Dad Ditches Kid In Economy Class To Relax In Business Class

Live And Let's Fly ^ | 07/20/18

[Simon Green]

How would you react to finding your seatmate on a 12-hour flight to China is a talkative eight-year-old boy whose father had ditched him to go sit in business class?

Flyertalk member steveo posted the following question in the United forum:

Hi Flyertalk. Just got off [Chicago] to [Beijing] and to my delight I had a maybe [an] 8-year-old boy sitting next to me the whole flight while his dad was in Polaris. I had the distinct pleasure of entertaining this kid who wouldn’t shut up for 12-hours. Should I complain about this?

Short answer: yes.

Flight attendants appear to share blame here. Steveo added:

Just to clarify the dad was sending stuff back to the kid from Polaris; and the kid even told the flight attendants that his daddy was up in Polaris class.

They knew it wasn’t my kid.

This is was also one of the worst crews I’ve ever seen from United. For example they rammed a guy with their cart and yelled, “You need to keep out of the aisle” and the guy was like “are you even going to apologize?”

There’s two big issues here. First, the father’s actions. Is it appropriate for a father to ditch his young son on a long intercontinental flight? I tend to think the answer is no, though I may be singing a different tune when my son is eight.

On a serious note, it does appear the father checked in on the son during the flight, but wouldn’t you want to fly with your child? Is entrusting him to the strangers seated next to him wise parenting?

The kid apparently talked for nine hours, eventually to himself after the seatmate put his headphones on and tried to sleep.

[petitfour]

I fly rarely. When I do, I sit wherever they put me. I haven’t had issues. Once when I was 13, my old maid aunt and my grandmama took me and my 16 year old cousin to Hawaii. On our journey home we stopped in Dallas to pick up a few passengers. The man who sat down next to my cousin and I was dressed up in a suit and tie. He had a briefcase. Midway through the flight, he opened up his briefcase and began perusing, uh, reading the articles in his Playboy magazine. Too bad my Grandma wasn’t sitting there next to him. That might have resulted in some amusing tales over the years.

We sent our daughters on a trip to visit grandparents a few years back. The girls were between 11 and 13. I can’t remember. Anywho, they got to sit with an Air Marshal. I doubt either of them talked to him at all. lol

[petitfour]

...to my cousin and me . . .

had to correct my grammar. lol