dhuey

So...in the span of 30 years covered by that NTSB analysis, they found three deaths and one serious injury to lap-held infants that might have been prevented with the restraints of a carrier in its own seat.

The ball is in your court, safety enhancers. Can you come up with any hard data to support your suppositions? Or are four cases in 30 years sufficient to justify the expense of mandating separate seats and carriers for infants?

Doppy

I was wrong - it is 50%. Still, I doubt you'd find a $600 2-4 hour flight in coach.
Are you also against requirements that adults to wear seatbelts?

I agree that buying kids seats shouldn't be mandated by law - people will drive and get themselves and their kids killed/injured even more frequently. People are terrible at judging saftey issues, as evidenced by the recent study which found that about 1,200 people were killed in auto accidents after 9/11 because they were afraid to fly.

On the other hand, if/when I have kids, I'll buy them a seat. The risks are low, but the cost of having my kid killed or severely injured is way too high. I'm willing to pay $100 every now and then as a little bit of extra insurance. Kids cost tens of thousands of dollars a year anyway. If a few extra dollars is too much, then having the kid is probably a bad idea in the first place.

dhuey

Can't argue with that. It sounds like you'll be a great dad.

It will be interesting, though, to see what you do about car selection if/when you have kids. As someone else pointed out, you might very well decide to own a car that is not the safest for a given price level. Such a decision might very well subject your child to far more risk than not having a separate, restrained seat on airplanes.

erik123

They just did a study that indicates that mercedes e class cars have the lowest fatality ratings - many so-called family cars (town and country, etc.) have very high fatality ratings. So in my view - you have to realistically weigh risks vs. benefits and buy an e class instead of a seat for your infant!

Doppy

Having gotten in an accident going about 135MPH on the autobahn in an E class and having everyone walk way fine, in my experience, E classes are pretty safe.

UAVirgin

Analise, were you stopped and the fruit inspection stand on I 10 for 1 1/2 hrs or the shoe carnival at the airport?

uastarflyer

2 random middle seats on a transcon? That's what happens when you fly a toy like JetBlue and let elite status lapse on the real airlines!

p.s. I disagree with the "no fly till 6" but that's not really the main topic of this thread. My 4yr old has been silver or gold since 1...and knew to recognize "United" since ~2 !!

uastarflyer

Don't fly United or Delta much do ya?

I bought the seat every single time since my daughter turned 1 simply to get my wife and I more room and rest (when the child sleeps she can lie across etc).

Also, she earns miles and elite status this way. HELLO, this is FT people!!!

I always check the car seat in baggage.

tornado

I don't understand the notion that it is right or wrong to bring a child on a plane. Whether someone is black or white, tall or short, religious or non-religious, or young or old is no one else's business. Anyone who legally boards a plane and acts legally on the plane is welcome. They are entitled to what they paid for: F, C, Y etc. (Don't go into some denied boarding blah, blah, blah.) Age discrimination is no different than race, religious, or gender discrimination. Leave people to follow their own heart and desires and to live their own lives.

If they stink, do they have to leave? No. (I've been thrown up on by more adults in a plane than by children.) If they talk to their neighbors too much, do they have to leave? No. (I have more adults who want to ask me stupid questions and prying questions than any comments made to me by children.) We don't have to like them and we don't have to encourage them, but they don't have to leave.

The OP and some others seem to think that an airplane is no place for a child. At least until six. My children have seen the following before six: Ireland, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Switz, France, England, Florida, California, New York Macy's Day Parade, their grandparents, their cousins, and more. We have had a blast. Each has been on more than 30 segments before the age of six.

Our Motto: Spend your money and time collecting memories together not stuff. Memories get better with age, stuff rusts.

We proactively spend time prepping our children for the flights. We walk them through what is acceptable social behavior and respect for other people's space. We see it as our responsiblity to guide them and to make sure that others around us don't have to adjust their lives to us. Our approach is not a child-centered approach wherein the child runs the world.

This mother obviously was being selfish. Ignorant and selfish. This woman and her child, has less to do with the child and more to do with her selfishness. She should have given your seat to you without flinching. She probably didn't give you any trouble for the rest of your flight because she was so embarrassed for having been shown to be an attempted thief.

Good to rant, but when you make your plans in life, make room for children. They'll bring you life. :-:

Doppy

Delta's maximum one-way coach fare in the US is $499. To get that $600 ticket, one would have to buy a first class ticket, which comes with a maximum $599 price. But if one is traveling in first class, one can't really complain about an extra ticket being too expensive, IMO.

Doppy

Actually, the airlines do reserve the right to not transport someone who doesn't maintain adequate hygiene.

uastarflyer

The discussion of fares refers to RT not one-way travel (if it's not explicitly mentioned, it's always RT, especially in context of leisure travel). $600 isn't common but not outrageous for a Y RT ticket.

Doppy

I was assuming we were talking about a one way because the member said "2 - 4 hours of flying." Two hours RT makes for a pretty short one-way flight; it would be something like PHL-EWR.

flyerwife

Not to continue to be off topic, but I routinely fly DL and pay $500 for LGA-BOS shuttle (45 mins) and just passed on a LGA-STL flight that would have cost $800 rt.
(Booked it LGA-BOS-MCI-LGA for $550....more hassle for me; less money for the airline. Gotta love SimpliFares!)

dhammer53

I hate to blow #5000 on this but what the heck; I've been waiting for just the right post. Here goes...

Analise, the real problem with this entire thread is that you flew on Delta.


Now for my opinion. Analise was right.
I wonder if the mother was from LA or NY, cause only a New Yorker would try to pull a stunt like that.