Family gets rewarded for disrupting a flight?? (1 Viewer)

[Chris]

Apparently, according to other passengers the tantrum hadn't lasted fifteen minutes.. more like an hour + in that it started before they boarded the plane and went on until the plane was 15 minutes late as the child wouldn't be seated.

http://www.local6.com/news/10834977/detail.html

The airline offered to put them on several other flights immediately, but the family refused, wanting only non-stop

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...02/detail.html

Other passengers have spoken on out a few interviews and noted the child was having a tantrum before boarding the plane. I've traveled on a plane with our kids often, and I was reminded of something: families with children board first, before anyone but first class. This is designed to provide them time to get seated and console a child. Based on the plane, an attendant for Southwest noted (and I agree) they would have been on the plane for at least 10/15 minutes BEFORE boarding was over. So, in the end, this tantrum had to have been going on for at least 30+ minutes in order to not get the child seated.

 

[Holadem]

The airline was not "rewarding" anything, they made a business decision in order to ensure future business from these customers. The child is not gonna be 3 or insufferable forever. 3 tickets are peanuts to them, the airline might get them back in spades if the family (and anyone else they might influence) does not boycott them in the future.

We're always complaining about corporations being ruthless, well here is a case of a business being nice... (of course they aren't just being nice, they're being mostly clever).

Ultimately, the airline is a business, not the Morale Police (i.e., "rewarding" or "punishing" good/bad behaviour).

--
H

 

[Todd Hochard]

Hyperbole much?

 

[MarkHastings]

which they did when they refunded their money for the ticket...anything beyond that (IMO) is a reward.

Most businesses will give you a reward (to ensure future business) when they have done something to upset you. This is the opposite. The family was disobeying a federal law. I mean, are we forgetting the fact that the kid was SO uruly that it caused the airline to kick them off the plane!!!??? They were kicked off! That's not something that you just say "ooopsy" to.

You're thinking of a scenario where a business, like a restaurant, gives you a bad mean, you complain and the restaurant does good by refunding your money and giving you a free meal at a later date.

This scenario would be like refusing to take your shoes off at the terminal (for inspection) to the point where the airline has to detain you (making you miss your flight) and then having them give you free roundtrip tickets because they wanted to ensure future business since they feel bad about holding you up from your flight. Give me a break!

This is clearly a case of the airline fearing some kind of backlash from miffed parents who would try to make the airline look like the bad guys. And judging from this thread alone, they could easily garner sympathy from other parents even though they were completely in the wrong.

The airline is just trying to shut them up even though they (i.e. the airline) did nothing wrong. And that's why I think it sucks.

 

[Claudia P]

Ummm, Mark, did you miss this bit in the news reports?

"The family has refused the company's offer of free tickets".

 

[Henry Gale]

Ummm, I missed that.

Let me jump to some conclusions.:

"The family" are idiots.

The family think they can score in court, or by threatening legal action.

The family are confusing themselves with passengers who actually were treated unfairly by airlines, like nursing mothers for instance.

The family, like so many I encounter, are unconcerned about how many other people they may be disturbing and inconveniencing.

 

[Claudia P]

It's not only families holding aircraft to ransom. My last two longhaul international flights ex LAX (Dec & Jan) were delayed 90 minutes and 150 minutes respectively while the airlines concerned endeavoured to locate missing passengers who had checked in and not reported at the departure gate. These 'missing' passengers were in each case small groups of Americans (no excuse for not being able to read signs/directions to gates or hear the calls for them on the public address system). I would have preferred to see these tardy passengers denied boarding, but that would have meant further delays while the airlines offloaded luggage, located passengers' bags, reloaded luggage, then waited for air traffic control to allocate another place in queue for the runway.

15 minutes is not a long delay by comparison. In fact, a 15 minute delay is pretty much the norm in my experience for domestic USA flights, for one reason or another. In most cases the airlines can and do make up this lost time in flight - as they did on my internationals (helped by tail winds).

 

[MarkHastings]

Yeah, but a 15 minute delay because of engine trouble (or what have you) is totally acceptable. A 15 minute delay, because a kid won't sit in his/her seat, is 15 minutes too long.

Let me ask you this, let's say you had to wait 5 minutes in the checkout line because there was a long line of people in front of you...

Now let's say you had to wait 5 minutes in the checkout line because the person in front of you started chatting with the cashier and just B.S.'ing.

Now obviously not many people have an issue with long lines, but if you tell me that you wouldn't have a problem with the second scenario, then either you're a saint, or you're lying.

 

[Claudia P]

You can't wait FIVE minutes? If I were you I would be taking a long, hard look at my lifestyle. You have demonstrated a lack of patience throughout this thread. Do you really have a short fuse or do you simply love using the 'anger' emoticon?

 

[MarkHastings]

LOL - hardly. I am extremely patient. I will put up with a lot. Probably more than most people do. I am constantly having to smooth things over when people get outraged at minor incidents.

But if it's considered impatient to expect a little respect (in cases that demand respect), then I think we need to reexamine the meaning of "patient".

p.s. I'm not sure where you're from, but I live in an area of the country where someone will kill you if the light turns green and you don't haul ass. So while it might not seem like I'm pateint, considering the area I live in, I am a saint.

 

[Bryan X]

It's amazing the lack of parenting skills many people seem to have. A few years ago me, my wife, and son were flying back home from Boston. Sitting behind us was a mother, her son, and an unrelated businessman. After we were in the air the kid starts acting up. This kid was a nightmare. He was throwing things at the back of my seat, throwing things onto the man next to them, kicking, screaming, squirming all over the seat and floor, and tearing up anything within his reach. The floor behind us looked like a box of confetti had been dropped. The kid was horrible. The man sitting beside them was clearly frustrated but did no more than give her dirty looks. The flight attendant came back a couple times -- the man asked to be moved-- but the flight attendant couldn't do anything as the plane was full. At one point I turned around and gave the mother 'the look' myself. She actually asked me to help her. I'm thinking WTF do you want me to do? Fortunately I had brought a carry-on with little toys for my son to play with so I took one of those and gave it to the kid. He was quiet the rest of the flight.

Now what kind of parent takes a small kid on a multi-hour flight with absolutely no toys or other items to distract them or keep them busy? Just insane.

The kicker was, when we got off the plane, I saw the mother meeting whom I assume was the father/husband. She then proceeded to tell her husband how horrible the flight attendant and man next to her were!

 

[MarkHastings]

I believe a lot of the problem stems from the fact that the kids act the same way at home. The parents are so accustomed to this that they have no clue how thier childs actions are annoying everyone else. To them, it's 'normal' and they don't bat an eye at it. In fact, they go so far as to expect everyone else to have the same patients because they have to (i.e. because the kid is the same way at home).

That's also why they get offended if you act all upset about the kids behavior.

Case in point: Brining kids (under 5) to 'non-kid' movies. What are they thinking? It's the old "I have to deal with it 24/7, so you have to as well". :frowning:

They honestly have no idea just how annoying their kid really is and can't grasp that someone might not be as patient - nor should they expect people to be.

 

[Bryan X]

Well, my personal opinion is that much of this stems from pure laziness of the parents. They think it's much easier to let bad behavior go than it is to curtail it. The thing is, if you deal with it properly (and I'm not talking physical punishment-- I think there are much more effective means) you will probably not have to deal with it again as you will have corrected the behavior by TEACHING the child. But dealing with bad behavior effectively takes effort at that moment-- something many parents just don't want to seem to exert. So they never properly deal with the problem behavior and it just continues and usually worsens.

 

[Henry Gale]

Nothing personal Mark...honest. I just wanted to take that statement out of any context and marvel at how it might mean different things to different people.

 

[Holadem]

Where? Connecticut??!

--
H

 

[Claudia P]

Like I said, perhaps it's time to take a long, hard look at your lifestyle.

 

[MarkHastings]

I LOVE this lifestyle...people are brutally honest around these parts and I love it! Most people can't handle brutal honesty and usually take it out on me because they think something's wrong with my view point - I gues because I don't sugar coat things. Kind of like when a wife is in an abusive relationship and she doesn't want to hear you speak the truth.

The fact is, the truth hurts, and that's kind of how I live my life. My 'rants' are only typed words on an internet forum. Just a way of venting.

 

[Jimi C]

"Money Magazine ranked Fairfield the ninth "best place to live" in the United States, and the best place to live in the Northeast.[1] This is primarliy due to its affluence, low crime rate, excellent public school system, suburban character, and proximity to both New York and scenic Litchfield county."


Mark, you've been shot at for taking too long at a traffic light?

I thought some parts of Buffalo were rough. Guess you havn't seen nothin till you've seen suburban Ct.

 

[Dennis*G]

OK, I need to retract my view from earlier. I was going on oinformation i had read at another site and that did not list ALL the circumstances.

But I still think it sucks to have to be kicked off the plane for 24 hours.

 

[Carl Johnson]