Kudos to United Airlines for taking an unfortunate incident on one of its flights and turning it into a learning opportunity for its flight attendants. As I reported two weeks ago, complaints from passengers with children had started to come in to me just as the busy travel season was heating up. One of those complaints came from a mother (she asked that her identity not be disclosed publicly to protect her family’s privacy) traveling with her young son on a United flight from Chicago to Atlanta this past June 18. In what she described as “the worst experience I have ever had a on a plane,” she was prevented by a flight attendant from using a kid seat even though the seat was approved for aircraft use and she had bought and paid for a seat for her child. In addition to being prevented from using the seat – contrary to federal law – she was threatened with having to get off the plane and then told she “couldn’t get off the plane because the door was shut” and was ordered to comply with what the flight crew told her. So her son ended up traveling without the extra safety protection of an aviation-approved kid seat.
When she complained to United, she received an apology but also the disturbing statement “I can certainly understand your frustration at having read the FAA guidelines on child safety seats and then being told to do something different. Ultimately the rules are at the discretion of the captain and crew of the flight. You are certainly able to either deplane if you are in disagreement, however…[the crew] have the ability to make such decisions as the one you described.” Of course, the kid seat rule is not a “guideline” but a federal requirement. And a flight crew does not have the ability to deviate from federal rules except in an emergency – and clearly there was no emergency here.
So I contacted United to ask for its comment on the complaint and the response. To United’s credit, it went back and looked into what occurred and why it happened. In this particular case, the mother was using a rear-facing child seat – which is perfectly legal and which federal law allows a parent to use – but United’s manual contained information that might have been misunderstood by the crew. Rather than just re-train this one particular crew, a United spokesperson said the airline would be putting out a reminder in its monthly flight attendant bulletin on the FAA kid seat requirement, emphasizing that kid seats can be rear-facing.
It’s certainly disappointing and unfortunate that this incident occurred – and that similar incidents occur on other airlines all too frequently – but I was pleased to see United taking a pro-active approach by committing to reminding its crews of the FAA’s kid seat requirements. Other airlines should take note.
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