Who do you think is right??
The airline. What an entitled family grouping.
In the article it says
[quote]
The flight attendants pleading Kirschenbaum’s case then found a flight attendant’s handbook, Kirschenbaum said, that allowed for an exception to be made if the passenger cannot sit by themselves. But the flight attendant would not budge.[\quote]
So the rule book allowed the exception. There should have been a quick apology then, and the matter would have been resolved.
I think I have to agree with Sylvan. If the rule is that you have to buy a seat for an child, it would stand to reason that you would buy that seat in the same section of the plane that YOU are sitting in. I guess they bought a “symbolic” seat in economy while they planned to sit with her in their lap in fist class? They should have communicated Ivy’s needs with the airline in advance of the flight.
I am not a fan of how United handles things (personal experience), but I’m with them on this one. The family was wrong. Why didn’t the 11 year old go back and take the seat in coach for takeoff? The point isn’t just to BUY the seat for the child, it’s for the child to be IN the seat for safety! Obnoxious parent alert here.
Im torn, on one hand the quote above should settle it, since it is in the handbook that it is allowed. On the other hand she seems to be a bit entitled. If she bought her seat in coach, they shouldve all flown in coach. Also, I am surprised they dont have a seat for her to fly in. Clearly they dont sit her on their laps in a car, so why wouldnt they bring a seat for travel?
Any one of their party could have occupied the coach seat. The parent were trying to shame the airline into a free upgrade.
obnoxious parents trying to game the system using their disabled child. Just ridiculous.
btw: was the 11-year old too “scared” to sit by himself/herself in coach?
I agree completely with GMT and MOWC. There is no reason the 11 yo couldn’t have taken the coach seat.
I think this family knew the drill, and they were trying to get a deal. They should have purchased all seats in coach, or all seats in first class. You can’t just buy a theoretical seat for a child, it’s supposed to be next to you, should they need it. Would have been pretty dang easy to send the 11 year old or DAD to the coach seat. Or get some people from coach to take your first class tickets and all sit together in coach. Why would they not send someone in the family back to coach? Are MOM or DAD scared to sit by themselves? Plus, I’ve found people in coach are always thrilled to swap for my seat in first class when offered. They first get this pained look when asked to trade, and then realize it’s in first class (at the point that I start saying, “Oh it’s no problem, I’ll ask someone else,” and they’ve grabbed their stuff and they’re out of there in two seconds flat.
I can’t stand United. I never fly them any more. They are incredibly rude, and I’m not willing to give them another chance. Plenty of people on power trips. However, in this case, the flight attendant was right, I’m sure the other flight attendants were just trying to get the flight out the door. I have no understanding why this would take an hour delay to sort out. The solution takes two seconds, and the flight attendants should have suggested this. The family should have done the obvious. However, it is likely that not everything is correct in this story. Why would the gate agent or the pilots not have stepped in? As a passenger watching this, I would have stepped in. I don’t understand, but this is just the parents version.
The parents owe the other passengers an apology for delaying them.
One would think that the FA said - Yes, we understand and can clearly see she cannot sit by herself; however, she needs to sit in her own seat, so she can sit next to you (parent) and you can hold / support her. And we’ll move your 11 yo (or other member of the party) back to coach for the takeoff. It seems obvious that the family balked at the idea of moving another member of the party back temporarily, which means “entitled.” I would love to hear if there was someone on the flight with them who can report what really went on. Maybe Flyertalk will have info.
I suggest that readers not take at face value the article’s paraphrase of the mother’s recollection of something one of the flight attendants may or may not have read aloud from the regulations. Exact words matter.
United, like all the big carriers, has a special services office for disabled passengers with special needs. You can arrange to have a passenger on a stretcher, with oxygen, or with myriad other special requirements. It sounds like this family just showed up and tried to game the system. (And with a child that small, a car seat was probably adequate.)
For safety reasons, this child who is the size of a one year old should have been strapped into a car seat in a seat next to the parents. If the plane had experienced turbulence like the recent case near Japan, that child would have been tossed out of the parents arms and killed.
Right, and it is clear from the article that there were other family members in the business section with the family. So they didn’t want to have to give up their precious business class seats even for the short time of takeoff.
Unless something else emerges, I don’t have any sympathy for the family with this one. They would have been a little more sympathetic if they’d showed up and thought they could just have her as a lap child – naive, perhaps – but the very fact that they bought the coach class ticket and then refused to move anyone in their party to it just says that they knew darn well they were going to try to game the system. They cannot be stupid enough to believe that what they wanted was “ok” since there was an unoccupied coach seat with their daughter’s name on it a dozen rows back.
Here’s another Flyertalk from a couple of years ago with an entitled couple - they were Orthodox Jews who were trying to fly on a Friday morning (since they couldn’t fly after sundown); due to their own fault, they got to the airport late AND tried to check bags with < 30 mins to go AND had liquids on them; the airline kindly put them on standby but they never made the subsequent standbys (which is how life goes with standby) and then thought that the airlines should have privileged them over other passengers because of their religion. Oy
A sideways move: have you been reading about the Orthodox men who won’t sit next to woman and so delay flights?
The fact that apparently nobody in first class who was listening volunteered to give up their seat for takeoff and landing tells me that they were very unsympathetic people. I would have done it just to get the flight off the ground, but if the people were selfish and irritating enough, I wouldn’t.
Then again, it would be good to hear the story from other passengers.
@lizard. Yeah, I read about that. The conflicts arise because American women w a backbone refuse to move to accommodate them.
“Yeah, I read about that. The conflicts arise because American women w a backbone refuse to move to accommodate them”
Good for her. Suggestion for the jerks. How bout YOU move?