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Strollerderby
Perhaps the airlines should retrain their staffs to better understand the regulations surrounding infant seats
The skies haven’t been so friendly to 39-year-old Melissa Bradley lately. Last month, the mother of four was nearly booted off a Sky West flight from Aspen after a flight attendant told her she couldn’t use a rear-facing car seat for her baby during takeoff. Bradley argued that the car seat was Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved precisely to be rear-facing, but the flight attendant was unsympathetic and, apparently, misinformed and told her the choice was to either hold her baby during takeoff or exit the plane before departure. Ultimately, United, who partners with Sky West, apologized to Bradley and said the flight attendant in question operated improperly and was spoken to about the incident.
The FAA has long maintained that children under two-years-old are safer being buckled into a seat rather than held in a lap, but they have thus far declined to make it mandatory for seats to be purchased for infants. Bradley, however, claims that she’s worried about what will happen to her kids if there’s turbulence and she’s not able to hold them properly in her lap, which is why she’s voluntarily chosen to purchase seats for them at every age.
Come on, this kid's so cute! Who doesn't want to play a game of peek-a-boo on the plane?
In anticipation of the holiday travel season, The Wall Street Journal‘s work-life balance blog The Juggle recently asked, “Will planes one day be segregated into kiddie and kid-free zones?”
According to an unscientific survey of 2,000 passengers, “nearly 60% of passengers supported creating special sections on flights for families, and some 20% hoped to see child-free flights.” The Juggle reports that there’s an “increasingly popular” Facebook group called Airlines Should Have Kid-Free Flights, as well. The group has 662 members, and its moderator, who blogs on a site called Angry Pig, says, “OK, why do I have to have a pink creature yelling constantly on a plane next to me or creating smells which can be used as biological weapons when the technology exists to see if passengers have young children and to seat them on the wings or with another airline. (preferably to another destination). I don’t get it.” Continue reading »
Are children the smokers of the 21st century skies, so annoying to their fellow passengers that they need to be quarantined in their own special section of an airplane?
According to almost sixty percent of respondents to a recent poll, the answer is yes.
The Internet fare comparison website Skyscanner asked site visitors about the topic following a recently highly publicized incident where a woman received a monetary settlement from Qantas after she was seated near a small child who screamed so loudly, she claims she suffered hearing loss. Not only did a significant majority support the child-free and family-only sections of the plane, a further 20 percent believe that the airlines should offer “adults only” flights where, presumably, not only would they enjoy a scream free environment, the in-flight movie might actually be something worth watching. Continue reading »
We all know that a screaming toddler can drive anyone crazy. But can you sue over it?
That’s just what one woman is doing. Jean Barnard, an American tourist who was on her way to vacation in Australia and New Zealand last January, claims that a three-year-old boy screamed so loud that she was left “stone cold deaf,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Ms. Barnard sued the airline Qantas. The case was settled last week.
“The pain was so excruciating that I didn’t even know I was deaf,” Ms. Barnard said, describing the incident during a deposition for a civil lawsuit she filed against the airline in the US District Court in Los Angeles.
The 67-year-old claims she suffered severe and permanent injuries from the toddler’s scream and sought damages for physical and mental suffering, medical expenses and loss or impairment of earning capacity. All I can say is: give me a break. Continue reading »
Two days ago, Mitchell Roslin boarded a Ft. Lauderdale-bound Spirit Airlines flight at La Guardia airport in New York with his two preteen kids and seven-months-pregnant spouse. Engine trouble precluded a take-off for over two hours and hampered cabin ventilation, turning the jet into a suffocating hot box. Passengers were not allowed to leave the plane, and when Roslin requested water for his parched wife, he was refused.
If you listen to the parents prepping for a flight with their kids this Christmas, air travel with children is the pits. But the Department of Transportation may have just made one rule that will make things easier on parents.
Beginning in April, no domestic flight will be allowed to sit on the tarmac for more than three hours. Continue reading »
A little kid screaming “Go, plane, go” and “I want Daddy,” was too much for a Southwest crew. They kicked the kid – and his mom – off their plane.
According to the AP, Pamela Root says her two-year-old was calming down, but the plane taxied back to the gate, and she and Adam were told they had to get off. Continue reading »
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