Babyseat blocked recline

Old Mar 19, 2018, 8:49 am
  #31  
 
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Look, the airplane is a giant aluminum tube stuffed full of as many people as they can cram in.

Sometimes, we all have to "take one for the team" so to speak. Especially when it comes to little ones. Just like riding on a city bus - sometimes you're stuck with the seat over the wheel well, and your feet get cramped up. Just how it is.

Thankfully, the human psyche offers an innate protective instinct towards children - so we tend to accept things like this without complaint because it's for the protection of a defenseless child.

I know you're not complaining per se, but there is no guarantee of reclination. I'll be honest - I don't find the recline very comfortable anyway. In fact, I prefer choosing Row 20 on most flights since I never recline my economy seats anyway - and the row in front of me usually can't recline either. Best of both worlds.

So I ask - please be careful what you complain about. Approaching it as "something you paid for" -- you just might inspire United to assign a value to it... and give them another monetization idea - "Swipe your card to unlock your seat's recline button now!" Clearly the offer of FF miles was a nice gesture on United's part... I'd just let sleeping does lie, lest we open Pandora's box here.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 8:59 am
  #32  
 
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Can we get a breakdown on if all the children of age would have been in car seats, if there may have been anymore deaths? No way to know that it would have helped, or hurt others. Or maybe those children that did survive would have been added to the casualty count as they would have been in seats instead of on the floor. I can think of quite a few plane crashes where no one survived.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:02 am
  #33  
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Originally Posted by useyourname
The only thing a car seat would help with is turbulence. If it goes down, that 5 star safety rating isn't going to be much help in a blazing inferno/wreckage.
This is extremely false.

Car seats restrain the infant in a crash, greatly reducing the chance the infant/child themselves becomes a projectile. By your logic, seatbelts should not be mandatory on planes either. Who cares if your head hits the ceiling because you weren’t restrained?

A quick review of reports after various airplane crashes would support a very statistically significant increase in the chance of survival given the wearing of a seatbelt versus not wearing a seat belt.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:03 am
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by chermorg


This is extremely false.

Car seats restrain the infant in a crash, greatly reducing the chance the infant/child themselves becomes a projectile. By your logic, seatbelts should not be mandatory on planes either. Who cares if your head hits the ceiling because you weren’t restrained?

A quick review of reports after various airplane crashes would support a very statistically significant increase in the chance of survival given the wearing of a seatbelt versus not wearing a seat belt.
+1. Such ridiculous logic to say carseats won't help in a crash just because they won't help in a case where there are zero survivors.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:14 am
  #35  
 
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Originally Posted by useyourname
Can we get a breakdown on if all the children of age would have been in car seats, if there may have been anymore deaths? No way to know that it would have helped, or hurt others. Or maybe those children that did survive would have been added to the casualty count as they would have been in seats instead of on the floor. I can think of quite a few plane crashes where no one survived.
Are you trying to argue that children being on the FLOOR might have been safer than being in a car seat? I think it's generally accepted at this point that anyone, be it an adult or a child is infinitely safer when strapped into a seat. Of course, if there are no survivors then nothing will help, but many crashes are survivable by at least some portion of the pax, and being restrained in a car seat (to negate the enormous forces of impact) will absolutely 100 times out of 100 be safer than being placed on the floor. It's physics.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:17 am
  #36  
 
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2 Comments:

1. If there is not enough space between the seat containing the approved car seat and the seat in front to fully recline, then the rows are too close together. I'm surprised that the FAA would allow this, but what do I know?

2. I applaud the infant's parents for purchasing a seat for the baby.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:22 am
  #37  
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Originally Posted by SS255
If there is not enough space between the seat containing the approved car seat and the seat in front to fully recline, then the rows are too close together. I'm surprised that the FAA would allow this, but what do I know?
Seats don’t even have to recline. A reclining feature of a seat is not an FAA requirement at all. As the FAA does not mandate (or even come anywhere near suggesting even) a recline feature, why would the FAA disallow a car seat merely because it makes the reclining feature of a seat in front inoperative?

If your point is that the seat pitch is too low in general, that may very well be something the FAA looks at soon to my knowledge. They may very well implement a requirement that carriers will give seating priority in “extra legroom seats” (if available) to those families with children who will be traveling in car seats. But until they actually implement and enforce a minimum seat pitch rule, there’s no mechanism by which they can do anything of this nature.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:23 am
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
This is one of the few sane posts in this thread.

Infant car seats are rear facing only. They may hinder recline, but that's a necessary evil and approved by the FAA. Calling parents selfish for using it for the duration of the flight is uncalled for. Would you like the child to become a projectile during sudden turbulence?
Selfish enough to impact the comfort of others because they decided to bring their kid along...

Originally Posted by ctownflyer
+1. Such ridiculous logic to say carseats won't help in a crash just because they won't help in a case where there are zero survivors.
I believe the other poster’s comments were talking about plane crashes and the effectiveness of car seats in planes. Don’t see how a car seat would have survived the 4U or MH flights...
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:29 am
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by JVPhoto
Selfish enough to impact the comfort of others because they decided to bring their kid along...

What in the world is this supposed to mean?

Originally Posted by JVPhoto
I believe the other poster’s comments were talking about plane crashes and the effectiveness of car seats in planes. Don’t see how a car seat would have survived the 4U or MH flights...
Again, nobody is surviving a complete loss. What does that have to do with a crash that has some fatalities and some survivors?? Should the child be belted in or thrown around as a projectile?

Ex-attendant, Crash Survivor Lobbies For Child-safety Seats - tribunedigital-chicagotribune

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...nes_Flight_232
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:31 am
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Federal regulation requires FAA approved car seats to be accommodated on US airlines so that comes first. How do accomplish this without, sometimes, having is result in limiting the recline of the seats in front of it?

Originally Posted by useyourname
The only thing a car seat would help with is turbulence. If it goes down, that 5 star safety rating isn't going to be much help in a blazing inferno/wreckage.
Take a look at the Asiana accident in San Francisco. Everyone on board survived the impact. An unrestrained baby wouldn't have fared very well.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:31 am
  #41  
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Originally Posted by JVPhoto
I believe the other poster’s comments were talking about plane crashes and the effectiveness of car seats in planes. Don’t see how a car seat would have survived the 4U or MH flights...
If “other poster” means me, my main point was that, looking at flights that are survivable by at least some adults wearing a standard airline seat seatbelt, a car seat (FAA approved) will greatly increase an infant or child’s chance of survival over lap-infant, child in seat without car seat (only standard seatbelt), or any other form of transport - up to the age at which car seats are no longer recommended.

There is a reason car seats are mandated in (every?) most states for children up to a certain age - yes there are unsurvivable car crashes (T-boning a semi truck, for example) but putting a child/infant in a car seat greatly increases the chance they survive a generally survivable crash.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 9:34 am
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by JVPhoto
I believe the other poster’s comments were talking about plane crashes and the effectiveness of car seats in planes. Don’t see how a car seat would have survived the 4U or MH flights...
How about the Asiana crash in SFO a few years ago, or something of similar force to that one? I could very readily believe that such a seat could be the difference between life and death in a crash like that. (There was only one infant on that flight, who did survive).

Nobody expects a child seat to save every life in every crash - it's about increasing survivability and reducing injuries in at least some situations.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:30 am
  #43  
 
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Originally Posted by mduell
Nope. UA has several rows that don't recline ever on each aircraft type.

UA doesn't prohibit inconsiderate parents from being passengers.
And rows that are blocked out from children.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:38 am
  #44  
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Originally Posted by useyourname
Can we get a breakdown on if all the children of age would have been in car seats, if there may have been anymore deaths?
The Feds have done the research. They're not amateurs. Review their work. (Your line of argument against child seats isn't going to work.)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14557157
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 11:27 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by ctownflyer
What in the world is this supposed to mean?
Was there ambiguity? The parents made the decision to travel with their child which is impacting the comfort that another passenger paid for.

Originally Posted by chermorg
If “other poster” means me,
It didn’t.
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