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In Brief: Family Claims They Were Kicked Off Flight After Child Stuck His Leg in the Aisle
Jesse Tabit May 21, 2015
A St. Louis family was allegedly booted from a US Airways flight last week after their toddler stuck his leg in the aisle. While the mother, Emily Kaiman, assured the crew he would not do it again, the family was still asked to deplane.
The flight crew determined Kaiman could not contain their son after a half-hour taxi, with airline officials claiming he was standing on the arm of a seat at one point. Kaiman is denying the allegations and is demanding an apology and reimbursement.
For more information on this story, visit WSOC.
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In Brief: Family Claims They Were Kicked Off Flight After Child Stuck His Leg in the Aisle
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Since I've seen toddlers/children climbing and jumping around seats and aisles on several TATL flights (especially on US airlines) with their parents caring crap about whether seat-belt signs were turned on or e.g. possible turbulances being announced, it seems to be an appropriate handling although maybe not optimal. I don't mind people getting hurt if they're not following regulations and instructions. However, I start caring at the point where others and I myself are put at risk. Altogether with DYKWIA-like parents: "Don't teach me how to raise my child!". So is what US claims has happened true? Most likely. Was the FAs/crews action appropriate/within regulations/policies? Most likely. Was the handling of the situation ideal? Probably not. Should they get reimbursed? For causing a disturbance and being put on a later flight? No.
The problem is that the airlines allow toddlers to fly in laps. Of course the child is going to squirm and bother other passengers. The solution is to require each passenger to have a seat.
RELANGFORD & VISHALGUPTA22: Do you know these people? I do, and have known them for 9 years. Relangford: were you a "brat" when you were 18 months old? Or were you born with Emily Post etiquette imprinted in your DNA? Vishal Gupta: There is no "policy change" issue here because there is actually no written policy saying "a kid can't put his leg in the aisle"; after all, one of the perks of the aisle seat is that you can put your legs out into the aisle (esp. when there's an IFE box under the aisle seat, or when the airline cuts the legroom down to the point that only a toddler CAN fit into a Y seat). The only "policy" they violated was failure to follow crew member instructions -- the toddler didn't do what the FA wanted him to do, thus the mom didn't follow instructions -- obviously, since AA didn't cite anything specific in its defensive PR. They are not trying to score $$ - but they were genuinely offended after having been removed from a plane for something that we all know is a lot less disruptive than drunken adults who are tolerated (if not caused) by airlines on a daily basis. Notice that in all the media accounts not ONE other passenger has stepped up to complain about the family? AA even bumped people to put them on the next flight. When do they do this for people who are really interfering with safe flight?? The family's sense was that they found a flight attendant who was having a bad day, and whose colleagues were not willing to stand up to her at the start of a trip.
Very obviously, the family is trying to use this as an opportunity to probably make some quick $$$. If they were really concerned about other families, they would have been asking for policy change, not reimbursement. If you think through it, the family was delayed by about 2 hours, most of us often see longer delays.
Yes, apology and reimbursement when you cannot control your brat. What a country!