91StealthES

I apologize, as this may get lengthy.

Due to pricing, I had to fly US Airways this week for my travels. I must say, I like the new A321.

Anyway, I had an unpleasant experience on my return home yesterday, where the crew completely mishandled a situation.

I am Star Gold and boarded with Zone 1. Upon entering the aircraft, there was a young woman in my seat, 5C. She asked if I could switch seats with her so she would be with her husband and children. I had no complaints and took her seat in 5F.

The woman, her husband and I began to chat. They were heading home to the children's grandparents.

Traveling were Mom, Dad, a 3y/o, 18-month twins and a 7-month child. So, in 5A, B and C we had 2 adults and 4 children. 2 children were going to sit in the window and the other 2 were going to be lap children.

A flight attendant came by about 15 minutes into boarding and stating in a smug ton "this isn't going to work, we only have 4 oxygen masks for a set of seats," and walked away. I then offered to switch back, the couple in 5D and E offered to move toward the window so Mom and Child could be close to Dad and children. We adjusted.

I don't recall if it was the same flight attendant or another attendant came by and said, "Still 5 people, this won't work," and walked away again.

At this time, I informed the mother that I would hold one of their children if she trusted me. She obliged, so I asked the 2 passengers in 6C and D if one would mind switching me. 6D agreed.

Before we could change seats, another flight attendant (purser?) returned and asked who was mom and dad. He informed them of the situation that only 4 oxygen masks were available and that legally they couldn't fly due to FAA restrictions. The mother informed him that the ticketing agent knew everyone that was traveling. He then went to the front and asked to speak to the gate agent.

The plane is already fully boarded at this point in time.

The flight attendant came back and informed them they needed to buy another ticket. Mom and dad informed them that 3 of the children were lap children, to which the flight attendant stated, "you are missing a lap." They informed the flight attendant that I would hold one of their children. He said that there are still 5 people in a row and that cannot work, to which I informed him that 6D and I were going to switch. He said okay.

At this point in time, 6D and I switched, and I was given the 7-month child.

After a few minutes, the gate agent or manager comes on board and asks how will they get home? What if someone isn't as nice as I to hold one of their children.

Now, they are asked if they have car seat. They do, but it is checked....flight attendants walk away.

After a few minutes flight attendants come back and inform Mom and Dad they need to buy another ticket. Mom, Dad and Children get off plane to discuss with gate agent/flight attendants. One of the children states, "Mommy, I don't want to get off the plane."

After a couple of minutes, the family comes back on the plane and the mother tells me that evidently, a passenger has purchased a ticket for them. I get the 7-month back and everyone takes their seat.

A few minutes pass again, and the flight attendant comes back and tells the family and I that I cannot legally hold their child and that they need to get their carseat. The family deplanes again.

During the time the family is off the plane, the flight attendant (purser?) comes back and informs us (passenger around the area) that one of the children needs to sit in a seat and that I cannot hold the child. I was a little angry at this time due to the way the situation was being handled and got a little loud with the attendant (to which I later personally apologized to him for). He told us that they were looking for their carseat and that one of us would have to move. 6D moves back a few rows and I head back to 5C.

The pilot now comes on the overhead and apologizes for the delay (20 minutes now) and informs the passengers that they are looking for a piece of luggage in the cargo hold (evidently the car seat).

We get another announcement from the pilot that we are now waiting for luggage to be offloaded and will be departing shortly. The airplane door is now closed.

I have no clue what happened off the airplane, but I am sure the family was given more of a hard time.

In my opinion, the representatives of US Airways on that CLT-ORD flight and the gate agents completely mishandled the situation. Granted, the problem occurred with the ticketing agent, but the outcome could have been processed more efficiently and with a better result. In defense of the male flight attendant (purser?), he was well mannered and was more well-mannered than the 2 older woman flight attendants. The 2 woman flight attendants attitude was disturbing...evidently, they are not mothers.

It seriously left a bad taste in my mouth in regards to US Airways.

I just thought I would share. Again, sorry for the long post.

BoeingBoy

To the best of my knowledge, although I'm not that Airbus knowledgeable, only one side has an extra O2 mask for lap children. So if it ended up that all 6-across seats were occupied - 5 adults & 3 lap children - there wouldn't be enough masks for everyone in that row if needed. So it sounds like it wasn't merely about the lap children but not having enough O2 masks that was the problem. It would be a big FAA no-no to have more people in a row than masks to accommodate them.

Really there's no way to make the number of lap children work out in that situation if the plane is full, except have the 3 people with seats (including the 3 YO) in 3 diifferent rows with each having 1 lap child other than have another passenger take one lap child for the entire flight (having a mask available isn't a takeoff and landing requirement but an above 10,000 ft requirement.

Jim

CUTiger78

I don't get it. 2 adults = 2 laps. How could anyone have sold this family 2 tix and told them that all four children could be lap children? This is just wrong from the beginning. And, a 3 year-old isn't capable of providing a lap for a lap child. Don't even go there. This should have been 4 tix with 2 lap children.

Just my opinion....

honeytoes

Yeah, I thought the same thing...How were two adults permitted to travel with all those lap kids?????

Also, there is NO WAY I would EVER-EVER-EVER volunteer to hold someone's kid. What if something happened? Oh hells no.

Do note, however, I would not even hold a relative's kid. I think all kids need to be (1) far away from me and (2) in a proper safety seat. Lap kids are just an accident waiting to happen.

apeortdz

+1 to that!

GalleyWench

The airbus has an extra mask in every row both sides. If they had 3 seats reserved with 3 lap kids I can see where it might not have raised eyebrows. How would they know one of the tickets was a young child. Something obviously fell thru the cracks some place.

etsmyers

While the OP was generous, and I applaud this, there should not be lap held children, period.

Just another thing in travel that is confusing.

In cars, you need a seatbelt, but motorcyclists dont need helmets
In cars, kids must be in a car seat, but on planes, they can sit in your lap?

Ridiculous

DCAorBust

You cannot ticket a reservation without providing a birthdate. Somehow a system or a person missed the fact that the third lap was that of a 3 year old. That's where the first break down was (Actually, in my view, the real break down was the irresponsible parent who thought it was appropriate/safe/possible to hold two lap children on an airplane). The second was at check-in. And the third was at the gate. Somehow they made it all the way to their seats before someone flagged the issue--and it's a serious issue. One can quibble with the manner in which it was handled, but frankly I think it turned out about as well as it could--problem completely solved with less than a half hour delay and everyone got to travel.

As for the first two passes by the FA, it seems obvious that it was not clear that the OP wasn't a member of the family traveling, and the comments were likely meant to be taken as instructions that the parties, including OP, simply needed to rearrange themselves. It wasn't until there was time for someone to inquire further that it was recognized that this wasn't just a matter of rearranging people, but that instead these folks were not going to be able to fly. On the one hand, you can fault that first FA for not engaging and asking who was traveling with who--on the other hand this situation should never have presented itself at that stage, so it's not unreasonable that it would not immediately occur that an underlying ticketing problem needed to be addressed.

91StealthES

I completely agree with you all...the problem began at ticketing. Supposedly the parents told the ticketing agent that they had 4 children under the age of 3.

It was in no way the crews fault, but I was just amazed at how poorly the crew handled it...their tone, attitude and willingness to find a solution. Even the pilots tone over the intercomm.

In the end, they did have 4 purchased tickets, but still didn't fly.

Michael El

Agree, but it's not just a problem at US. Welcome to the surly skies.

flight62

Airbus 319/320/321 seating is 3-3. O2 mask are 4-4.
As I read it, two kids were going to be lap kids and two kids were going to sit in one seat. Right?

Traveling were Mom, Dad, a 3y/o, 18-month twins and a 7-month child. So, in 5A, B and C we had 2 adults and 4 children. 2 children were going to sit in the window and the other 2 were going to be lap children.

This is got "not going to work" on MANY levels. First of all, there were over 4 on each row, but the parents were going to put two kids in one seat with one seatbelt according to your quote. Oh, no. Did they buy that seat originally? Did they really think it was your job or anyone's job to now hold 2 lap children? While I appreciate you wanting to help and maybe the agents and flight attendants could had been nicer, the passenger tried to pull a fast one. Instead of putting out the extra money for their large family, they CHOSE to put the crew AND passengers in a difficult place by essentially stealing. Yes, STEALING a seat the needed to buy.

I am only going on your quote, but if your quote is true, the passenger was wrong and lucky they didn't get arrested for fraud, which they basically committed.

I have had a case with 4 family members with 2 adults, 2 laps and it was/is seamless to move them in that case. In this case, the passenger was trying to put 2 kids in one seat. You can't do that. Therefore, a seat had to be bought to place the car seat which is what they should had done in the first place. And then someone STILL had to hold the other child...or buy yet ANOTHER seat.

I can understand everyones frustration. The only bad taste I feel is one of a family putting money over their children's lives, their selfishness over the other passengers and crew, and their apparent attempt to steal.

Again, I am going on what you said.

dcpatti

Where did these folks book? If it was the US website it just asks you the number of passengers in each age range; it doesn't differentiate between a 3-year-old who can't handle a lap child, and a 14-year-old who absolutely can. If it's a third party site, most work the same way. I know many people don't add the lap children on at all (for elites, it fouls the upgrade chances) or do it at check-in.

The date of birth you enter isn't analyzed by US; it just goes across to the TSA. So US doesn't know if you're 3 years old or 14. They just know you're somewhere older than a lap child and younger than an adult.

I do agree that no way should the crew have accepted another passenger's offer to hold the lap child; there is a massive liability issue there plus if they had a connection, and no passenger was willing to hold the child, the family gets stuck in ORD for the night and it's an even bigger mess.

It sounds like there were plenty of places for things to be done better, but it also sounds like a very confusing situation (I got a headache just trying to understand how many passengers were in the party). The family has to take a great share of responsibility for the bad outcome, though, as they controlled how many tickets were originally bought and who was planning to sit where. I'm a bit shocked that any parent would let a 3-year-old be in charge of an infant for an entire flight, and while I understand that money's tight everywhere these days, it's a really stupid way to try to save a few dollars. Before they showed up at the airport, they were the only ones who knew how many adults -- proper adults and not just "older than 2's"--- and how many infants/under-2's were traveling together. The gate agent should have caught this but if there were a large number of pre-board's, it's often hard to tell where one family ends and the next begins. Even the FA couldn't tell that not all of the adults in that row belonged to the same family.

91StealthES

@ flight62...I transposed the event as best I could remember.

I am in agreement that it was also the parent's fault...but, I give them the benefit of the doubt as well, as they were most likely not frequent travelers.

They did purchase 3 tickets (Mom, Dad, 3 y/o). From the mothers explaination to the flight attendant (purser?), the ticketing agent knew they had 4 children under 3 when they booked their 3 tickets. Though, the mother could very well be lying. As mentioned as well, another passenger on the plane bought them a 4th ticket during the whole ordeal.

I am not saying the family was right to fly with 4 children and only 2 adults...I am not negating that fact that more than 4 people should be allowed to sit in a row with only 4 oxygen masks...what I am saying is that it was poorly handled by the crew on the aircraft, especially with a flight that was not full. Granted, it should have never made it that far, but it was handled unacceptably in my opinion.

I was only being a nice guy and offering to help get them to their parents for Christmas. Others around me offered to hold the child as well, no one around me was impressed with the handling of the situation.

Oh well, Happy Holidays to all.

flight62

I see where you're coming from..dcpatti summed it up well.

USFreak

One thing that hit me just now was how did US sell this family another ticket on an oversold plane?

OP, kudos for volunteering to be the good guy but really, it was best that you didn't hold that child. In this litigious society, one false move and you would be toast.