Exactly!! Some people have non-visible medical conditions that might require frequent trips to the bathroom, which makes sitting in a window seat painful for even a few hours. I'm one of those people that switched from always sitting on the window to always sitting on the aisle, just so I don't inconvenience anyone if I get up to walk the aisle or use the bathroom.

I feel sympathetic to the family, but it wasn't like the kid was sitting alone. This is very different than previous cases where a pax was in one section and caregiver in another.

Can you explain why you keep saying that? A milk run is a routing/trip/drive that involves many stops along the way...

Thanks,
bawm

I seldom change seats unless it is an "equal;" more often than not, I selected that specific seat for a reason.

However, this sounds like it was a justified request.

I agree, that is why I clarified as below...

However, my point is that the attitude of several posters seems to not be one of trying to help someone who is disabled or their family, but rather, why THEY shouldn't have to move. Not the best example of human kindness, right?

I guess my understanding of colloquialisms in English is not complete nor perfect. My apologies, English is not my native language. I always understood the term "milk run" to mean a simple/easy trip. Now that you point it out I guess it comes from milk deliveries, where the truck had to make multiple stops?

My point (made imperfectly) is that LAX-ORD is not a long nor difficult flight at all.

If that's the case, why did the father need to be across the aisle from his daughter if there's already a caregiver closer to her? Same logic applies :D

How do we know that the point of the father asking was that he wanted to be closer to his family. Maybe he doesn't like window seats. There's just far too much speculation on this thread.

Without knowing this information, I have a sense that this thread is going nowhere... fast!

If you say so, but I think that's a bit of a stretch.

I think the point of the OP was that he was shocked to see that someone wasn't willing to make a small (yes, the term 'small' is highly debatable as is evidenced by this thread) accomodation for a family travelling with a severely disabled child.

I agree with the OP in this case. The thing that surprises me is that so many posters seem to be more concerned about their sitting in an aisle seat than doing something to possible help a family that probably already has more challenges that we would normally deal with on a daily basis. Doesn't mean anyone should be forced to nor feel obligated to do or not do something. I am just expressing my surprise and a little chagrin at the reaction of some posters.

Actually, it would ALMOST be the same logic, except for the fact that it probably is a much longer and more difficult flight for someone flying with a disabled child than for a normally able bodied person travelling alone. Dontchathink?

I wonder if the passenger in 6B was travelling with the person in 6A? That could have made a difference.

Interesting thread. I have thought about this thread and wondered if it should be locked. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that I should move this over to the Disability Travel Forum. Let's hear what the folks on that forum have to say regarding this issue. Please continue to follow this thread in the Disability Travel Forum.
Obscure2k
Travelbuzz Moderator

But bloodily short for the red eyes to get any descent sleep.

As mentioned above, you are making an unjustified assumption about the other posters in this thread (myself included, apparently). Every request to give up a preselected seat for a lesser seat is going to involve weighing the inconvenience of the seat change against the apparent need of the person asking for the change. You are assuming that a change to a window is merely a minor inconvenience because that is all you consider it to be. I don't consider it a minor inconvenience, and the need for a seat across the aisle from a disabled child (who is already seated next to her mother) is, at first glance, seemingly unimportant. I suppose I could be convinced otherwise, but on its face this change seems like a big inconvenience to me (I would actually change flights if I had time) for something that doesn't seem incredibly important for the person seeking the change.

I took woojink's use of the phrase "milk run" to be derived from the term WWII Allied bomber pilots used to describe any flight that was uneventful and relatively free of hazards. So while bombing Schweinfurt in broad daylight without fighter cover was tough, flying VIPs around England or some other, easier mission was a "milk run" by comparison.

I also hear it from former Navy fighter pilots now working for the commercial airlines, that compared to landing a supersonic jet on a heaving carrier deck (all 300 yards of it) at night with no lights, flying an airliner is usually a "milk run".

So I think woojink describing the LAX-ORD flight as a milk run would be accurate in an aviation context while bawm's understanding of the term may be more literal and perhaps outdated.

Wow, I guess I see things completely differently from you.

Yes, I am assuming that you are a normal and able bodied person with no medical issues preventing you from sitting in a window seat. If that in fact is false, then please feel free to elaborate if you wish. I don't think my assumption of you being a normal able bodied person is an unreasonable one.

Given that, you feel it is, at first glance, more of an inconvenience for you to move to a window seat than give a parent easier access to a disabled child. Yes, there is one parent that already has access, but you are saying that the inconvenience for you (an assumed normal able bodied person) to move to a window seat trumps that of a parent (second parent, I know) to sit closer to a disabled child.

So yes, my position is that I strongly disagree with you. My only assumption that I made is that you are a normal able bodied person with no medical need to sit on an aisle. Given that assumption, I say the needs (real or potential) of giving close access to both parents for a disabled child SEVERELY trumps your need to be in an aisle.

Is it mere inconvenience that forces to you insist upon an aisle seat or is there a medical or otherwise debillitating reason you must avoid the window?

As mentioned above, I nor anyone else should be required to justify or disclose a reason for refusing a seat change to a window seat. I said above that I would be more likely to try to change to a different flight than to sit in a window seat on this flight; you can make what you want of that fact. My only suggestion is that you not immediately assume everyone considers this requested seat change to be a mere "inconvenience" and that it is not unreasonable to want to know more about the father's situation before doing something that would likely cause me to change flights.