Posted on 07/19/2025 9:55:36 AM PDT by Morgana
A United Airlines passenger was left infuriated over what he claimed was the bad behavior of a young child flying in the business class cabin.
Mitchell Miller shared two snaps of a little boy standing on his United Polaris seat on a transatlantic flight to Paris on his Threads account.
'An immature father who lets his son scream and shout and stand up in the seat and jump up and down so far for the whole flight,' Miller wrote.
'The kid hasn’t ST*U (shut the **** up) since we took off and daddy couldn’t care less. 4 hours, 52 minutes so far…2 more hours of this [expletive]. Can we get children under 12 banned from business class…please??'
The post sparked a fiery debate over whether kids should be allowed to fly business or first class, where seats cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
'You should have shamed them more. Bad parents deserve it. This isn’t acceptable. Child is in a public place,' one comment agreed.
Another commenter shared a similar experience when they were on a flight with a child screaming for their mom, standing and jumping on their seat, and running up and down the aisles during a 7.5 hour business class trip.
'The whole cabin was fuming. A baby I get, like annoying but it’s a baby, this was a full child that they actively ignored and didn’t once attempt to calm down or discipline,' the comment continued.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
stanne wrote: “The parents have a right to have an annoying child. One can complain but one has no case.”
No parent has a right to allow their child to annoy anyone around them. They have an obligation to control their annoying child.
Where are the staff?
It should be allowed to give kids tranquilizers. Parents should get a pediatricians prescription before long haul flights. Or at least some Benadryl.
Most parents canidentify with and sympathize with a frazzled parent trying their best, but if a parent refuses to deal with or flat ignore their child’s behavior that’s a problem.
Yup. Being a parent requires loving your children and teaching them how to behave in public. Some parents can do that, some won’t. Social pressure works on most of the latter.
The fact that both the parents and complainer were in business class indicates that both sets have money and both sets see themselves as entitled. Likely indicates that both sets are unlikely to seek the middle ground.
Congratulations.
Mr. mm and I are on 39 years. We got married about 30.
Three kids, all went to college through master’s programs and all gainfully employed with a GREAT work ethic. They put in their full time each day. NO skipping work cause they don’t feel like going in.
Flight attendants seem to have a lot of power these days. Seems like they could have done something for the sake of the other passengers.
Wrong
First you duct tape the parent of the child who is being disruptive.
Then you duct tape the disruptive child.
Then you duct tape anyone else who wants to be disruptive about the duct tape.
“No parent has a right to allow their child to annoy anyone around them. They have an obligation to control their annoying child.”
Thank you! What some here don’t realize is annoying children grow up to be annoying adults. Just look at the ICE protesters I post about daily.
“I’ve travelled first class and business class. It’s quite a different realm in terms of cost
You pay for that and you are entitled to
A family is certainly NOT entitled to bring a child into business class and not a misbehaving one who disrupts the high paying customers”
That is true Stanne but even in coach seating if an adult acts up staff does not put up with it. So why do they put up with children? Even those who pay for coach should not put up with bad parents.
“If I go to chilis I don’t care what happens just want a good burger
If I go to fine restaurant and someone brings any misbehaving person in, I’m going to be put out”
I disagree there too. Children should be taught to use “indoor voices”. Now if they are on MacDonald’s playground okay but in the restaurant that is nerve wracking.
Also children should be taught not to run up and down the isle but remain in their seats during dinner. More and more kids are allowed to do this while waitress carry trays of hot food around.
Plus you know if it happens at MacDonalds or Chilies then their lazy ass parents will take it to fine dining. They don’t care that is the whole point. Now a lot of restaurants are banning children because they have had enough of it.
Strictly speaking, Children and parents have the right to be annoying
The airline has the right to make people leave business class if they are disturbing other passengers
A movie theater has the right to make people leave if they are interfering with people’s ability to enjoy the movie but the movie theater does not employ people to enforce this, as they used to do. That’s why when if people are texting while the movie is going, the theater should refund others’ ticket money but they don’t
Mention used to enforce others’ behavior but lawyers have taken over
If people misbehave on a flight, you still get where you’re going
If you pay for others’ good behavior by giving the airline $3000 extra to enforce that, the airline is obligated to enforce it
The guy should have chilled out and put on some ear muffs.
“I haven’t flown in 12 years.....looks like I haven’t missed anything.”
The Colosseum underground tour.
Pompeii’s newly opened ruins.
“That crap happens in restaurants and stores as well.”
And in ER’s.
Thanks for the comments.
Let me clear up some misconceptions.
I refer to my 4th sentence. The dad is the Bad Guy here (probably*).
The problems is that there is no contractual requirement for parents to control their kids on board a United Flight. While I’m not a lawyer, my guess is United’s Terms and Conditions (https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html) are silent on this point, in part, because of bad actors. That is, some cheap loser on a long-haul flight could demand a refund over some brat who was actually well-behaved.
In addition, with regard to minors, the airline can only control so much. What if it’s a baby with colic? What is the child’s ears hurt from the pressurization? Kids aren’t adults that can just suck it up.
*-This is speculation…judging from the picture the kid may have autism. In which case this likely becomes a no-win ADA-like situation. To be sure, dad still needs to do his job, but having worked with autists as an Asst. Scoutmaster, I can assure you this is a VERY tough situation.
And so on.
So, to remove any ambiguity, dad should have controlled junior. And we could write for a LONG time about the need for strong parents, and how to prep kids for air travel, and all that good stuff. And we’d be right.
That said, given the T&C of United, I don’t know how to hold dad accountable in this case. That’s why, ultimately, this is a caveat emptor situation…fly at your own risk.
Which brings me back to Brandon.
Given caveat emptor, what did Brandon do to get the dad to do his job? Did he ask the father directly to control his son? Did he ask a flight attendant to intervene? Did he rally other passengers to, calmly but firmly, jointly address dad?
Brandon’s post has zero sign of intervention being tried. That is, he didn’t write “I spoke to dad…” or “I asked the flight attendant…” As such, I bet Brandon sat and stewed (for 4+ hours) before posting on Threads. In other words, Brandon whined on social media about a problem HE could have tried to address.
And for what it’s worth, nobody else on this flight in business class seems to have registered a complaint with The Internet. That is likely because an unruly child in public is like air pollution - a negative externality, per economists. Brandon strikes me as being like an environmentalist - complaining about some fact of life that interferes with his Qi.
Parenthetically since Brandon’s using the dying competitor of X from Meta and not posting to X suggests he’s a lib. And indeed, leftists prefer collective action vs taking individual initiative. Yes, dad is the bad guy. But dude…you’re in business class…everyone else looks like dealing with it; get some of those business class headphones and stream Interstellar for 3 hours.
Again, ultimately on a flight there is no guarantee of peace and tranquility. Just like anyone living in the Northeast needs to prep for snow, anyone flying should bring whatever you needed to get you through the flight. Earplugs…headphones…videos…books…Dramamine…whatever.
You are not entitled to a dreamy flight. Parents don’t always parent. Kids often kid. Negative externalities are part of life. Plan accordingly.
You lost me right here:
“with regard to minors, the airline can only control so much. What if it’s a baby with colic? ”
No babies with colic in business class
You time stamp it. You get photos and you record it. You get a refund
“The airline has the right to make people leave business class if they are disturbing other passengers”
That’s the thing though. Any other time the airlines would boot them off the plane! Hundreds of police cam videos of this too. Adults acting up and have to be carried off. Yet when it’s a child the staff don’t say a word?
“A movie theater has the right to make people leave if they are interfering with people’s ability to enjoy the movie but the movie theater does not employ people to enforce this, as they used to do. That’s why when if people are texting while the movie is going, the theater should refund others’ ticket money but they don’t”
I had the misfortune recently of attending a movie where a dad brought in a small child who would not STFU. I said something to the dad but the kid still would not be quiet. I left the theater and told the manager and she gave me a ticket to another showing. Mind you this movie was PG-13 and this kid was under 5. We can suspect that dad did not want to pay for a sitter because this movie was not age appropriate.
Now you may say that ended well because I got another ticket to a different show but now the theater is out the cost of that ticket because dad could not make his brat shut up. I wonder how many other times this happens across America? Maybe that is why theater tickets cost so much?
Honestly in my opinion babies don’t belong on a plane to begin with unless they really have to fly and it’s an emergency.
Why you ask? Baby’s ears are not fully developed and they can’t handle the air pressure change. That causes them pain. Why torture a kid like that? Plus since their ears are not fully developed how do we not know it may or may not effect their hearing?
“ I had the misfortune recently of attending a movie where a dad brought in a small child who would not STFU. I said something to the dad but the kid still would not be quiet. I left the theater and told the manager and she gave me a ticket to another showing. Mind you this movie was PG-13”
It’s hard to watch people being ridiculous and also exposing their kids to sex and or violence that’s disturbing and confusing to them, they have the right o do it
The theater is responsible to make the movie enjoyable to you
I never engage directly with misbehaving people. Getting out and getting a ticket to another show is the best and only way out. It is inconvenient. But people are going to be idiots
It lets the theater know you’re not happy about this.
One thing theaters and other places Can do is sell a particular showing where they give you a free soda or so and enforce a de
Dress code. No one under 13 allowed something like that
When people dress better they act better
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