A first or business class seat is not necessarily cheaper than two economy class seats. Also, if the customer of size wants to sit near to others who buy economy class seats, that may be impractical if s/he buys a first or business class seat. Also, some airlines do not have first or business class seats.
I’ve never seen any seat upgrades for $20.
The most reasonable ones I’ve seen are the emergency exit aisles… which I’m not allowed to get as I am disabled (literally the system wouldn’t let me do it after I requested some wheelchair service).
A few airlines apparently have “shell seats” where reclining moves the seat bottom forward, so that you consume your own knee room instead of that of the passenger behind when you recline.
@busdriver11 - there are many stories on flyer talk about the “infinity legroom” seat and the tricks you do to try to get it. You can be A1 and still miss out if there are people on the plane who don’t deboard. And then the ones who pre board - and try to sit in an exit row! Some frequent fliers on SW get really burned up about that.
northminnesota–you need to start flying on a private jet.
And now this:
Was Delta jealous of the attention United was getting?
How can Delta employees not know what their own website recommends for children? That’s really bad. He could have opened his laptop, shown them the recommendation and it would have been a done deal.
"you need to start flying on a private jet. "
or a private automobile, as long as the distances aren’t too great.
I can see why they got into trouble. They did not buy a separate seat for their toddler. Instead, they sent their older kid home on an earlier flight and then put their toddler in the seat of the technically no-show big kid.
Yes! That would really irritate me. I have seen jumpseaters be allowed onboard early, and thought…they’d better not go for that seat. I never would, if I’m getting a free ride. Haven’t seen that yet.
Phew it’s hard to believe the space could get smaller. Just flew back to Florida from California with my husband and younger son - they are 6’2 and 6’5 respectively. Son’s knees literally sit flush with the seat in front of him under the best of circumstances. We have yet to get that exit row.
H thought he was clever buying an upgraded boarding pass and getting on before us. Unfortunately he picked the one (?) row that had no window and I honestly thought I was going to have a panic attack from my claustrophobia. I sat on the (nonexistent) window to give the two of them more room. And in keeping with the Murphy’s Law of Flying - the man in front of me had to recline his seat to the max.
I asked H to never do that again, but he’s not a SW fan as much as I am and usually flies Delta anyway.
PS: I’m 5’3 and slightly overweight but nothing major. Don’t know how tall/large people bear it.
“they are 6’2 and 6’5 respectively.”
They need to fly in the “extra legroom” economy section (or first class). Delta comfort+ or Jet Blue even more space is much better than United economy plus. Air Canada has an equivalent section which is also very good.
I am 6’ 3" and haven’t flown in normal economy for over 20 years (and about 1,000,000 miles).
I agree. I’m not going to comment on the video or the actions of the employees, because I don’t want to watch an eight minute video, but it appears that these people were trying to pull a fast one. I mean, come on, seriously, people who travel with children know better than this.
If you have a child less than two years old, Federal regulations allow them to sit on your lap and you don’t have to purchase a seat. The airlines recommend that you purchase a seat for them, however, and put a car seat in it. If your kid is older than 24 months, you have to purchase a seat. For them. Not for someone else. The fact that they had sent their older child home on an earlier flight is irrelevant. Plus, did they actually purchase a different ticket for the older child to get on that flight, or did they just stop by the gate and say, “Hey, can he move to an earlier flight?”
Sure, if that seat is empty and the airline doesn’t put anyone on it, you can use that seat for your kid (but no, you can’t put your kid’s carseat on it and pretend you paid for it). Their older child didn’t still own the seat because he had been originally scheduled in it. It sounds to me like they pretended the kid was a lap baby for ticket purposes, and then entitled to a seat in actuality. There are always going to be people trying to scam.
I didn’t understand it that way @busdriver. I thought they purchased a second ticket for the older son on the earlier flight and used his previously purchased seat for the infant. That’s why he kept saying “this seat is paid for.”
HarvestMoon, I’m not sure about that. It seems bizarre that someone would purchase an entirely different ticket on an earlier flight for the older son, along with the one they purchased for the flight they were on. Nobody does that. They either pay the fare difference to move to another flight (if there is any), or they are often allowed to move to an earlier flight for free. Why wouldn’t they just purchase the ticket for the toddler and the carseat, keeping them on the same flight, if they were going to buy an extra ticket? It doesn’t make sense.
They should understand (unless they have never flown before) that if the person whom the seat was purchased for doesn’t show up, they lose the seat. You don’t get to keep the seat if you aren’t there. They should have purchased a seat for the toddler.
To add, it looks like it was an overbooked flight. Perhaps they allowed the older kid to get on the earlier flight because of that. Should they really have a free seat for the toddler when someone else is not allowed to get on, or they are paying people to give up their seats? Yes, it’s uncomfortable to fly such a long leg with a kid on your lap. But in that case (even if they’re less than two years old), you purchase the extra seat (particularly on a full flight), or you suck it up. You aren’t entitled to a free ride at someone else’s expense.
Not clear but he insists that the seat was paid for. I think if he did not pay for the seat the airline staff would have used that as the reason for him to give it up. They never contradicted him when he said he paid for the seat. The reason they gave was that it was against airline regulations to have the child in the car seat --which was clearly incorrect. They never said the seat was not paid for which would have been a slam dunk for him relinquishing it.
I think they just wanted to get another passenger on the plane and the easiest way was to have them hold the baby on their lap the whole flight rather than utilize the seat.
He said on the video that he purchased the ticket for the 18 year old on the earlier flight. My from what was said on the video was that they didn’t purchase a seat for the car seat on the way out but there was an empty seat they could use. My guess is that they found out that the flight back was booked up so they purchases a seat on the earlier flight so they would have have the teen’s seat for the baby.
This is what is said in the article,
The employees may not have said the correct things on all parts of the video, but it does not sound at all like they purchased a seat for the toddler. If that was the case, no doubt they would have just said fine, no car seat (that is, if they thought the car seat was an issue—though someone was wrong about that). Why would they keep bringing up the fact that the older son changed flights to give room to the toddler? I don’t believe that they purchased a seat for the toddler, and I really doubt that the employees were trying to make the toddler sit on the parents laps so they could resell the seat they had purchased for him.
They didn’t purchase him a seat, and decided he was entitled to sit in his brother’s seat. He’s not. If you are a no-show or have moved to an earlier flight, your seat is gone.
Agree, it doesn’t sound like airline did anything wrong–family just wanted “extra” seat which they weren’t entitled to.
How would the older son have gotten on the earlier flight if they didn’t purchase a ticket? If they had simply transferred his ticket to the earlier flight then his name {“Mason”} would no longer have shown on the seat in the later flight – that ticket would have been cancelled and transferred.
I think the mistake they made was to purchase the new ticket for the older son but leave the old ticket in his name. The flight attendant gave that as a reason he had to give the seat up – the ticket had to match the passengers name.
I agree if he didn’t pay for the ticket it was ridiculous for him to think he could keep the seat but I am not convinced that is what happened.