Alliecolvin

Interesting experience last evening on a flight from DEN to PDX. Grandparents sitting in 1A and 1C. Children and grandchildren sitting in E-. What started out as cute, parents bringing the kids to visit grandparents during flight became a major annoyance. Children crawling down the aisle, screaming when separated from grandparents, parents blocking the aisle to restroom and blocking FA from serving. Because you could not avoid noticing I made the flight interesting by counting how many times the parents made a trip from their seats to the front of the plane, 23, not a joke, 23. It was a 2 hour flight. The FA should have discussed this with the parents as it made the flight a bad experience for all. Didn't feel it was appropriate to confront the parents as the level of sensitivity is beyond control.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

findark

This is rather over the top. While the "old rules" are that the curtain is an inviolable barrier, I generally don't mind the occasional crossing (e.g. once my seatmate on the aisle was a mother whose husband and young son were back in the first row of E+ - the kid visited his mom two or three times, and then they all decided to sit together in E+ when we landed, but this was a 6 hour flight). This however... not sure what you can do as a pax other than give the FA imploring looks and/or complain to UA.

chavala

I definitely would have complained to the FA by #5

eng3

I would hate to be the person in 1B. 23 seems excessive for a 2hr flight. If its really a 2hr flight time and you cut 30min for seatbelt on time, thats every 4min. The FA should have said something when they were blocking the aisle. Where was the FA the whole time? Was this one of those FA's that does the initial drink + snack then sits down and reads a book for the rest of the flight? A good FA is almost constantly checking on drinks, etc so I would think the FA would constantly be tripping over the kids and eventually say something out of convenience for his/her self.

I think once you get over one visit per 2.5hrs of flight , it is becoming excessive. Behavior and length of visit counts too. If someone is using the F lav (because the cart is blocking the aisle and quickly exchanging a book or something, I wouldn't count that as a visit. If the two are sharing the same seat, then that's excessive.

venomtrilogy

I've seen this before and been stunned that FAs didn't do anything more than make a polite "Please take your assigned seat" comment without any followup.

CHOPCHOP767

I had a similar situation flying from IAH to ORD on NYE weekend whereby World Best Mommy and one child were upgraded (confirmed on the UA app) and World's Best Daddy and one child were not. Mommy asked that the FA send her PDB back to the husband in Economy and then ordered another one for herself. That was Mom's initial salvo. The FAs declined to serve Daddy more after the PDB request. I agree with IAH-OIL-TRASH, FAs should have handled this one better.

Often1

What did the FA say to you when you complained?

That is not included in your OP and is highly relevant to next steps.

porciuscato

I'm obviously not a big United FA supporter as many know.

However, I would point out that the FAs get it from both sides on this. I've seen a number of complaints here about how someone who just wanted to go forward once (or twice, or three times), to visit their spouse and the mean FA sent them back. I think there's a gray area, and I would not expect FAs to strike the perfect balance every time.

nlkm9

theres a gray area, and there are truly rude, entitled people who dont care about anyone but themselves. and sending a PDB back to someone? is that even allowed??

iluv2fly

Gramma and gramps should have gone to Y to visit children and grandchildren - not the other way around.
I would have gotten up after the second time and gone to the galley to let the FA know of my displeasure with this situation.
I would not really want to confront the offenders, but since all my friends have told me I have lost my filter, I'm sure something interesting would have come out of my mouth.
I pay to have a bit more peace and quiet and unobstructed aisles when going to the lav.
Totally unacceptable.
What kind of aircraft? That should tell you the crew that was working the flight.

nomad420

On the flip side of this I have had nice FAs take a PDB back to me when I didn't get upgraded and my wife or traveling partner did. Usually it will be one of the FAs I know or am familiar with and he or she knows what happened. I don't make a big deal about it but it is a nice gesture.

Aussienarelle

Did you contact United after the flight?

As others have noted I do feel sorry for the FAs in this situation as they will be damned if they do and damned if they don't. However, United really should have some protocols available for the FAs to follow and refer to in situations like these.

I had a similar situation on my KOA-LAX flight yesterday but everyone was in FC. Grandparents/family were in row 1 and the others were in row 5, but thankfully it was not 23 times, more like 3-4 times during a four hour flight.

StuckinITH

I don't consider myself truly rude. Entitled, maybe. In my last trip (ORD-PVG-ORD), I was in Polaris First on the outbound and my wife was in the first row of Economy +. I asked the FA if she would be kind enough to send a glass of Champagne to my wife. For the return, my wife was in Polaris First, I was in the first row of Economy +. She asked the FA if she would be kind enough to send a glass of Champagne to me. Both FAs took upon themselves to also send a cheese tray at the end of dinner. We both thanked the FAs for their nice gesture.

nlkm9

thats actually very nice. You dont sound like a rude person!