
United Airlines takes seat away from child, forces him to sit on moms lap - fergbrain
http://m.sfgate.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/United-Airlines-takes-seat-away-child-mother-11267745.php
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muggermuch
I haven't flown United since the David Dao incident. Anecdotally, most
international airlines are orders of magnitude better in terms of quality of
service, cleanliness, flight crew friendliness, and so on. As a person of
color, the latter attributes are quite important for me, since I'd rather not
get singled out for wilful mistreatment on a transatlantic flight.

Delta has been good to me so far over the years.

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relaxitup
"We are providing compensation as a goodwill gesture."

As a "goodwill" gesture?? This makes it sound like she is lucky they might be
providing any sort of compensation at all to her. Seems to me that she is due
a full refund, since her son was not able to use the seat that she paid for. I
don't think the article reveals the age of the child, as I think that would
provide some bearing as to the airline's responsibility to provide full refund
or not? Once again, airlines (or is it just United) making boneheaded
decisions.

~~~
fergbrain
"Once again, airlines (or is it just United) making boneheaded decisions."

This is a United problem. I've refused to fly them for several years now (and
even paid more because of it). I'm not surprised this happened again. Their
employees simply do not care about passengers, period.

I suspect this is a cultural issue mixed with some self-preservation because
of the merger.

Needless to say: I will continue to not fly with them.

~~~
relaxitup
Article does mention the child is 2 years old; not sure if that changes the
scope of their refund policy/responsibility. However, I would imagine that if
this mother wanted to hold the child in her lap for the duration of the do
flight, she presumably would not have purchased an extra $1000 ticket. I
imagine they'll for sure give her a full refund and then some after the media
flack, whilst still making it seem like their actions were acceptable.

~~~
eeks
Parent of 3 kids that fly a lot here. Airlines force you to buy a full seat as
soon as your child turns 2. This woman was most likely forced to buy a full
ticket for her child.

This is properly inacceptable. I don't understand why this woman complied.

I would not have in her situation and would have made a terrible scene had I
been asked to relinquish a seat I paid for.

~~~
rlucas
Except, that mother almost certainly knew of the recent excesses of violence
played out on behalf of, if not explicitly the direction of, United Airlines,
and made a judgment call about reducing risk that her child would be beaten up
by a cop or air-steward (or that her child would be taken from her in a
strange city if she were arrested).

As much as United shed crocodile tears over the David Dao beat-up incident,
the more power-hungry / Milgram-normalized flight crews probably secretly
appreciate the implicit threat of violence that now accompanies their seating
suggestions.

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EpicEng
On a side note...

> The FAA recommends havinga child strapped into a seat for the duration of a
> flight.

...have the people who wrote that _ever_ flown with a toddler? I mean, yeah, I
agree, but good luck with that!

~~~
ajarmst
If the child is 2 or more years old, the FAA doesn't merely recommend that
they have a seat, it requires it.

~~~
EpicEng
Oh believe me, I know; we visited as many family members as we could before my
son hit the cutoff. Doesn't mean they stay in that seat though, they're still
all over the place.

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atesti
Back in 2009:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Breaks_Guitars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Breaks_Guitars)

"Rob Bradford, United's managing director of customer solutions, telephoned
Carroll to apologize for the incident and to ask for permission to use the
video for internal training. United claimed that it "hoped" to learn from the
incident, and to change its customer service policy accordingly"

Didn't help apparently

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putsteadywere
In the last 30 days, I've flown international on 4 airlines... United, Alaska,
China Eastern, and Korean Air.

United was easily the worst, Korean was easily the best.

China Eastern wasn't great either - yet it still had better customer service,
amenities, and a more comfortable seat and landing.

~~~
zem
korean is also the only airline i've ever flown where i thought the food was
good (not just "good for airline food", which a handful of other airlines do
manage, but good as in i'd have been happy to eat it at any time)

~~~
shard
From my experience, Dubai Air has the best food I've ever had on an airplane,
bar none. Korean Air and Asiana also have good food, as long as you choose the
Korean meal. Their western meals are sometimes hit-or-miss.

