Airplane seating situation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same thing happened to my family on United - they changed the plane for our cross-country flight due to maintenance issues and our seats evaporated. Then they started calling passengers who they'd found seats for on the new (smaller) plane. They called my 2yo's name - he was supposed to fly across country alone. I raised holy hell. It should be illegal to try to separate small children from their parents on flights.

Gate agent was being incompetent -- they can see the age in the reservation and know better than to send off a small child on their own.

[Anonymous]

This is not a big deal. It's not that long of a fight. If people want to sit next to a strange 3 yr old, fine.

One of my kids would have sat silently reading or playing and one would have gotten the stranger's entire life story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had this happened to me once on transatlantic flight. The airline screwed up the booking and my seat disappeared. By the type they figured it out, the only seats left were in different rows (one of those horrendous five middle seat planes). I asked a person to switch with me (identical seat, different row). She reacted very loudly and negatively (I believe she was with a big group and didn't want to move closer to them). I wished her luck taking care of my 3 year old (who was not comfortable with strangers at all) and told her that I would enjoy my flight in peace. She moved immediately after that.

You're lucky, I would never move for that. Your kid can scream all it wants. I have earplugs and no obligations.

Scream? She would climb, including over you, etc. I would be taking her back and forth from her seat during the flight. Why would you want 12+ hours of that? No sleep with that. Are you married to your seat so you would not take an identical one in a different row?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I need opinions on what you all would have done in this situation. My family, DH, me and DD (3) we’re flying out of Florida yesterday back to DCA. We had reserved seats all together. Well due to the whether or maintenance (never got the true story) our plane got switched and it was a different size. We find out at checkin when we aren’t assigned seats. The lady at the counter said they gate agent would settle it for us. We make it to the gate and the gate agent tells us she will make an announcement since there are a lot of people with unassigned seats.

We sit down and wait. Well the next thing we know they are boarding. So we go back and ask for seat assignments. They had forgotten us. (Although I never heard any other names and we were sitting right there.) They get us seats but they are all over the plane. I don’t need 3 together. I would prefer one of us though with my 3 year old. The gate agent said there was nothing she could do since 75% of the plane was boarded. We were all 4 rows apart in middle seats so nothing even good to trade. The flight attendants on board were sympathetic, but all they could do was ask people to move from an aisle or window to a middle.

I have changed seats multiple times for people and when the flight attendants asked we got blank stares. So my 3 year old sat alone for take off then switched off sitting on my and my Dh’s lap until landing where she sat alone. Would you have just not gotten on the flight? I thought about it, but I had to be at work today (work weekends).

I have a 2.5 and a 4.5 year old and if that happened for either of my kids, I would have raised hell like you couldn't even imagine.

What if your DD was seated next to a pedophile? Did the airline have someone next to your DD, watching her like a hawk including during take off and landing? Which airline would seriously take on that liability?

And what if there was an incident mid-flight? Your DD is NOT safe in your arms. In a crash, she's toast. You paid for a seat for her, and by aviation law she's supposed to have her own seat > 2 years old no matter what your wishes are. Because, you know, it's not safe to have a child on your lap.

I would be refusing to get on the flight plus taking names and getting photos and videos of the whole thing. I would then be going to the news outlets with the story and all details and footage and also writing to the airline and demanding compensation for the missed flight and inconvenience. And I'd be explaining the lunacy to my boss and hoping they have enough sense to realize that I can't let my 3 year old remain unsupervised and in the company of total strangers on the other end of a plane during a flight. Holy moly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had this happened to me once on transatlantic flight. The airline screwed up the booking and my seat disappeared. By the type they figured it out, the only seats left were in different rows (one of those horrendous five middle seat planes). I asked a person to switch with me (identical seat, different row). She reacted very loudly and negatively (I believe she was with a big group and didn't want to move closer to them). I wished her luck taking care of my 3 year old (who was not comfortable with strangers at all) and told her that I would enjoy my flight in peace. She moved immediately after that.

You're lucky, I would never move for that. Your kid can scream all it wants. I have earplugs and no obligations.

Scream? She would climb, including over you, etc. I would be taking her back and forth from her seat during the flight. Why would you want 12+ hours of that? No sleep with that. Are you married to your seat so you would not take an identical one in a different row?

I sit in window seats. Are you going to go in and out of the window?

[Anonymous]

I thought that it is now law that children be seated next to an accompanying adult?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/newly-passed-air-travel-legislation-is-an-amazing-win-for-consumers/2016/07/14/486116e6-483d-11e6-bdb9-701687974517_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7a36e96031ca

[Anonymous]

Take to Twitter

[Anonymous]

You have to be kidding. Were there no parents traveling alone on this flight? They should be ashamed of themselves. And no, I would not have found this acceptable and wouldn’t have allowed it to happen. I’m glad your dd could handle it. My sons at 3 would have lost their minds.

[Anonymous]

Poster who would never move- the flight attendants have the authority to tell you to do it. Refuse and you can get booted from the plane.

Of course the FAs don’t want the hassle so they shrug and pretend they can’t do anything.

[Anonymous]

I switched once in similar situations on American. Got 25000 pts, handful of drink coupons, and tons of thanks. None of which was necessary- it's the common decent thing to do. And the middle seat is larger and comes with both armrests so wasn't a huge deal.

I'm not saying g this story isn't true, but I've never seen this. Maybe in United and Delta, aka Trump's airlines.

[Anonymous]

Airline would be hearing about this on Twitter, etc... this is totally unacceptable. Last time they tried that crap on me I refused to accept the assignments and make it the flight attendants problem to try and resolve. It is the gate agents job to resolve that issue. Especially since you booked adjacent seats and their issue caused the snafu. While I agree shame on the folks who didn’t move, the real shame is on the airline. Stop making this everyone else’s issue. This is your issue to resolve. It is just like an oversold situation. Could you imagine if they let everyone board and just figure out who has to deplane. Crazy. There is anew law passed but the lazy FAA hasn’t updated regulations accordingly. https://transportation.house.gov/uploadedfiles/faa_extension_summary.pdf

[Anonymous]

Agree that airline was to blame. Flight attendants should have offered something more than a couple drink coupons to entice someone to switch. However OP and her DH also need to learn to advocate better for their child. There is no way most people would just passively accept being separated from a three year old on a flight!

[Anonymous]

It sounds like your 3 year old did fine in her own seat. She watched her videos and sat on your laps. Not all 3 year olds are unable to be separated from their parents by a row.

You have to know your kids and how much independence they have had experience with.

In this case it worked out fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have explained to the flight attendants, within hearing of the people who refused to switch seats, that sexual harassment and child molestation are not uncommon on flights and that I would be holding them personally responsible if anyone laid a finger on my child during the flight. And I would have made sure to write down their names. I have never been on a flight where people paid extra for aisle and window seats unless they were in the premium economy section - the people who didn't want to switch for the short flight sound like misanthropic a-holes.

And I would have rolled my eyes at your hysterical theatrics and then told the flight attendant I felt you are unstable and I feel threatened by your language and calmy ask that you be removed for everyone’s safety. Guess how that would have ended?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have explained to the flight attendants, within hearing of the people who refused to switch seats, that sexual harassment and child molestation are not uncommon on flights and that I would be holding them personally responsible if anyone laid a finger on my child during the flight. And I would have made sure to write down their names. I have never been on a flight where people paid extra for aisle and window seats unless they were in the premium economy section - the people who didn't want to switch for the short flight sound like misanthropic a-holes.

And I would have rolled my eyes at your hysterical theatrics and then told the flight attendant I felt you are unstable and I feel threatened by your language and calmy ask that you be removed for everyone’s safety. Guess how that would have ended?

It would have ended with everyone else on the plane thinking you were both ridiculous.