COSPILOT

I think you answered your own question. Not much a parent can do with a screaming baby. 99% of the time my kids were perfect angles when they were young, but that other 1% made me want to pull my own hair out... It happens, and there is nothing you can do while traveling in a metal tube at 35K. Out of curiosity, what exactly did you expect the parent to do?

The fact that you weren't met by law enforcement at the end of the flight suggests you will be fine. In this case, I don't see UA coming after you, unless you have a pattern of complaining during flight.

Annalisa12

agree

CALlegacy

That could depend, but with babies starters are feed them, change their diapers, hold them, walk around with them, give them something to bite for teething, distract them with a toy, etc. There is in fact a lot a parent can do with a screaming baby and sometimes nothing that can be done. Babies scream for reasons such as being in pain, being hungry, being frightened, teething, etc. Ear infections, colic, etc. may not be fixable in the air. Ear pain from changing air pressure can be helped by feeding, nursing even better. Who knows? But some parents are either clueless or lazy and other times the parent is doing everything humanly possible and it doesn't work.

Grog

Never feel bad for anyone in business class. They can take care of themselves.

Earplugs are an awesome invention. Even better when noise-cancelling headphones are placed over them. Or talk to an FA about the disturbance and no one else. Passengers undermine the crew (and they weaken their own position) when they take things into their own hands. Since you were able to walk freely from the aircraft, I think you'll be fine.

COSPILOT

My daughter screamed so bad as an infant on her first airplane ride that I literally handed my credit card to the Purser and said drinks were on me for the entire airplane. I felt horrible that there was nothing my wife and I could do to calm her down. Long story short, she calmed down early in the flight (and it turns out she had a severe problem with her ears that required surgery). Purser was pretty cool about it, and while a few accepted my offer of free drinks, the Purser insisted that UA would cover it and gave me my credit card back.

Edit: my wife is looking over my shoulder and reminded me I gave out cash to the FA to cover drinks, $100 to be exact. I'm tired and travel too much, like the OP.

Must...Fly!

Maybe you ought to investigate a private jet if the general public is a problem for you...

No offence but it's public transport, so, you take what you are given...you know what you're getting in to...

codyc1515

Yep, if you're a parent you'll know that it's very normal to have a baby screaming for the entire flight... /s

Kacee

Babies cry. As a frequent flyer, it's best you accept that as a basic condition of air travel you cannot change.

When seated next to mothers with infants, I've found the best strategy is to smile and offer whatever help I can. It's no fun for them either.

hoopics

The woman's child screamed for 10 hours. I promise you that she was the least happy passenger on that plane, BEFORE you got yourself (appropriately) reprimanded. This wasn't the unattended kid in the row behind you kicking your seat for the nth time after you let the inattentive parents know they were doing it. This wasn't the unattended kid in the seat across the aisle throwing stuff at you. This was (by your admission) an infant. Infants cry because they are hungry or in pain. For that child to do it for 10 hours, that meant it was in distress, and I promise Mom knew it. And was gutted by it. And you rewarded her with going out of your way to make her feel worse.

Hope asserting yourself made you feel better in the moment. Glad that your biggest concern is what's going to happen to your status.

SMH.

emcampbe

This. We have a now 3 yo. And do lots of traveling, starting when she was 3 months - much of it to see family who are all in different places, including India (the kids grandparents, to boot, and they can't travel that far anymore). Luckily, ours is pretty good on most flights, but she's had her moments. Including tantrums. Luckily, we haven't run into anyone like the OP on flights...most either completely ignore us (perfectly fine by me), or some that like to say hi at boarding, etc. Does it suck for others when there is a tantrum. yes (and I've been there before, too). However, I can assure you (OP, not the poster I've quoted above) the less than handful of times that ours had tantrums on flights, and despite trying our best, couldn't get her to calm down in a timely manner, that yes, we felt at least 10 times worse than anyone else near us on the plane.

Yes, lots of reasons a baby can cry on a flight (let's be realistic: it's their only way to indicate anything). But I wouldn't assume the parents are clueless or lazy or weren't doing anything to try - OP didn't complain that the parents weren't trying to calm the baby, but just the baby was crying. There's a difference, as you mention. I also somewhat suspect the OP was exaggerating that the baby was crying the "entirety" of a 10-hour flight, but that it happened a few times to seem like it.

Loren Pechtel

This. Ongoing problems are almost always parents who aren't trying.

catocony

I always recommend doing a Bill Cosby and very loudly wake the baby up as you get off the plane :-)

About the only thing I do if a kid won't quiet down is ask the parent(s) if they've done anything to help relieve the pressure in the baby's ears. That's the main culprit usually, aside from having a kid who's just a fussy sleeper. For 10 hours though, almost all babies are doing to sleep some. A lot of flyers with kids have no idea about the need to equalize pressure in the ear, to stay hydrated, etc.

I have and will complain, to the FAs, f the parent(s) are playing a video or game or something for the kid with the audio up. I'll tolerate a mouth breather watching a vid while eating at Taco Bell, but on a plane, I have zero intention of listening to anyone elses audio. That's why headphones were invented and they work equally well with children as with adults.

NikoLGA

You’ve avoided the worst of it.

If no one met you at the gate, then you are in the clear, anything from this point on is hearsay, and is not trackable (unlike purchasing tickets in a nefarious way).

The one thing you have to make sure you refrain from doing is giving flight details on this forum (i.e don’t tell us what seat you were sitting in on or the route). UA Insiders lurk on this forum, and that’s your biggest gamble, but you use an alias and didn’t give us any specifics, so again, you are in the clear.

It’s also good that you are honest about your mistake.

FlyingBeanCounter

chavala