[Lunatic Fringe]

How hard would it have been to sit next to child and hold her down???

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Let me guess.. The parents don't believe in spanking?

[DCBryan1]

Looks like Air Trans and the airline that the Muslims boycotted should merge to be the safest and least noisy airline industry in the world.

[Ben Mugged]

Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter

They already had three years. Let's negotiate with a 3 year old.

[Red Badger]

The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.

I won't miss them.........I've had enough of unruly kids in airplanes........

[highball]

Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly.

"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

No opportuniy? The flight was already delayed 15 minutes. How much time did they expect to be given? Were they even trying, or were they waiting it out?

[linda_22003]

This was pretty much beaten to death as a topic yesterday.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1771754/posts

[Non-Sequitur]

The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.

And as a regular AirTran flyer I thank him. That's one less ill-mannered kid I have to worry about sitting behind.

[CindyDawg]

hitting the parents

They have much bigger problems than a delay home. If they can't control her at 3, what are they going to do when she is 13?

[prairiebreeze]

The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day.

They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.

The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Geeze buddy, they reimbursed you and offered 3 free rides. We're talking some bucks here.

I used to fly with my daughter and in those days she could sit on my lap. Have those rules changed now, I wonder?

[CatoRenasci]

I think the airline did the right thing: the parents may have paid for their seats and their daughter's seat, but so did the 100+ other passengers on the flight. They delayed the flight for 15 minutes, for crying out loud, what more can the parents expect? An indefinite delay until the little darling is quiet? The other passengers and crew to put up with a screaming kid the whole way? No thanks.

When my daughters were small, they were usually good travelers, though not always. We managed to find ways to calm them and distract them, even when one of them threw a temper tantrum in the Red Carpet Club. What we never did was put a crying kid on a plane.

I would say that for 95% of flights when our kids were small, they charmed the crew and had the run of the plane "helping". They always got extra cookies and, more often than not, we'd get a bottle of champagne or two, from the crew. They also were good at making friends with kids who were upset on the plane and calming them. Go figure.

[arizonarachel]

Oh my gosh! Of course the parents and the child did nothing wrong, it's all the airlines fault. Jeez Louise! Give me a break. I know that children are unpredictable, but the airline did what they could - they can't break the rules, right?

[NavyCanDo]

I was fearing the same thing when my 3-year old son was singing his 40 something rendition of his version of "Tiny Bubbles" on our return trip from Maui. The passengers thought it was real cute for about the first dozen times but after awhile even after telling him to shoosh several times We started getting the evil eye.

[Charlespg]

she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat"

BRAT

[ShandaLear]

Oh boo-hoo-hoo! The problem is obvious, the parents think the world should revolve around them and have tuaght their daughter well.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Sounds like a great scam. Get 3 tickets, tell your kid to behave like a spoiled brat, get 3 free tickets anywhere in the world.

Anybody here believe they won't use the free tickets?

[tcrlaf]

As a million-miler with other carriers, and an ex-airline employee, may I be the first to say THANK YOU AIRTRAN!!!

Can you imagine how grateful the other passengers on the flight were?
Or is that no longer a consideration in our ego-centric world anymore?

[GoRepGo]

Her mom thinks it may have been because of the ear surgery Elly underwent earlier this month, and perhaps her memory of the discomfort and ear pressure she endured during the plane’s descent into Florida. For whatever reason, when they got on the plane, Elly started to cry and wouldn’t stop. Nor would she sit down — she plopped herself down on the floor in front of her seat and proceeded to throw a temper tantrum.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070121/COLUMN01/701210459/1008/NEWS02

Oh, our kid just had ear surgery! Lets fly to see Grandma and Grandpa in Florida! Yeah!

They just fell out of the running for Parents of the Year, IMO.

[Alouette]

They should make the parents with the crying children sit next to the imams. We'll see what is louder, the yodeling to Allah or the toddler tantrum.

[ripley]

"the father said his family will never fly air tran again."

might be good news for the two or three hundred people who fly on the next air tran flight.