tcook052

https://globalnews.ca/news/4174332/a...mom-son-seats/

A Toronto woman says she and her son were ordered to leave an Air Canada flight in Frankfurt when the woman questioned a seating policy in business class.

Bohemian1

As always, there's stuff we don't know, but this statement does not ring true for me:

"Our rules require a child travelling in a business-class pod to sit in front of the parent or guardian for safety reasons, in particular, to apply an oxygen mask properly,” said Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick".

I have been on several TATL/TPAC flights where young (really young) children were not seated in front of their parents.

In one case, a girl of maybe 5 or 6 was seated in front of Ms. Boh and basically started screaming due to a scary scene in the movie she was watching. My better half had to actually tell her mom to stop watching her movie and tend to her child. The mom was seated in the 'D' seat of that row, her daughter in the 'K' seat.

So, on this and several other flights I've been on, this 'rule' has not been enforced. Maybe we will get more facts as the story develops.

eigenvector

The way it reads to me, mom didn't refuse the seating arrangement as claimed by AC, but made the fatal error of arguing with an FA. Said FA subsequently went on a power trip and told the captain someone was being disruptive, knowing full well that once that button has been pushed the captain will order the pax to disembark since he is not about to start arbitrating a dispute when he has work to do in the cockpit. FA couldn't even resist mocking the pax as she disembarked:
Unsurprising behavior but nonetheless disappointing behavior. Never, ever debate with an AC FA.

flybit

well it looks like the FA was WRONG, so another person will receive monster compensation from AC. the rule is the under age passenger must sit adjacent to the parent in the same cabin! lol I love the passenger advocacy group.

1Newflyer

Makes sense.

vernonc

Does the international tariff differ from the domestic? Does International say the child must sit in front of the parent in Biz ?
More likely the AC spokesperson and cabin crew were quoting from a internal policy which differs from the tariff. Kind of funny that the consumer advocacy person shows AC their own rules.

ridefar

Hmmm. Well. I don't know what the policy is, but this forum has affirmed the alleged policy of child in front of parent in J with pods several times when seat selection questions have come up. Try this post: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29387331-post4.html

So maybe (surprisingly) AC FA was right?

ksm06

Maybe now they will update the language on the web page, https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...-children.html "When occupying a Classic Pod in the Air Canada Signature Class cabin, a child age 2 to 11 must be seated directly in front of the accompanying parent or guardian." This references classic pod only. The obviously updated this for the launch of signature service but seems to still imply you don't need to do this on the new suites if it is not a classic pod.

ridefar

So the FA was right.

And the FA was right in enforcing a safety policy.

It is for the good of the child in the unlikely event of a problem.

The two pax deserved to get the boot. My sympathy for them is less than zero.

YEG_SE4Life

Or, perhaps, the GA, SD, and CA were right.

yyz_atc_qq

the advocacy group quoted the domestic tariff. Does the international say the same thing??

ffsim

ffsim

One particularly interesting quote from the article:

This is an entirely reasonable request from a responsible parent. I have a 4-year old myself and can’t imagine having him sit alone in a pod for 8-ish hours when I can’t see him.

yyz_atc_qq

Doesn't the "Signature Class Cabin" only apply to the new pods anyhow?

ffsim