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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
US Airways hates families and kids
This is a huge fear of mine, and became a reality for this mom yesterday.
https://childwild.com/2010/02/15/us-airways-hates-families-and-kids/
This discussion has been closed.
Re: US Airways hates families and kids
I am not sure I buy a lot of her story. After that other woman blogged about being searched without her kid a few months ago, I take it all with a grain of salt.
Southwest really does hate fat people though! I definitely won't be flying with them anytime soon.
May 2011 Siggy Challenge
okay I don't really buy that. First of all, why didn't she confirm her seat assignments beforehand? Why did she wait until boarding? That's very typical of not confirming your seat assignments beforehand. I think she got a bitchyy stewardess and she over-reacted a bit. I'm sure once everyone was seated, the situation could have been resolved.
Wow. If that is actually true, that sucks.
Would you have been seated away from your toddler so this could get "resolved"? I wouldn't. No effin way.
You can't confirm seat assignments on all flights, on all airlines.I'm a travel blogger myself and things have changed drastically in the last few months when it comes to flying. For some airlines, you have to pay an additional fee to have your seat assignment confirmed / solid, and even then, it's subject to be moved without your prior approval. Add to that the chaos of boarding now that so many people are not checking bags because of the extra fees; boarding a plane is now a nightmare.
If I were this woman, I'd have done the same thing. And I'd have also had the same fear of sticking up for myself and my family because any words or gestures like that can get you arrested for a felony on a flight now.Maybe she's exaggerating, but I'm willing to believe it's at least partly true. I have been appalled at the rudeness of airline crews in the past few years. Flying has become so unpleasant and uncomfortable that people are getting frustrated and the flight crews are constantly under fire, which just causes the service to be worse.
I definitely believe this more than I believe the "separated at security" lady. And that's ridiculous... but seriously.. your girls cried themselves to sleep two nights in a row because of that?
Doubtful. Be more honest and not so dramatic and people won't assume that you're blowing things out of proportion.
But it does suck and makes me feel a little bad for her.
This. They don't have the nicest people as flight crews. We had a very rude attendant on one of our flights on Delta. If it had people any other public facing employee doing that to me I would of asked to speak to her supervisor. One thing I learned when flying with DS flight crew employees either love little kids or they treat like the scum of the earth for flying with them.
Also you seats are subject to change. If you book after the flight is almost full and the only seats left are the premium seats. You have to wait until 24 hours before you flight to get your seat assignments.
Southwest might be awful with overweight people. They are great when it comes to kids. I have been on many flights with them where the announced a need two volunteers so a mom and kid could sit next to each other. The person sitting next to me and I volunteered. I figured that I could use the good flying karma for when I flying with DS.
duplicate post
Oh hellll no.
Since Sawyer has epilepsy he coudl have a seizure at any time thus hurting himself or others in the process. So sitting away from him? NOPE
Oh yeah, I was going to say that I would have probably left him if the airplane wasn't huge. Nothing would happen to him, and it would teach the people sitting on either side that maybe it would have been better to just give up a seat. That would have been hilarious.
I wouldn't either. I would either stand out of the way until they could help me or sit with my toddler on my lap until they could help me. In the meantime, I would ask surrounding passengers if they could switch. No one wants to sit next to a screaming toddler. I fly every other week and I see this happen a lot. Never have I seen a toddler actually NOT get to eventually sit next to their parent. I'm just saying that she probably exaggerated what happened.
I'm sure that part of the story is true, but which part? Who knows. It sounds like she may have gotten some snobby attitude at first or something, but having flown dozens of times and having had my seat assigned AWAY from my kids almost every time, I just dont believe this is actually what happened.
As I said, our seats were almost always pre-assigned (no choice, no option to choose our own seating prior) and we were almost always assigned away from our kids. On many airlines. I'm talking about a dozen flights. Not just once or twice.
All we EVER had to do was go to the agent at the gate and say "Please reassign our seats so that our toddlers will not be unaccompanied." I had one agent who was b!tchy about doing it but of course, it's against the law and FAA regulations to separate a child from it's parent on a flight.
Of course, this means that some other passengers are reassigned at the gate, but as far as I can tell, this has never cause an issue. They simply hand the reassigned passenger a new boarding pass.
I simply cant imagine that this truly happened the way she said it did. The whole things seems like a puffed up version of what MIGHT have happened. But, thankfully, I dont believe it did. JMO, of course.
This woman sounds like a bit of a hysteric. Still, no excuse for poor customer service. But why didn't she find another flight attendant (for a 7 hour flight, surely it was a big plane with many of them)? She also could have kept her kids calm while they waited and gotten off plane before the doors closed if the seat situation wasn't resolved.
I personally would not have gotten on the plane in the first place without the seat assignment being corrected. If the gate agent wouldn't do it, I would go to customer service and complain. It would be worth missing the flight.
I think it was perfectly reasonable of the flight attendant to ask her to do this while the rest of the plane got seated and she could figure out where to put all these people. Her youngest child was with the aunt, her older was within a foot of her. It's not US Air's fault that her kids had meltdowns, and ultimately they were all seated together. Done & done. I hardly think that her two kids "cried themselves to sleep" for 2 nights over this - and even so, kids pick up on the emotions of the adults around them. Sounds like the blogger needs to seriously chill out.
DS1 born June 2008 | m/c at 9w March 2011 | DS2 born April 2012
lolololol - check out this guy's comment:
PARENTS LIKE YOU SICKEN ME.I'll wager you're one of those idiot helicopter parents who drives their kids everywhere -- even if it's two blocks to and from school.
People like you sicken me. You're afraid of everything and you are raising your kids to be afraid of everything.
Parents like you are going to be the downfall of American society.
No one's going to bother your kid on a plane. Imbecile. YOU think you're being a great parent. But are in fact being a terrible parent with a mindset like that.
And it's the kids that will suffer later in life because you treat them like this
-------------------------
Good God, that's hilarity, my friends. She's two, buck up little camper, right?! Right? Just hand her a copy of the Economist and she'll be fine.
We had this exact same thing happen to us in November when we flew US Air. We booked three seats together months in advance - one for DH, myself, and our 18 month old. A month before our trip we got an email stating that our seats had been changed because they switched aircrafts. We were all three placed on opposite ends of the plane. We called and explained the situation to customer service multiple times, and they absolutely wouldn't help us. Their only "advice" was to ask our fellow passengers to switch seats when we got on the plane. The flight attendants were about as helpful as described in that article. Thankfully, there was a nice family that overheard us talking and graciously offered to move.
So yes, unfortunately this stuff really does happen. I absolutely effing hate US air, and I will never be flying with them again.
Calling before the flight wont help because no one in customer service can switch your seats. Did you ask the gate agent (before boarding the plane) to switch your seats?
Really? On Delta I have had the customer service change my seats multiple times. Maybe it is different on USAir.
Regardless this doesn't surprise me one bit. Airlines (and we fly ALL the time with ds, internationally and domestically) do not cater to customers the way they used to, and I would say more than half the time the crew seems irritated that there are children on board at all.
Yes, we asked the gate attendants and they were not able to move us either. We were so fortunate because the people around us had no problems switching seats.
I agree on all counts. I have been on so many flights where seats need to be rearranged and it usually involves kids. I've never seen one person say, "No, I'm not moving. I'd rather sit next to this 2 year old who is going to scream bloody murder the entire flight." Something tells me this mother was anything but cooperative from the get go.
Fly SouthWest and deal with the cattle call.
we fly a lot and this crap happens a lot. CS is rude, flight attendants are rude and sometimes when you confirm your seats they are different once you check in.
now i've never had a major issue getting seats rearranged, but we also fly first class if it's offered b/c "they" tend to be nicer to us and more accommodating. i've most definitely had a flight attendant that tell me that my dd (at 1yo) should sit in front of me on a flight with United. i laughed at her and the lady next to me said, "honey i'll switch with your daughter, some people just can't seem to do their job" - right in front of the f. a.-lol. that made my day!
but i've never been as stressed about it as this blogger seemed to get. but it is important to know this happens - you cannot always confirm seats and that's stupid considering you have to tell them the ages of the kids. poor planning and not so efficient.
I'm late to this, but I just DON'T buy it. We have always had customer service change our seat assignments to accomodate our child when she didn't even HAVE a ticket. They've blocked off seats and moved us to a row where the 3 of us could sit together if empty seats were available. I can't imagine why she didn't go up to the counter at the gate and try to get this rearranged.
Her BS about being terrorized by TSA if she comforted her child. It's all so dramatic and I just don't buy it. I can't imagine that would EVER happen considering they don't let 2 year olds fly as unaccompanied minors which if they are sitting alone they are unaccompanied. It's not a felony to have your kid cry on a plane and I'm sure nobody has been charged w/ a felony for that. Ever.
I think that what probably happened was that there was a seating problem and it wasn't fixed immediately, so she threw a fit. Her whole post has a bitchy tone to it, considering the lined out use of stewardess.
I'm coming really late to this but I too doubt some of her story. Or at least I think she over reacted and could have handled it better herself. We've flown numerous times with the kids, and we have had situations where we have all been split up. In those instances we have been told they can't do anything until we get on board, but once on board the flight attendants can usually get things worked out. We've boarded, held the kid(s) in our seat with us, and waited until the flight attendant was able to talk to other passengers and get us seated together.
But she immediately came in with an attitude. Maybe she was joking, but if I was the gate agent I wouldn't find this funny:
"Here?s my boarding pass, change my seat assignment.?
And while you would hope that the people who had been assigned to the seat next to you would switch so you could sit with your child, I don't think she should have automatically assumed the "dude" sitting next to her would be willing to switch and then give him attitude when he didn't want to.
Sucky situation yes, but likely one that could have been remedied quickly and with a lot less drama if she had handled it better.