Best. Flight Crew. Ever.
If they can do it with one of them, why not ALL of them???
And I don't blame the Kuleszas. America West Airlines lost my business for a situation closely related to this. Right after Christmas 2000, the Mrs and I (the kids were not here yet,) were flying America West from Oakland to San Antonio, and we had a stop in Phoenix. When we boarded the plane in Phoenix, my wife and I took off our jackets and put them under the seats in front of us. Unbeknownst to us, the kid seating on the seat in front of my wife saw the jacket poke out, pulled it out, and handed it over to his parents, who called the stewardess and had it removed off the airplane. During the push away from the gate, my wife goes to check her jacket pockets, to make sure her gloves were still in...imagine her displeasure when she couldn't find the jacket!
We called for the stewardess, and we were told we couldn't do a thing, because the jacket was already off the aircraft and sent to the Lost and Found of Phoenix's airport!
Fast forward to the actual in-flight...I went to the stewardesses to try and figure out a way what the airline could do about this situation...next thing I know, my wife is there...seems one of the stewardesses called for her to come get me, because I was "getting violent towards them." They even threatened to land in El Paso and having me removed!!!
Needless to say, we have never again flown America West and I refuse to give them a penny.
She was three. Isn't that small enough to pick up? It seems to me that these were the kind of parents who are afraid of traumatizing the little darling and find it preferable to let her sit in the aisle and scream. Were they from the Upper West Side of Manhattan, by any chance?
On my last trip to Florida a young mother started giving her three young children benadryl about 1/2 an hour before we were scheduled to take off. She caught me watching her and I thanked her. She laughed and said it was for her sanity as well.
They were angels. Sleeping angels.
I experienced a similar meltdown from my son (now 5) a few years ago. This was on Southwest so we were amongst the first to board and his screams could be heard all the way back to the lounge. I managed to get him strapped in for the roll-back and by the time we were cleared for takeoff he'd spent himself and was fast asleep.
It was, however, the first and last Southwest flight I've ever seen that loaded from back to front.
Kids that age can be tricky. For the return flight he was a complete darling!
I hate all airlines, airline procedures, and every last airline employee I have ever encountered.
Do the parents have some medical condition that made it impossible for one or both to pick the kid up off the floor?
The entire flight was held hostage because these parents couldn't force the kid into a seat. So what if she was screaming?? She could scream just as loud in the seat as on the floor. And if the flight had taken off with her sprawled on the floor, and she had been injured, her parents would have sued. Instead, they got a free flight because they couldn't control a 3 year old. Pretty clever of them.
Mrs. Kuleszas should thank her lucky stars that she did not see fit to express that thought to the flight crew at any time.
We would be reading an entirely different story than the one above.
Crying on planes I can deal with (that's why, in part, I wear headphones). However...why can't people keep their kids from kicking the back of my seat?! Grrrrr
Good.
Where were these policies when I was flying 5k+ miles a week?
This, imo, is the most relevant part of the article, particularly since the child was well behaved on the flight down. Yes, sometimes kids scream on planes because they're brats with lousy parents, but, more often than not, the issue is ear-related.
I always bring a box of child-sized Ear-Planes when I fly just in case there are any kids on the flight who develop any problems. If you've got a kid with ear infection issues, they're a Godsend. And, for the record, I'll take a screaming child over some of the rude businesspeople I've sat next to any day of the week.
Whadaya know? Benadryl is what Xena's Guy uses to calm me down before flying, at least when it's too early to countenance ordering me a big cocktail.
This happened to my husband and he had to sit next to her, and she started this before the plane left, in other words, she got on board sick.
He had to sit there and endure it.
We considered burning his clothes.....who knew what was wrong this this passenger?
It was horrible.
For that matter, adults on a plane have any number of options to counter a screaming child...
..earphones, earplugs, watch the movie, read a book...
..the parent is the one who has to contend with the child.
But there is no recourse if someone next to you is continuously throwing up and the steardess says 'sorry'....and you are a captive during the entire flight!
Sure--it's always someone else's kid with the rotten behavior--never your own little darling.
One Word - Robitussin
Children 3 and over must be in a seat at push-back that is the LAW. This flight had already been delayed 15 minutes. There were 112 people on board. The parents refused to pick-up there child and put her in a seat and put the seat belt around her. Do you people really think that 112 people should have been delayed because of this one screaming child. She needed to be removed from the plane and she was...it is just that simple.
THANK YOU AirTran. Not everybody thinks Elly is the angel her parents do. One report stated she was sceaming and hitting them and refused to take her seat. She's 3...PUT her in her seat.
She couldn't be calmed down by either parent, crawling all over them and the couch and yelling, and was finally no where to be seen for the remainder of the interview.
Apparently, Mom wasn't able to "just hold her" to calm her down.
Congrats to AirTran and best wishes in their impending lawsuit from these twits.
Wow. Sorry I'm late to post, but I just have to.
I'm really starting to like airlines (maybe still hate airports the way we're all treated like criminals).
They're tossing off Moslems and even little brats. What common sense. What guts!
Glad someone's getting guts - and un-PC!