Fleck

This story has much more to it or it's total hogwash. One or the other.

canadiancow

That's a very interesting point. What about the 20 other people who paid so they could get some decent sleep?

yuubah

I'm sure the SD was aware they were getting moved to economy, but I don't know for sure. This is her first time in business, and his 2nd or 3rd, so they probably didn't know they have any recourse.

I told them to contact air canada customer relations to see what they say. i'll share their response here when they get it.

24left

Also possible since none of us were there.

(I'm using bold just in case someone missed this point made by others)


Just an anecdote - I've flow 4 LH F LH and ULH this year and all 4 F cabins had 2 seats set aside for parents with infants.

And yes, great question BTW: " is it ok for a child to cry in economy but not in business?"

.

djjaguar64

As usual we tend to make assumptions and thus cannot give advice when we only hear one side of the story.

cperciva

Or put another way, is it better to disturb 60 people instead of disturbing 20?

djjaguar64

Yes, as if people in economy are non-human!

Diabeetus

They call it cattle class for a reason.

rankourabu

Really? And who exactly would get the fare difference? If any refund is due, it would go to whoever paid for the ticket (the boss), no? Or are you suggesting the person/wife/child pocket a few grand?
And whats an AC SWU?

If they want decent sleep, they can pay to fly private and not use public transportation

I agree with some others - call the CBC - the media loves these evil corporation stories, and with a baby involved, all the better.

Headline: AC hates children!

Jagboi

Just to throw it out there, British Airways has bassinet seats in J (on both upper and lower decks of a 744) and are held back from being able to be selected by those without infants until T-72.

24left

Also LH F 2D and 2K on the 340 and 330, are set aside for bassinet and held back until T-24 (or less as was the case).

There was a question asked in another thread recently about 2A on the 788/9 with the bassinet directly in front and is it held back.

Unfortunately, none of this matters to the situation noted by OP.

xLuther

I would like to hear both sides and full details, age of kids, were they running around the cabin, screaming, and being a general nuisance ( parents expecting others to watch/deal with their kids ) Was 'lap child' actually too old to be considered one ?

To remove them from cabin sounds more like multiple issues, not just 'crying' I have noise cancelling headsets for that, and they include earplugs in dinky travel kit they give out,

Everyone has had to deal with crying kids and bad parents bigger story here

WR Cage

Getting into some of the details:

(1) Your post mentions that both kids (infant and older child) were crying and generally upset. What are the ages of the kids?

Generally speaking non walking infants get a pass on just about anything. But if the youngest is 22-23 months this can change the situation quite a bit.

(2) I disagree with others suggestion that your sibling should take their disagreement to the media. For starters any media is going to want to interview the family in Canada. As this is a relocation trip, the media are unlikely to take up the cause with the aggrieved party on foreign soil.

3) Getting back to the age and actions of the kids, I can come up with a couple of examples where moving the family to economy would be a reasonable approach All the examples I can come up with involve the parents being unable to keep the kids in their seats as requested/demanded by the FAs. So for example if the kids are roaming around and will not comply with FA instructions to sit back down, then moving parents and kids to economy where the parents can coral the kids by sitting in aisle seats is a reasonable recommendation.

(4) what were the parents reactions to FAs requests/demands? This could be a situation that got out of hand because the parents were offended they were being lectured or ordered how to parent their children. The miss communication occurs because the parents fail to understand their position and authority of the FA/SD. While its unreasonable to ask the parents to force the kids to stop crying, if the kids are getting out of their seats or otherwise being disruptive to the cabin, the expectation is that parents have the means and inclination to restrain and discipline the child. The problem arises where parents are unwilling to carry out requests to discipline their children and/or apologize for the kids actions. Example: Parent is unwilling to use the word "No" to their child or use any form of negative discipline (time out, stern talking to, explanation that kids actions are unsatisfactory"), instead the parent lets the child do whatever they want, getting upset when another party takes umbrage with the lack of appropriate parental response to the child's action.

At the end of the day, if you disagree with FA or pilot directions; the place to air your grievances is on the ground not inside the tube. Attempts to ignore or argue with the FA or pilot will not end well.

Edit to add: I am Dad to a 5 year old and have traveled domestic first/business with my kid. I have also run into situations where i have to mediate disagreements between crew and members of my family. Specifically If wife chooses to sit in economy; she cannot constantly come up to business class to visit her daughter. I had to take the FA side and talk with my wife; bear the brunt of wife's displeasure at airline rules.

MSPeconomist

Do they have any proof that they were told to move back to economy and that they sat in coach for most (how much time, exactly?) of the flight?

It's fine to say that they should have resisted moving or asked to speak to the captain, but doing something like that can be risky in that in can be viewed as disobeying a FA's orders (as ridiculous as those orders are).

24left

Small detail here but, if the second child was a young toddler and was "having a moment" and refused to sit in their J seat, why would you think they would sit in their seat when moved back to Y?

We do not know where they were in J, nor where they were moved to in Y. The YYC-NRT runs a 763, so we know the seating set-up.

To me it seems more like the AC crew member was more interested in the "comfort" of the rest of the J cabin and not necessarily having the young child behave any better in Y.


(And yes, the is all speculation on the part of us Monday-morning quarterbacks.)