The family scammed the airline?
The family bought a ticket that they did not need. 
Do airlines have child seats?
I think the three flight attendants need a refresher safety training. Absolutely agree with bus about car seats! The recent flights I took had so much sudden turbulence it was a miracle no one bonked their head while going to the bathroom! On one flight, the attendants even suspended food and drink service - one dude in the first row was appalled that his drink was taken away before he had a chance to sample it, and the entire bottle of red he wated to taste so much was poured down the sink.
People forget that air travel is so safe in part because everyone is required to stick to the same strict safety rules!
People also forget that the crew Is responsible for the safety of ALL passengers. If this child being held by a relative hit another passenger(s) or was injured because improperly restrained it is the airline’s liability.
UAL acted properly and this family is spoiling for a fight.
The airline apologized.
I am very disappointed in some of you.
Maybe the passengers should join together to sue this family. :))
" I am very disappointed in some of you."
The child is not the size of a baby. She needs to be in a car seat, not her parents lap for takeoff and landing. The purpose of making people purchase a seat for their child is so they can sit in it for takeoff and landing, for safety purposes, and if she can’t sit up, she particularly needs a car seat. Would you be so disappointed if this family was making a big stink about getting a ticket for holding their child in their lap while driving?
The daughter’s life is not less valuable because she is disabled. People should look after the safety of their children, as the number one priority.
To add, United should absolutely not apologize, but they should use this as a teaching moment to the public. They should say loudly and clearly what the rules are, and why. Apparently some people need instruction on how to not endanger their children.
The apology was for how the family was treated. United says it had no choice about the kid sitting in her own seat.
I take the Daily Fail with a grain of salt.
The family has flown before and they knew the drill. They purposely bought her a lone seat in economy and the rest of the family in business, knowing the daughter could not sit by herself. One of the family members, even mom or dad should have gone back to economy and had her in a car or other restraining seat for take off and landing.
Rules are there for safety. The mfgrs go through too much to get planes certified, to have entitled people try and scam the system.
The mom should be ashamed of herself.
We don’t know that the 3 flight attendants who walked by weren’t concerned – maybe they had other duties to attend to - like getting other passengers seated with their luggage properly stowed – and it was only when the plane was readying for takeoff that the final seat & safety check took place.
In any case, that is tortured logic. The flight attendant was doing her job, whether or not the other attendants agreed with her.
She says they apologized, not clear if they really did.
The rule is for two amd over. If you are under 2, you din’t need a seat. So much for safety for 23 month olds.
“In any case, that is tortured logic. The flight attendant was doing her job, whether or not the other attendants agreed with her.”
Yes, it is much easier to pretend not to notice, than to enforce the rules.
I think it should be a requirement that all babies and toddlers have car seats on airplanes. It is crazy that they aren’t all required to, perhaps enough young ones have to get severely injured or die needlessly in order to get a rule change.
Regardless, I have no idea why people would want to make a huge stink instead of just sending a family member to the back. And wasn’t that only required for takeoff and landing? So…I still don’t get it, why that didn’t happen.
How did these people get to and from the airport at both ends? Did they teleport? If not, presumably they must have had a car seat. If they didn’t, then they are exhibiting a remarkable disregard for that child’s safety.
It isn’t safe in the event of sudden severe turbulance and parents who can afford it will purchase seats for their infants, and bring their car seats on the plane. I know that when my grandson was under two, his parents managed to get away without paying for the extra seat, but they would bring the carseat and generally were able to use it – they generally flew southwest (non-reserved seats) and as long as the plane wasn’t full the flight attendants were happy to see the baby safely strapped in.
I think that the airline regulations allow the infants in laps mostly because the children at that age are too young to be safely strapped in with a lap belt-- and extreme turbulence is rare enough that it falls within the range of acceptable risk- but that doesn’t change the fact that parents who are concerned about their child’s safety will generally prefer to bring an infant seat when they travel.
The daughter does not have a body equivalent to a 2 year old.
The parents are saying their three year old should not be treated like a three year old or even a two year old because their daughter 's body functions at less than a two year old level. And if you are under two you can sit on your parents’s laps .
I agree with this.
There was a photo with the news article – despite the mother’s statement, the child is clearly larger than a 1 year old – and the family must have equipment (car seat, wheel chair) to handle the child when she is not in the air.
Why did the family choose to buy an economy seat for their disabled 3 year old? You can rationalize all you want, but the parents bought that seat. If the problem was finances or a lack of available premium seating, they could have chosen to have their 11 year old occupy the other seat.
No one was saying that the 3 year old needed to be separated from the parents – the problem was that the parents purchased the correct number of seats for their party, but then later refused to occupy one of the seats they had selected.
I am sympathetic to this argument, except that the parents should have cleared this in advance with the airline rather than just showing up and expecting the flight attendants to make an on-the-spot exception. The rule is by age not by weight or body-equivalent.