Family kicked off flight

[Scrooge]

Link

[y][y] AirTran for kicking them off

[n][n] For rewarding them

[:?] Wonder if they will use the free tickets [?]

[Nottingham Nick]

Compensation? [?]

Not exactly backing the actions of their staff, are they? [n]


Nick

Weird. Talk about back tracking on a well made decision....[n][n]

Reminds me of the time SRB gave Courtney Love 4 free UC tickets after she was banned from the airline (or something similar) following her drunken/disorderly behaviour onboard[n]

Why should the airline have to pay for the pax's behaviour?[?]

VS.

[Neil]

What a strange decision, fair enough to put them on another flight free of charge, but to reimburse them their ticket money AND to then offer them free flights as well doesn't make sense, there seems no logic in it[?]

[Bazz]

Right to remove them, parents need to keep their kids under control when on an aircraft. What they do in their own homes is up to them and if they let their kids run their lives, so be it but when they step on a commercial airliner the rules change.

Compensate them, absolutely not. Compensate the other pax that were delayed because of their crap parenting... absolutely yes!

[RichardMannion]

From what I understand, Courtney Love never got any such free tickets.

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by RichardMannion
From what I understand, Courtney Love never got any such free tickets.

Thanks,
Richard

But it was good publicity ... wasn't that the point?

Originally posted by Bazz
Right to remove them, parents need to keep their kids under control when on an aircraft. What they do in their own homes is up to them and if they let their kids run their lives, so be it but when they step on a commercial airliner the rules change.

Compensate them, absolutely not. Compensate the other pax that were delayed because of their crap parenting... absolutely yes!

Here!Here!

Did anyone else make the inference that the child had been seated away from the parents ? Surely if they were seated next to their offspring then consoling etc was well within the bounds of possibility.

Paul

[Nottingham Nick]

Interestingly, there is another take on the same story here, in the family's home town newspaper.

Nick

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Interestingly, there is another take on the same story here, in the family's home town newspaper.

Nick

Interesting reading and of course there are two sides to every story, but let's face facts, does anyone think that Airtran would off load a family, knowing that in this day and age it will make the news, without just cause, they don't need the headaches or the bad PR.

Most of us have been on flight's where a kid has one of these episodes, some families deal with it, others let the child "express themselves", I know there have been times I wished I could introduce a child to a fun game called solitary confinement (child+overhead locker) but not being my child I have just slipped into another happier place in my mind.

Im sure that given enough time the child would of calmed down as they tend to do, but in the airline business time is money and how much is the airline willing to lose, not forgetting of course that over 100 other people are being delayed because of it.

In the end there can be no winners, gone are the days where you could take the child to the bathroom, explain a few facts of life to them and have them sitting in their seat in 5 mins with a sore butt.

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
Interestingly, there is another take on the same story here, in the family's home town newspaper.

Nick

I blame the bag of Cheetos! Have you see the additives in those things?

[Neil]

Thanks for the "alternative" link Nick. It just goes to prove how two articles on the same story, worded slightly differently can paint an all together different picture of what happened. I loved the line about the child suddenly having a flash back of the pain caused from her Ear surgery! A classic!.

Neil

Originally posted by Attitude23
Thanks for the "alternative" link Nick. It just goes to prove how two articles on the same story, worded slightly differently can paint an all together different picture of what happened. I loved the line about the child suddenly having a flash back of the pain caused from her Ear surgery! A classic!.

Neil

Interesting alternative views!
As a child I had a lot of ear problems, with a lot of pain, and even now, as a grown up, the ear pain i experience with pressure change on a flight can be pretty severe.
Still, as the father of lovely, well balanced, 8 and 10 year olds I would whole heartedly recommend a "stern talking to" out of sight of fellow pax, to snap them out of the tantrum phase regardless of the cause.

[Bazz]

Well it is always interesting to hear the "other side" not wishing to be picky but I am having problems reconciling two items in the piece, firstly:

ÒShe was great,Ó her mom remembered. ÒWhen we made our descent into Florida we could see the water and she shouted, ÔLook, mommy, thereÕs the beach where we go swimming,Õ and everyone laughed.Ó

...so how does that tie up with this:

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 planeÕs descent into Florida.

...which is proffered in the child's defense?

As the plane was still on the ground and it would appear ground staff were on board so the doors were open so no change in pressure at the time of the incident to aid her memory?

Not sure it adds much of a different perspective to me. If I am reading it right it says that an otherwise well behaved child suddenly started throwing a tantrum and would not sit down and put its seatbelt on for departure. Then it says she had ear surgery which the presurisation made painful. Really? How did they manage to off-load the family from a presurised cabin? So maybe it was the trauma of the pain from the incoming flight. Is this the same trauma she experienced when she was chatting happily and 'amusing' the whole plane with cute comments?

Afraid it still sounds like a case of a child who, for whatever reason, would not obey safety instructions and therefore had to be off-loaded. And the problem is....? Some people love children, some don't. A few people don't mind listening to them screaming, most do. However none of that really matters at the end of the day: Not abiding by safety rules is a full stop IMO, what ever your views on children.

[Scrooge]

Exactly, well put Sailor.

Scrooge Airways Child in-flight playpen