Yeah, I say throw them off. Too bad for them. They can book and pay for an entire row if they don’t want to sit next to women.
Several years ago, I went to Saudi Arabia and then Egypt on business. When in SA, I wore the hijab / abaya the whole time as is mandatory. When I left, I was on Saudi Arabian Airlines bound for Cairo and boarded early along wiht my male coworkers in business class. I saw that the other women around me had shed their hijab / abayas and so I went to do the same (as I had had enough of wearing that abaya for a week). Underneath, I was wearing cropped pants and a cardigan that was three-quarter length (since I knew that would be perfectly acceptable for traveling in Egypt). I went back to my assigned seat and settled in. The stewardess came up to me and indicated that I needed to move my seat because the man who was assigned to sit next to me didn’t like how “immodestly I was dressed” because as you can well imagine, my wrists and forearms drive men wild with desire, LOL. (Note how I had to move my seat!) I said, sure, whatever, as long as I remain in business class that’s fine, moved next to a woman and had a perfectly uneventful flight!
btw: we don’t even know if the 'rents actually paid up for Business Class. They could’ve just gotten a free upgrade due to being a high mileage flyer, but there weren’t enough upgrades for the whole family.
“btw: we don’t even know if the 'rents actually paid up for Business Class. They could’ve just gotten a free upgrade due to being a high mileage flyer, but there weren’t enough upgrades for the whole family”
If that was the case…it makes them look even worse! I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that they weren’t upgraded.
“I needed to move my seat because the man who was assigned to sit next to me didn’t like how “immodestly I was dressed” because as you can well imagine, my wrists and forearms drive men wild with desire, LOL”
I think the parents were just cheap and didn’t want to spend money for an upgraded ticket for the handicapped child. They figured the FAs wouldn’t enforce the requirement that the child sit in her own seat. The child needed to be next to a parent–not sure why older child or husband didn’t go back to the coach seat. I’d be really annoyed if I were on that flight and was delayed for an hour because of this family.
From the articles, it does appear as though they had all paid for business class for the family (n-1), and then when they knew the daughter needed her own seat, they went and bought a coach seat for her because they were pretending that they thought that the daughter needed a PURCHASE of her own seat, rather than to ACTUALLY SIT in her own seat. I, too, would be very annoyed if I were on that flight, and if I were sitting in business class and overheard this, I’d be tempted to tell them myself to go send a family member back to the coach seat temporarily so that the disabled child could sit in her own seat next to a parent. I’m too much of a frequent flyer to have patience for people who game the system.
Not that this is the point, but from the photo it looks like the child is much larger than “the size of a 1-year-old” (quote from the mother).
When my son was under 2, I bought a seat for him and carried his carseat on board. I considered it too dangerous to have him sitting in my lap. I’m not sure why this couple didn’t think of this solution.
The whole thing is really a shame, because it distracts from the more important issue: families with special needs children do not get enough support from our society.
When I read the article last night, it said the girl is not able to sit in a regular seat, so at that moment, the FA could not have told them, move a family member and give the girl that family member’s seat.
Where the parents screwed up was in not bringing on some kind of car seat, etc. that would have allowed them to place the daughter in the seat so that she would not be sitting in someone’s lap. That was their mistake from the beginning; I also read they had flown many times before with her sitting on someone’s lap, so all those other previous airlines did a disservice to the passengers and FAs by colluding with the parents. Telling the parents to send another family member back to the economy section would not have done any good, since they child obviously could not sit on her own in first class, much less economy.
“Pizzagirl: Interesting story. Why didn’t the man assigned to sit next to you change his seat?? You were there first.”
I was still on Saudi soil - a place where I (as a woman) have no rights and where the US govt doesn’t have any standing if there is some dispute and I got detained there. I wasn’t about to make waves, I just wanted to get out of there.
Re the girl - There are special seat restraints that can be pre-ordered for pax who are unable to sit up. The family neglected to do that. They clearly knew that the child did need her own seat somehow as they went and bought the coach ticket, which makes it more suspicious versus if they had just been entirely naive and shown up thinking the girl could be held on a parent’s lap.
I hope the flights are delayed just long enough to remove the jerks who want to dictate who their seatmates are. Can’t they just buy an extra seat, to remain empty, to suit their religious scruples?
All things considered here , isn’t a sad testimony as to where we are in society when people put their own needs in front of everyone else around them, or when the real objective is to become famous over a silly gripe ?
Too many folks want to become a youtube video sensation or get their 15 minutes of fame , often times exploiting their children along the way
A sideways move: have you been reading about the Orthodox men who won't sit next to woman and so delay flights?
I hope the flights are delayed just long enough to remove the jerks who want to dictate who their seatmates are. Can’t they just buy an extra seat, to remain empty, to suit their religious scruples?
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and the other reports of some of these men not wanting other men sitting on the other side of their wives. Well, then just reserve the window seat for wife, and put yourself in the middle seat!
I don’t care what people want to keep “covered up” but I don’t like seeing men in short-sleeves when it’s very hot, while their wives are likely getting heat-stroke under a teepee of clothes.
This family knew that they had to purchase a seat. I suspect that because they were not intending to use it, they bought one in economy class to save some $.
I think there are some safety issues here. One is that you have to inform the airlines if you are traveling with an infant, so that it can arrange for an oxygen mask for the child. If the child’s seat was in economy, there was probably no oxygen mask available for this child. I don’t think you can disconnect the oxygen masks and take them to a different seat–but maybe I’m wrong about that. What if the plane encountered conditions which necessitated the use of oxygen? Are the stewardesses supposed to scurry around to find one for the child at that point?
Second, the child doesn’t look like she’s under 20 pounds to me. In turbulence, that child could go sailing through the air, risking injury to herself as well as other passengers.