Originally Posted by knoa_knows

Be careful - squelch is going to berate you for thinking you are a perfect parent because your kids can walk by the time they are three and manage to not drive everyone in the plane insane. Good parents think their children are the center of the world and all others need to respect them. I guess it is as if they were born DMs ;-)

Originally Posted by FlytheTail

Another classic thread in the Delta forum...

Originally Posted by ElPresidente

From your description this does seem questionable but.... were we there? No.

I recall one trip where I asked the passenger in front if I could rear-face child car seat which would restrict their recline. They grunted and sat down and I took that for assent, didn't hear a peep from them and gave it no further thought. AFTER getting off the plane my family was cornered in the terminal while this person laid into us about HOW DARE WE RESTRICT his recline on his "full price" coach ticket.... blah blah. All I'm thinking is you should have said something about that some 5 hours ago..... my point being there's multiple sides to every story and we have yours and the fact that you kept silent at the time. Thus meaning this "one gentleman" was taken to be speaking for all of you. Strange the GA role in this but whatever, keep the bus moving right?

Sometimes with a 3-year old and a CAR SEAT to navigate and fit into the plane a little elbow and breathing room helps everyone. My wife has travelled alone several times when child was 2 years old. There ends up being too much stuff to manipulate and not enough space to do it, and she was not putting anything in y'alls precious overhead. So "family boarding" was welcome all around. What is an "infant"? I don't recall seeing a Delta policy on this, it's anyone needing extra time and a 2 or 3-year old is not an "infant" but assuredly is even more problematic getting them loaded, newborn was actually pretty easy.

Agreed a 7-year seems out of bounds for "family boarding" but I return to my point that everyone present apparently went along with it and enabled it, so... the problem here is really all her? When I see an affront to common courtesy or behavior I speak up at the time, or I forget it and move on.

*SHRUG* mostly I don't get the obsession with getting on the plane in a particular order as an important aspect of my travel day. Most trips I'm happiest to be last boarded so that much less time is spent trapped in an aluminum tube.

Originally Posted by JesseRohr

GM who got booted from a flight I was on last year for a racial slur made to the FA. Upon his escort from the plane he spouted hundreds of thousands of dollars would go to another airline. The F cabin applauded his dismissal. This was DTW - SEA route around July if anyone else was on there with me. Cost us an our delay from our departure but was worth the entertainment factor.

Originally Posted by nfg05

Where can I get a DL drink cart?

Originally Posted by Taz

I've had a few "what a jerk" encounters, but this is the one that sticks with me the most:

Was assigned seat 2D from DTW-TPA. The "gentleman" on the aisle in 2C balked at getting up to let me get past him to my seat. He begrudgingly did so when I told him that I'd go ahead and climb over him but it would probably hurt when I hit him in the head with my backpack. As I settled in to my seat he looked down his nose at me and said "I am a PLATINUM elite and I was ASSURED no one would be sitting next to me". After take-off, I nursed a single drink for most of the flight and finally had to visit the lav before landing. When I asked him "would you please excuse me, I need to get up", he sniffed at me again and said "if you didn't drink so much, you wouldn't need to get up and disturb ME". I'm thinking he was plenty disturbed well before I had the misfortune of plopping down next to him.

Originally Posted by Taz

I've had a few "what a jerk" encounters, but this is the one that sticks with me the most:

Was assigned seat 2D from DTW-TPA. The "gentleman" on the aisle in 2C balked at getting up to let me get past him to my seat. He begrudgingly did so when I told him that I'd go ahead and climb over him but it would probably hurt when I hit him in the head with my backpack. As I settled in to my seat he looked down his nose at me and said "I am a PLATINUM elite and I was ASSURED no one would be sitting next to me". After take-off, I nursed a single drink for most of the flight and finally had to visit the lav before landing. When I asked him "would you please excuse me, I need to get up", he sniffed at me again and said "if you didn't drink so much, you wouldn't need to get up and disturb ME". I'm thinking he was plenty disturbed well before I had the misfortune of plopping down next to him.

Originally Posted by knoa_knows

Guess I could see that although if the plane drops out of the sky no car seat is going to help I don't think. For under 2 we always held them the entire flight, and for 3+ they typically would stay buckled in case of turbulence. I suppose a car seat os good for that one in a million catastrophic decompression events where kids could get sucked out of the window.

If it was really for safety wouldn't it be required like in cars?

Originally Posted by flightattendantsteve

http://www.alcarts.com/

You can design your own special one....

Originally Posted by FetePerfection

...she turned to all of us in line and asked, "would one of you gentlemen be a gentleman and let us cut?" Someone did...unfortunately.

Originally Posted by taylorc418

I had a similar occurrence on an SLC-ATL flight a few weeks back. It was in the noontime area, and as it was not a work day for me, I chose to travel comfortably (leggings and a T-shirt and running shoes) and have a beverage. I arrive to my row after boarding late with zone 2, and as I'm stowing my suitcase up top, I tell the gentleman in 4C that I'll be in 4D, because usually they get up and let me through. Oh no. Not him. I, a 27 year old woman, got to squeeze by him with a backpack and ski jacket and am trying not to touch him because it's slightly creepy. I sit down and get arranged, and he asked if my parents were paying for me to fly first class after my ski trip. I laughed and said I was in SLC for work and just had the jacket because it was warm when I left home and it was the only coat in the car when I got to the airport on Monday AM. I tried to ignore him, but I got a rant about how DL is flooding the ranks of elites with casual fliers who know nothing about travel and manners.

I usually drink a Nalgene or 2 during flights, so that's a trip to the bathroom. He again did not get up and made me crawl over him. Men of the forum: what's your SOP for this kind of situation? If I face the passenger, it's creepy because it's like I'm at the Pink Pony, and if you face the seat in front then there's nowhere to look but. . . yea. This particular gentleman also decided to tell me of all his previous years travels that earned him his platinum status, and his upgrades by route.

Originally Posted by squatch

golly gee, you must have the PERFECT toddlers and be the PERFECT parent. i admire how you taught your car seat-sized children to never squirm out of their seats on a 6+ hour flight. what sort of magic do you have? you should publish a book documenting your superhuman ability to have you young children sit quietly an patiently on a plane and not attempt to escape their seats, wander the aisles, kick the seats in front of them, stand on the seats, and sleep perfectly contently on their own comfy airline seat unrestrained.

if i was only as a good a parent as you....