 Air India, two Speedbirds British Airways), one Air France, one Aeroflot and two Unite flights that I heard.

Oh and the view of the Hindu Kush was spectacular as always. Meshad in Iran was visible in bits through a cloud cover.

Oh well this is kinda long for a completely off topic thing. Perhaps the mods may consider moving the Miscellaneous non-rail transportation group.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'm currently on one of UA's DTV aircraft. Took a while to find the map display but alas no CH9. I'm not sure how anyone would ever discover CH9 existed today unless they heard about it by word of mouth. I did manage to find a random reference to FTFD for 747 and 767 aircraft but that was it. From what I can gather most aircraft in the fleet either don't have it or at least don't advertise it. But they do have internet, or at least this one does, so for $5 you can listen to LiveATC and pick whatever airport you like (within reason). I'm not sure if this is an improvement or a detriment. Maybe it's simply a wash. Anyway thanks for passing along your experiences. UA is an airline I love to hate but when I travel to Asia I often end up on UA for at least part of my trip by virtue of my home airport and a continuing lack of easy automatic interlining to Asian carriers. Besides, when it comes to long distance commercial coach travel in 2015 nearly every airline is the same, including Singapore and Cathay Pacific. Welcome to homogenized globalization.

 

[nictorious]

I took a train to FL from RI on the way there we had a sleeper and for some reason I didn't get any sleep... excitement maybe? Anyway, on the way back we sat in coach and I pretty much slept like a baby, but then again I was so sick I probably would of slept anywhere.

Regarding crying babies and loud people in coach, isn't there a quiet car?

 

[the_traveler]

Regarding crying babies and loud people in coach, isn't there a quiet car?

There is no quiet car on any LD train.

 

[MILW 36C]

I don't care how loud anyone is on any airplane, train, boat, bus, camel, kangaroo, etc.

I use 3M Tri-Flange Earplugs and get them cheap on eBay. They block out noise and

don't get stolen like headphones...

 

[BoulderCO]

They announce a "quiet time" after 10 PM and ask people to take their conversations to the lounge car. Most people comply. Usually one person per car who insists on making and taking phone calls, however. In spite of that, I'd say it is generally quiet enough for most people to get some sleep.

 

[rtabern]

Yep... NEVER have gone overnight on Amtrak in coach... and NEVER would. I'm just too light of a sleeper and kids crying, people walking by, even people talking quietly would wake me up. If I can't get a sleeper, I would much rather fly somewhere than try and sleep in coach.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

For a while I thought I was going to get overnight in Coach on the Heartland Flyer and started thinking about where to forage Nesting Materials, but the weather finally cleared and we slowly chugged our way into Norman, very late but safe.