Posted on 02/26/2020 6:28:59 AM PST by Freeport
American, Delta and United all charge big fees for families to sit together. And in some cases, they knowingly separate kids from their parents on board – even 2-year-olds!
Airlines can easily fix this, but they haven’t. Doing so would mean giving up millions of dollars in fees from parents who simply want to keep their kids safe.
Sign our petition demanding airlines put safety over profits! Children should sit with their parents on a plane.
(Excerpt) Read more at action.consumerreports.org ...
They should sit with a parent or guardian until age 21 given the behavior problems in today’s youth.
Eventually, big Daddy Government is going to mandate this. For now, my wife and I get around it with the Delta America Express card.
I’m glad you examined all aspects of this issue, and decided to pursue this course of action because it has the least impact on anyone else on the flight. /sarc
Flying a LOT, I know that you can reserve seats at booking time, based on availability. If you book late, then you frequently end up in less than optimum seating. I pick seats based on probability of having adequate (barely) room for comfort.
Being moved from a seat with extra legroom to cattle class to accommodate a late-booking group (even a family with kids) is a disservice to the traveler who booked early. If the family wants to reserve a block of seats, they should book early enough to do so.
Meh...just work it out on the plane. It isn’t difficult.
The person assigned a seat next to my kid has two choices:
1) Switch seats with me and have a peaceful flight.
2) Don’t switch seats and understand that I cannot guarantee the behavior of my child while I’m not sitting next to him. Oh, and remember, you’re trapped in a tube with all 6’3” and 270lbs of me if anything happens to my kid.
I’ve yet to find anyone who didn’t make the right choice.
You get on a plane and begin threatening other passengers?
of course they should.
I’ve never had it reach that point. Usually the idea of some loose kid driving them crazy during the whole flight is enough to make them see things my way.
I’m with you, if you saw my post upthread.
The airline seat selection defies common sense. On my most recent international flight, I upgraded one level from the cheapest fare (it worked out about the same as paying separately for luggage) but the only choices at that fare level were middle seats. But by digging around in the options, they also let us choose from the cheapest seats, and those included entire rows so the family could sit together.
We fly a lot. We often get bumped up to First Class. If they only bump up one of us, I send up my son.
He has sat next to Col Allen West, Sen Rob Portman, Matthew Broderick, David Taylor (CEO of Procter and Gamble) and other “known” people.
He met Col. West at 13 years old, Broderick at 15.
It is great to have him be comfortable talking with all kinds of people. We corresponded with Col. West several times after meeting - about college and politics.
“they knowingly separate kids from their parents on board – even 2-year-olds!”
I wonder how much $$ it takes for a perv to bribe an agent to seat a child next to him/her. Pervs assault adults in airline seats; a child would be the jackpot.
A couple months ago, I booked flights to Europe for our vacation. I’ve done this many times before, however, this time, when it came time to select my seats, I found out that in order to select them at booking, I needed to choose the more expensive fare. If I didn’t, I could not choose seats until check in, and they could not guarantee our seats would be together at that time.
“If the family wants to reserve a block of seats, they should book early enough to do so.”
Agree. It irks me that people want to save money and then expect other people on the plane who reserved early or paid extra for a seat, to move so that they can sit together. I think couples and people with children do this regularly to save money.
Fine, then don’t bitch when you get a solo 3 year old sitting next to you.
Can’t have it both ways.
I will take a child sitting next to me over the physical pain I have experienced in cattle class. I have children of my own, so the experience isn’t fatal - LOL.
But limping off the aircraft has days-long effects on my aging body.
If I am asked, specifically or generally, to exchange seats on a given flight, I consider what seat is offered and the length of the flight. If I can exchange without suffering for days, I commonly do so.
Now, a question for you: Do you support the unfettered “right” of family groups to displace travelers who planned far enough ahead to have reserved seating?
Yep. I get damned tired of ppl who expect me to make my self uncomfortable because they didn’t plan or pay accordingly.
Last year I had a giant man walk up to my aisle seat and ask me to move over (one of my few non-southwest flights) and he was appalled that I didn’t oblige.
Simply said no, I’m not goign to have my back wrecked upon arrival and I paid for this seat. The expression of disbelief on his face was quite enlightening.
More shoulder room for me and I just crank up the music in my headphones.
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