RANT: I don't care if you want to sit next to your kids on the airplane

[DisneyHardin]

While I haven't read all 65 pages, I have read enough

On our last DW trip (December 2017), we flew with Delta. I booked our flights online, but opted not to pay for seat selection (the fine print said something along the lines of "while we do everything we can to ensure you have the seats of your choice, it cannot be guaranteed"). With our family of five, and a connecting flight, seat selection was $25 x 5 x 2. I was still worried about this, and while my husband said, they wouldn't seat a three year old without parents, I ended up calling the airline to choose my seats.
Turns out it was a code share airlines, and this other airline told me if I paid for my seats, we WOULD be guaranteed to sit together. She told me unless I paid, there was no way to ensure I sat with my kids (6 & 9 I wasn't as worried about).

Why didn't you just pay the seat selection upgrade for you and the 3 year old if you weren't worried about the rest of the family sitting alone?

 

[Hrhpd]

To be fair, didn't she pay for the kid's seat and her seat too? This keeps happening to me. I book flights and put my seats together and pay extra to do so only to be separated. I don't understand why this keeps happening. I don't want to be THAT mom that says "excuse me sir, can you move so I can sit next to my kid," so I never say anything about it.

Example: I paid for my 7 month old baby to have a seat, but the plane was so full that there was no seat for him AND they put my 14 year old daughter with a brain tumor on the front row while I was stuck way in the back with my lapbaby sitting between 2 men. AND I had to breastfeed to keep him quiet. I used my shawl so nothing was showing, BUT my little boy was one of the longest babies the nurses had ever seen when he was born. He's still off the charts in height, so when I laid him down in my lap under the shawl his big long legs were in the lap of one of the guys sitting next to me. He was like 22. He was probably horrified. I was so embarrassed. And my baby kept calling him "da da". I wanted to die. I could not understand why he was saying this. The guy had on a blue button down - my husband always wears blue button downs and he had blue eyes like my husband, but he was 20 years younger! I was broken out in hives by the end of the flight. It was awful. I felt so bad for the 2 guys and my daughter was upset because she said the people were mean to her in the front because they had to make room for her. We were in the last group to board because we weren't early to the gate. But still I paid and I chose my seats, so it made no sense.

That is a curiosity indeed. I am also interested in what airline this was. Since you had a paid seat for your 7month old, you must have had a car seat. Airlines are forbidden to take away a seat from a child with an approved car seat.

No certificate holder may prohibit a child from using an approved CRS when the parent/guardian purchases a ticket for the child.​

Was your car seat not FAA approved, so you had to gate check it? Hopefully, they refunded your money!

 

[Bmh4796]

Was this in the US or Europe? If so I am really shocked and hope you followed up (actually I would have been in the terminal insisting on speaking to supervisors)---I thought that if you purchased a seat for a child under 2 you could not be forced to place the child on your lap (actually, the opposite---if the child has a purchased seat you are required to use it for take off and landing and not hold the child in that time frame).

It was in the US. Since we were in the last group to board, I didn't have it in me nor enough time to argue with anyone, and there was really nothing that could be done. There were not enough seats on the plane. Carrying the baby and my carryons down the isle of the packed plane stressed me out enough. So I wasn't about to get up. There were literally no more seats, so I was like whatever. But I did get a refund for the baby's ticket after the flight.

The flight attendant made a lady and a man move so that my 14 year old daughter could sit. She did this after my daughter had walked allll the way down the aisle with me and the baby looking for our seats. So then she had to walk allll the way to the front escorted by the attendant. My daughter said the lady and man in the seats were rude to her and annoyed that they had to move and make room for her. Poor thing. She was broken out in hives afterwards too. I think everyone assumed it was our fault or something which is why the lady and man were rude, but I paid for seats and paid the extra to choose my seats etc. So it wasn't as if I tried to take the cheap route. It was embarrassing. What a mess!

 

[Hrhpd]

It was in the US. Since we were in the last group to board, I didn't have it in me nor enough time to argue with anyone, and there was really nothing that could be done. There were not enough seats on the plane. Carrying the baby and my carryons down the isle of the packed plane stressed me out enough. So I wasn't about to get up. There were literally no more seats, so I was like whatever. But I did get a refund for the baby's ticket after the flight.

The flight attendant made a lady and a man move so that my 14 year old daughter could sit. She did this after my daughter had walked allll the way down the aisle with me and the baby looking for our seats. So then she had to walk allll the way to the front escorted by the attendant. My daughter said the lady and man in the seats were rude to her and annoyed that they had to move and make room for her. Poor thing. She was broken out in hives afterwards too. I think everyone assumed it was our fault or something which is why the lady and man were rude, but I paid for seats and paid the extra to choose my seats etc. So it wasn't as if I tried to take the cheap route. It was embarrassing. What a mess!

What did they make you do with your car seat?

 

[Bmh4796]

That is a curiosity indeed. I am also interested in what airline this was. Since you had a paid seat for your 7month old, you must have had a car seat. Airlines are forbidden to take away a seat from a child with an approved car seat.

No certificate holder may prohibit a child from using an approved CRS when the parent/guardian purchases a ticket for the child.​

Was your car seat not FAA approved, so you had to gate check it? Hopefully, they refunded your money!

Yes, I had my FAA approved carseat. It was the kind that snapped into the stroller so we had to just put it with the stroller back at the gate. I did get a refund. When I saw that the plane was literally full, I figured - what can they do? They would have had to kick someone off if I didn't hold the baby. So I held the baby. The flight attendant asked me to after telling me the plane was full and told me to get a refund. She was real quiet about it like "thank you for not making a fuss over this" almost as if she didn't want anyone to even know it was happening. It was odd. I was stressed and done. You know when you're just done. It was hot. The baby was acting up so I was just like "give me a seat." The thing that made the most mad was that she didn't make the men move so that I could be more comfortable. I guess she didn't realize that I would need to nurse, but still. After not having a seat for the baby like they were supposed to, she should have made an effort to at least not sit me AND the baby BETWEEN 2 men. Again, it was like she didn't want anyone to know about the mistake. Thank goodness one of them was a dad of 4 and was understanding. He was cool about it. The 20 something year old just kept his earbuds in. LOL

 

[DisneyHardin]

Yes, I had my FAA approved carseat. It was the kind that snapped into the stroller so we had to just put it with the stroller back at the gate. I did get a refund. When I saw that the plane was literally full, I figured - what can they do? They would have had to kick someone off if I didn't hold the baby. So I held the baby. The flight attendant asked me to after telling me the plane was full and told me to get a refund. She was real quiet about it like "thank you for not making a fuss over this" almost as if she didn't want anyone to even know it was happening. It was odd. I was stressed and done. You know when you're just done. It was hot. The baby was acting up so I was just like "give me a seat." The thing that made the most mad was that she didn't make the men move so that I could be more comfortable. I guess she didn't realize that I would need to nurse, but still. After not having a seat for the baby like they were supposed to, she should have made an effort to at least not sit me AND the baby BETWEEN 2 men. Again, it was like she didn't want anyone to know about the mistake. Thank goodness one of them was a dad of 4 and was understanding. He was cool about it. The 20 something year old just kept his earbuds in. LOL

I'm still confused as to how this happened. Were you on Southwest without assigned seating? If not, then why were two people assigned to the same seat? I know airlines oversell sometimes, but they don't generally actually assign the same person to two seats and just hope one of them doesn't show up.

 

[Hrhpd]

Yes, I had my FAA approved carseat. It was the kind that snapped into the stroller so we had to just put it with the stroller back at the gate. I did get a refund. When I saw that the plane was literally full, I figured - what can they do? They would have had to kick someone off if I didn't hold the baby. So I held the baby. The flight attendant asked me to after telling me the plane was full and told me to get a refund. She was real quiet about it like "thank you for not making a fuss over this" almost as if she didn't want anyone to even know it was happening. It was odd. I was stressed and done. You know when you're just done. It was hot. The baby was acting up so I was just like "give me a seat." The thing that made the most mad was that she didn't make the men move so that I could be more comfortable. I guess she didn't realize that I would need to nurse, but still. After not having a seat for the baby like they were supposed to, she should have made an effort to at least not sit me AND the baby BETWEEN 2 men. Again, it was like she didn't want anyone to know about the mistake. Thank goodness one of them was a dad of 4 and was understanding. He was cool about it. The 20 something year old just kept his earbuds in. LOL

What airline again? This was highly illegal of the flight attendant to put somebody in a carseat's reserved seat. It wouldn't matter if you were in the last boarding group except if it was Southwest since you had assigned seats. But it couldn't have been Southwest because you said you paid extra for assigned seats and Southwest doesn't have assigned seats.

You wouldn't by any chance be a 1st grade teacher, would you?

 

[mom2rtk]

You wouldn't by any chance be a 1st grade teacher, would you?

LOL.

 

[mom2rtk]

After not having a seat for the baby like they were supposed to, she should have made an effort to at least not sit me AND the baby BETWEEN 2 men. Again, it was like she didn't want anyone to know about the mistake. Thank goodness one of them was a dad of 4 and was understanding. He was cool about it. The 20 something year old just kept his earbuds in. LOL

I would have been a lot more concerned about the baby I bought a seat for not being safely secured in a car seat than I would be about being seated between 2 men.

 

[DisneyOma]

The only time we've been redistributed was EDI to AMS on KLM. It wasn't a tiny plane by far but wasn't full and I guess it really was to distribute weight more equally. Several people didn't understand the English/Dutch explanations so DD and I offered to move since we knew what the issue was. It did get to the point of "we're not taking off unless you move" but since this happens rarely I think there were a lot of confused people wondering why we were playing musical chairs.

I've found KLM to be the absolute worst airline, ever. From the incompetent boob at check in who deleted my daughters from the database and couldn't get them back in there without multiple "supervisors" who didn't know what he had done, to the attendants who were too busy fluffing men's pillows to deal with the fact that people were in our assigned seats, and then yelled at us to take a seat (duh!, someone is in it!) and then separating all four of us because they wouldn't make the people in our seats move. And they wore that dumb blue eye shadow up to their eyebrows too. Then the attendants told us we had to go through some special customs thing at the Amsterdam airport, to find out that we didn't have to after we stood in line and almost missed our flight. But the American Airlines flight knew we had been on the KLM flight, and held it, and when they saw us booking it down to the gate, they told us they were waiting for us and to relax. They were so kind to us!

 

[CarolAnn856]

Yes, I had my FAA approved carseat. It was the kind that snapped into the stroller so we had to just put it with the stroller back at the gate. I did get a refund. When I saw that the plane was literally full, I figured - what can they do? They would have had to kick someone off if I didn't hold the baby. So I held the baby. The flight attendant asked me to after telling me the plane was full and told me to get a refund. She was real quiet about it like "thank you for not making a fuss over this" almost as if she didn't want anyone to even know it was happening. It was odd. I was stressed and done. You know when you're just done. It was hot. The baby was acting up so I was just like "give me a seat." The thing that made the most mad was that she didn't make the men move so that I could be more comfortable. I guess she didn't realize that I would need to nurse, but still. After not having a seat for the baby like they were supposed to, she should have made an effort to at least not sit me AND the baby BETWEEN 2 men. Again, it was like she didn't want anyone to know about the mistake. Thank goodness one of them was a dad of 4 and was understanding. He was cool about it. The 20 something year old just kept his earbuds in. LOL

I'm sorry, but this story just isn't adding up.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Yes, I had my FAA approved carseat. It was the kind that snapped into the stroller so we had to just put it with the stroller back at the gate. I did get a refund. When I saw that the plane was literally full, I figured - what can they do? They would have had to kick someone off if I didn't hold the baby. So I held the baby. The flight attendant asked me to after telling me the plane was full and told me to get a refund. She was real quiet about it like "thank you for not making a fuss over this" almost as if she didn't want anyone to even know it was happening. It was odd. I was stressed and done. You know when you're just done. It was hot. The baby was acting up so I was just like "give me a seat." The thing that made the most mad was that she didn't make the men move so that I could be more comfortable. I guess she didn't realize that I would need to nurse, but still. After not having a seat for the baby like they were supposed to, she should have made an effort to at least not sit me AND the baby BETWEEN 2 men. Again, it was like she didn't want anyone to know about the mistake. Thank goodness one of them was a dad of 4 and was understanding. He was cool about it. The 20 something year old just kept his earbuds in. LOL

So you decided to give up the purchased infant seat to get a refund? If you choose to travel with a lapchild you have no more right to say what age/gender/etc sits next to you than anyone else does. I find it very odd that you fixate on who was in the seats and felt they should have been made to move because you wanted more space or to be next to women (maybe the younger man could've cared less about the nursing and just liked his music and/or was irritated at bring next to a lapchild in general as they pretty much always encroach on the space next to them)

You had every right to say no, you were not willing to sell back your child's seat to the airline and then they would have sorted how to deal with having too many passengers. Probably by offering an incentive for someone to give up their seat. Not your problem or concern how they do it once you refuse the request to sell back your infant's seat. But you didn't. So you lost the right to complain about not having one

 

[Hrhpd]

Where were your other 3 children seated?

Hugs to your daughter. Hoping for a full recovery of her brain tumor.

Note, for future reference, if this was SW, you would qualify for preboarding with your daughter's illness. With the baby, you would also have qualified to do family boarding between the first and second boarding groups. You didn't have to wait for C.

Any other airline with reserved seating makes absolutely no sense. There were people sitting in both your baby's and your daughter's seat?

 

[SirDuff]

Where were your other 3 children seated?

Hugs to your daughter. Hoping for a full recovery of her brain tumor.

Note, for future reference, if this was SW, you would qualify for preboarding with your daughter's illness. With the baby, you would also have qualified to do family boarding between the first and second boarding groups. You didn't have to wait for C.

Any other airline with reserved seating makes absolutely no sense. There were people sitting in both your baby's and your daughter's seat?

Also, if it was SW (as stated, that is the only airline where you'd be looking for a seat), I'd report the scammer who charged you to select seats since there is no seat selection on SW.

 

[Hrhpd]

Also, if it was SW (as stated, that is the only airline where you'd be looking for a seat), I'd report the scammer who charged you to select seats since there is no seat selection on SW.

And the SW flight attendant, actually this applies to any of the airline's attendants, who illegally made you give up your baby's paid for seat and gate check an FAA approved car seat.

 

[robinb]

I'm sorry, but this story just isn't adding up.

She said that she was "not early" to the gate a couple of times and that she was the last to board. If she didn't check luggage then she wasn't checked into her flight until she arrived to the gate (unless she already checked in online). It could be that she was so late to the gate that her seats were given away to stand-by passengers and that there were only 2 seats left on the plane so she had to make do.

ETA: Even if she did check in, they can give away her seats if she's a no-show when regular boarding is finished.

 

[Hrhpd]

She said that she was "not early" to the gate a couple of times and that she was the last to board. If she didn't check luggage then she wasn't checked into her flight until she arrived to the gate (unless she already checked in online). It could be that she was so late to the gate that her seats were given away to stand-by passengers and that there were only 2 seats left on the plane so she had to make do.

ETA: Even if she did check in, they can give away her seats if she's a no-show when regular boarding is finished.

Well then, if that is the case, she can't claim it was the airline's fault and complain that 'this keeps happening to her, that she pays for seats and doesn't get them."

If she was late from a connecting flight, she was already checked in and had her seat assignments. Airlines know ahead of time when connecting flights are late. We have had connecting flights be late and we just ask the flight attendants on the late plane to make sure the waiting plane knows we are coming. This has even worked on Southwest, where we traveled with a person with disabilities. We were last to board but there were nice "reserved" signs on the seats for our party.

If it was her fault that she arrived so late to the gate, within the 15 minute window late that they gave her seats away, and she didn't check in ahead of time, then she takes the full blame for accepting the now stand by seats. That was not any fault of the airline.

But her stories still don't make any sense. My guess is an old poster having fun. Her other thread starts out with putting 7 people in a Grand Floridian room even though she claims to have been to Disney before and should know the room occupancy rules.

 

[robinb]

Well then, if that is the case, she can't claim it was the airline's fault and complain that 'this keeps happening to her, that she pays for seats and doesn't get them."

If she was late from a connecting flight, she was already checked in and had her seat assignments. Airlines know ahead of time when connecting flights are late. We have had connecting flights be late and we just ask the flight attendants on the late plane to make sure the waiting plane knows we are coming. This has even worked on Southwest, where we traveled with a person with disabilities. We were last to board but there were nice "reserved" signs on the seats for our party.

If it was her fault that she arrived so late to the gate, within the 15 minute window late that they gave her seats away, and she didn't check in ahead of time, then she takes the full blame for accepting the now stand by seats. That was not any fault of the airline.

Which was why I mentioned it. It's the only way it made sense to me that she didn't have her assigned seats. Connecting flights hold seats if they know that the passengers will make their connection.

But her stories still don't make any sense. My guess is an old poster having fun. Her other thread starts out with putting 7 people in a Grand Floridian room even though she claims to have been to Disney before and should know the room occupancy rules.

Maybe. Of maybe it's someone who is a newbie. Plenty of big families stuff hotel rooms to save money. Most hotels don't really care.

 

[SirDuff]

She said that she was "not early" to the gate a couple of times and that she was the last to board. If she didn't check luggage then she wasn't checked into her flight until she arrived to the gate (unless she already checked in online). It could be that she was so late to the gate that her seats were given away to stand-by passengers and that there were only 2 seats left on the plane so she had to make do.

ETA: Even if she did check in, they can give away her seats if she's a no-show when regular boarding is finished.

But even then, they wouldn't have told her to just get on the plane and look for seats (which is what she said that she had to do). They'd have given her a boarding pass with new seats on it or wouldn't have let her board (saying that there were no seats).

 

[maxiesmom]

But even then, they wouldn't have told her to just get on the plane and look for seats (which is what she said that she had to do). They'd have given her a boarding pass with new seats on it or wouldn't have let her board (saying that there were no seats).

Hopefully whatever happened she realizes she needs to show up to the airport much earlier than has apparently been happening.