You better swap seats or have nanny with screaming lap child in middle
 

OK...first, this isn't an anti-children in F or C thread, but here is my story from LAX-SYD . Just wondering what I else I could have done.

I was seated in bluckhead 25C and there was another business traveller seated on the other aise 25F in the center section of the 747.

Last to board there are these 2 adults and 2 young children and stop at the 25A/B seats across the aisle from me. They had a short discussion with a gate supervisor who told them that these were the only seats available, and it was up to others if they wanted to move.

I cant remember the exact words but the father said something along the lines of "you better swap seats otherwise you'll have nanny and a sceaming kid in the middle - you don't have to, but I'm telling you that nanny has the middle seat".

We swapped seats without a hint of a thank you. I checked with the purser for other seats, but both F and C were full. Unfortunetely, the description of his kid was accurate and lead to a miserable flight even though I moved. There were other young children in C who were perfrectly behaved.

I don't think that the behavior of pax is United's fault, but why would they give a middle C seat between two business travellers for a nanny and 18month old. If there had been an aisle seat in Y, I'd have moved and asked for my SWU back.

Edited to add: Is it appropriate to change a diaper on a reclined C seat?

Yuck... it does happen from time to time. It's why I try ever-so-hard to get a seat upstairs, as they're usually the first to go. The downstairs is just begging for the last-minute op up's and those bulkheads are bassinet magnets.

Sorry to hear you had such a craptacular flight. :(

It just goes to show that flying even in C can be a crapshoot...

...sorry to hear about your experiences, wimpy.

ouch.

Let me get this straight, they originally had 25A, C and D, for two adults, one of which was the father, one was a nanny, and two children, one of which was a lap child? And you and the anonymous but gratious person in 25F moved to 25A/B. Right?

(don't get me started on this lap child crap......)

They had 25A/B/D. I had 25C and the other guy had 25F. Father insisted that 25D was the nanny / lap child seat. No choice but to move. And guess what....nanny lap child was now in 25C.

The behaviour of the kids was hardly surprising give the attitude / roll model of the father.

given the father's attitude i would not have moved. it would make very little difference to me whether the child is screaming from my left or my right. and if the child became unbearable, i would have definitely said something to the father/nanny/flight attendent.

:td: :td: :td:

If that's how he said it, that's incredibly rude on several fronts:

1. The threatening tone (a bit hard to judge not being there, but wimpy gets the benefit of the doubt :) )
2. The acknowledgement that he knew his kid would be a problem but that he showed no inclination to want to do anything about it himself
3. The lack of any apparent willingness to try to do anything himself to try to deal with the situation

He could have handled the situation much better, and possibly with the same end result, if he had said something like this:
No need to threaten a miserable flight or talk about what a holy terror your kid is. Just show that you're trying to make an effort to be considerate of the other pax. And if you and/or 25F weren't willing to move, an even minimally considerate parent would have put both kids in the two outside seats, even if that meant that one of the parents had to sit next to the nanny. Yeah, it sucks to get stuck with a middle seat, or to get separate when you're traveling as a group, but that's no reason to impose your misery on anyone else.

Another big :td: . Sounds like he thought it was your "responsibility" to trade and make his life easier all along.

I think that answers your question as to why the nanny ended up in the D seat -- there weren't any others left.

Sorry to hear it, although IMO, this is one of those things that, unfortunately, just happens to everyone once in a while and there's not much anyone can do about it.

IMO, maybe you could get away with it if you had the adjacent seat(s), too. I've never traveled with an infant, so I don't know what changing facilities exist on the plane. But I'll say that I'd be pretty pissed off if someone was changing a diaper right next to my head! And regardless, the odors can't be very pleasant for anyone in the cabin. :(

What a weenie! :rolleyes:

I will turn this into a child in C thread by saying that he should have been extra sensetive to his fellow passengers in that situation because he was in a premium cabin. He could of at least taken your aisle (and said thank you for giving up a primo seat!) and tried insulate you from the noise by putting the kids & nanny in A & B

Jerk :td:

edited to add: sorry you had such a miserable experience on so long of a flight!

With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, I would say that you should have put a condition on your seat swap: the adult without a lap child sits in C if you & 25F move to A & B. That would have made it more unpleasant for the pax in G & H, but I don't think it's unreasonable to share the pain a bit. You gave up your nice bulkhead seats; you get a little of a reprieve from the noise.

And frankly, with the father's attitude, if he had resisted your telling him where to sit as a condition to agreeing to give up your seat, I would have told him that he can just keep the A&B seats.

Of course, that's all with hindsight. If I had been there myself, I probably would have done exactly what wimpy did and regretted it afterwards.

I am a bit surprised that UA wasn't able to rearrange some seats to put them together. If they had time to do that, I'd say that UA dropped the ball somewhat as it would have been much easier to handle the reseating before boarding. On the other hand, since the problem pax were the last to board, they may well have been running late and didn't bother to take the time to let anyone know about their special seating needs before they got to the gate. If that's the case, it's just more selfishness on their part, expecting other people to make up for their lack of preparation. IME, all airlines are pretty good at putting families with small children together when given some advance notice.

Yep. That's just common courtesy, IMO, regardless of what cabin you're in. Granted, you can't always prevent your kid from disturbing others, but you should at least make a decent effort to do so.

Or, if the non-lap kid could behave himself reasonably well, put Dad & nanny/lap kid in A&B, and put the other kid in D. Maybe wimpy would have even been willing to swap aisle for middle to keep the bulkhead row and stay away from the infant.

There were certainly better solutions. Sounds like dad wasn't looking for them.

There were certainly better solutions. Sounds like dad wasn't looking for them.[/QUOTE]

Totally agree!

Like I said...A real weenie! :td: :td:

:eek: :eek: :eek: Gross :eek: :eek: :eek:

No-- Especially when there are lavs with tables for that purpose.

Only if that seat is about to be discarded and will never be used again.

It is parents' responsibility to keep children behaved on the flight. What the children do on the flights is a good indication what the parents normally behave in real life.....


in Wimpy's situation:

The father's attitude :td:
changing diaper on any seats (or in other public areas of the plane such as just on the floor) :td:
Not planning ahead when traveling with three children and a nanny: :td:

I take my kids to international locations each summer since they were born, and I hate to see behaviors of individuals (such as the one described by the OP) are giving other flying parents/kids a bad name. It is not too hard to search on Google to come up with to do lists on how to prepare and fly with infants/young kids.

:td: :td: :td:

Agree! From a father that has travelled with an infant, this is absolutely inappropriate!!!