Southwest Kicks Cranky Toddler off Plane
A little kid screaming “Go, plane, go” and “I want Daddy,” was too much for a Southwest crew. They kicked the kid – and his mom – off their plane.
According to the AP, Pamela Root says her two-year-old was calming down, but the plane taxied back to the gate, and she and Adam were told they had to get off.
Root is now asking the company to reimburse her for the cost of a portable crib and diapers which she bought to get her through the extra night in Amarillo, Texas with her toddler.
For a company that’s reached out to the mommy blogging community in an attempt to portray Southwest as a family-friendly flight experience, this is a major blow.
People like to complain about kids on airplanes. They’re loud. They kick the seat. And the childless can’t escape them when they’re locked into a long pressurized tube for the long haul. Last year a woman even faced arrest for posting her video of a bratty kid on a flight online, then refusing to delete it (the airplane officials said she’d violated the rules against use of electronic devices during a flight).
But complain all you want – parents still pay tickets to get on a plane, and often pay for their child’s ticket. And while the kid-free flyers are dealing with the annoying kid, parents are dealing with the angry glares and stares, a frustrated kid . . . and all the obnoxious things adults do (too many drinks, farting, reclining the seat back too far. . . .). In some extreme cases, they’ve even got the airplane staff working against them (remember the flight attendant who spiked a kid’s juice with Xanax?).
It’s worth pointing out that “go, plane, go” sounds like some cute little kid thing – not a cranky, horrible annoyance. Even “I want my daddy” should earn the kid some sympathy.
Southwest has apologized and said they’re looking into the situation. Does this mom deserve some restitution or should she chose another way to travel?
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Of course she deserves some sort of restitution. Southwest was out of line and should feel ashamed of themselves!
I guess we were lucky when my toddler asked over and over in a loud clear voice ‘Mommy, are we falling down?’ and the attendant only gave us a dirty look.
I think there’s more to this story. According to the New York Times they were kicked off b/c the child was screaming so loudly that the other passengers couldn’t hear the safety demonstration. According to their regs any passenger who creates a safety hazard can be removed from the plane. It’s in all the fine print you agree to when you purchase a ticket.
I also read that the stewardesses were trying to give the kid juice & crayons. The mother said something like “don’t worry I’ll feed him after take-off and he’ll calm down”. Ummm, why not feed him right then??
Why should she have to “chose another way to travel”? Her child is a toddler, just as we all were at one time. Anyone who boards a flight does so knowing full well that they might have to share that flight with an unhappy baby, a loud toddler, a mentally ill person, or some cranky jackass bitching because his precious “comfort” has been temporarily disrupted.
I heard they apologized and issued her and her son a travel voucher. Big deal though. That costs them next to nothing. I hope the bad PR costs them much more.
I think this must be an isolated incident. We travel on Southwest very frequently with my son. (About 6 times a year.) They have been nothing but nice. I have tried other airlines, but nothing came close to Southwest as far as being family friendly. (Their boarding policy works well. If someone does not want to sit near a child, they just won’t choose a seat near a child.)
The article is accurate. Some of us have kids that usually behave great on a plane but have to deal with the kid-less passenger that likes to recline too far or the others that like to fart. That is far more annoying to me than a kid that does not understand the airline rules.
It sounds to me as if in this situation it wasn’t feasible to keep the kid on the plane. I think that we should all try to deal better with tired cranky kids on planes because we are adults and can control our emotions and behaviors much better than kids, but if the kid is putting other passengers and risk then he’s got to go. Incidentally I feel for all the TSA and airline employees who get blasted in the media for making split second decisions that turn out badly in retrospect. (I’m not talking about feeding kids xanax) They have a huge amount of responsibility on their shoulders and don’t get paid nearly enough for it. They don’t have the luxury of time to debate and they are forced to walk a thin line between passenger safety and company bottom line every day. How would you like it if every wrong decision you made at work was plastered across the evening news?
Wait, are we pretending that farting is an adults-only activity?
I was very unhappy with my last Southwest flight with a toddler – families are only allowed to board AFTER the “A group” has boarded, and the ticked agent was extremely rude when I couldn’t find my child’s birth certificate fast enough. I will think twice before traveling with them again.
I don’t care if you are the best parent ever, there are some times when a two year old just cannot be controlled. I can think of some pretty annoying things my toddler has done on a plane, but thank goodness he never got us kicked off one. Surely there must have been some way to avoid this.
Mel– I flew Southwest with my young son about a month ago. I had an A boarding pass and a low number. As I understood the policy, a family with an A can get in line with everyone else. But a family without an A can board in between As and Bs, which actually gets the family a better seat.
Alaska Airlines… they’re also terrible when it comes to dealing with these things. I recently had the displeasure of having to fly with them several times sans husband, with my 2 yr old son and 7 mo pregnant. My son was as well behaved as a 2 yr old can be, that wasn’t the issue… it was the constant apathy/rudeness/lack of assistance from both airline staff and other passengers that really got to me. What’s the deal anyway– no one helps a heavily pregnant woman travelling alone with a young child nowadays! I can’t tell you how many times I was either ignored or treated like a 2nd class citizen in my travels! Interestingly it was younger people (eg in their 20s) who offered to help most, and older grandparent-aged who were the worst (pushing past, complaining about normal and happy kid behaviour on a train, saying “I’m so glad I don’t have to travel with young kids anymore” but not making any effort to HELP me with bags or whatever, etc etc). F-ing baby boomers! Can’t tell you how sick I was of getting random criticisms from strangers (you should really keep a closer eye on your child– he could get ‘snatched up’ in a second you know), but never any help. Yes, I admit I expected more from people, including the negligent unsympathetic staff at Alaska Airlines.
I’ve had great experiences with southwest but I’m in between on this issue. If the child was screaming non-stop then maybe Southwest was in the right to ask her off but I still think they should reimburse her fully.
I love Southwest, and this only makes me like them MORE. I’m GLAD they kicked them off, I can think of several flights where it would have been great if this had happened, but they do need to reimburse for the ticket (not the crib or diapers though).
Just because you buy a ticket doesn’t mean your kid can act like a wild animal for hours (I’ve seen this). Flying is not a right, it’s a privilege, and if your kid (or anyone else) can’t stay reasonably non disruptive, at least much of the time, expect problems. Everyone understands when infants cry and kids make noise, no one likes it, but most understand- but there is a limit. Once they are old enough to talk, they are old enough not to scream for a few solid hours in public- and if they do this, its not the parents right to feel offended people are annoyed. And like a drunk guy that won’t shut up, loud games you play with the kids (when everyone is silent!) are irritating too, and there is no reason the general public has to put up with it.
I fly several times a month, and see so many kids that behave GREAT on the plane, so I know its possible. BUT there are always a few that drive everyone nuts. I don’t know why there aren’t family sections, this way there are at least some peaceful parts of the plane- nothing like having 3 screaming babies/kids, each in a different section of the plane.- no where to escape it!
(I dread taking my baby on the plane, I know everyone cringes when they see one, for good reason.)
Clearly STACEYJW does not have kids or doesn’t spend much time with any. ALL kids have their moments, and those typically come at the worst times possible. Airlines do as little as possible to accommodate families because they don’t have to–families will always need to fly.
We recently flew on United and had two different experiences. Flight out – they watched us strap our car seat in to the middle seat and waited until we were taxiing to take off before they decided to do something about it and the pilot had to stop the plane while we took our toddler out and moved the car seat to the window seat. They walked past and looked at us at least half a dozen times without saying a thing and then put the onus on us for holding the plane up. The way back, my daughter was just unconsolable. She’d been stuck in her stroller for the hour plus it took us to get through security. The flight attendants did their very best to cheer her up and one finally said to us – “everyone on this plane was a baby at one point too. Don’t worry about it.” It was the best thing she could have said and something I wish all passengers would remember when they see desperate parents doing everything they can to keep their child calm and quiet under difficult circumstances.