NotUrsula said:That business about warning people that your kid is prone to airsickness does NOT always work, especially with dedicated aisle-seat people. DS had severe reflux until he was 4, and was GUARANTEED to be sick on himself at least once on every flight, and sometimes several times. Airsickness bags were insufficient; we had to carry a large sand pail wherever we went. He gave absolutely no warning, though, and the bucket was useless half the time. I always sat down and spread a towel over myself and another over his carseat when flying with him when he was little.
On both of the only two occasions that we flew with DS as a lap-child (family emergency, only two seats left on the only avail. flights), he threw up all over the passengers in our row who refused to trade with DH. I told them that I did not at all mind sitting in the middle, but that there was no way I'd be able to redirect his aim from both sides; one or the other of them was going to get hit. Those folks ended up being very upset with me, especially on the very turbulent flight where the FA would not let either of us out of our seats to clean up afterward. (DH had window seats on both occasions, but toward the rear of the plane. I tried to avoid the window in those days, b/c of having to step over people en route to the head to clean up. I tended to drip on them no matter how hard I tried not to.)
BTW, someone earlier posted that there is an FAA rule that says kids under 5 must be seated next to a parent. Not true, I'm afraid. That rule only applies to children who are strapped into carseats. Some airlines have their own rules re: kids under 5, but the rule usually is that they must be seated in the same cabin as the accompanying adult. FA's will usually try to bribe people to get one parent next to a child that age, but they can't force it unless a carseat is involved.
Pinnie said:I would be interested in what the FAA and ATC's would say about a situation that held a plane at the gate like that!
pinnie
If a flight departs late, somebody is "charged with the late(n)". The flight crew might have not wanted to grapple with the jerk and end up delaying the flight.Obi-Wan Pinobi said:. Before the flight left I noticed the FA talk to the boy asking something about if he will be okay there, and the FA went back to talk to the mother a couple of rows to the front. At first I thought maybe the boy wanted a little adventure of sitting alone on the plane but it didnt' seem right. I told the FA I'd be glad to switch with the mother if she wanted to sit near her son, so I did.
After landing in Cincinnati, I talked to the mother. It turns out that they had three seats in the same row where she had been sitting(she also had an infant or toddler along) but some jerk (best way to describe him without tripping the word filter) decided he wanted the seat across the aisle from her and took it before they boarded, thus splitting up the family. I have no idea why the FA didn't make him move to his assigned seat.
There are some people out there like this jerk, but I think most people would move so a family could sit together unless it meant splitting up their own family.
flight.
gw_lit said:And, a flight isn't considered a late departure until 15 minutes after the scheduled departure time. Departure time is the time the door is closed and the jetway (or stairs) are pulled away from the plane. I've been on flights that have departed "on time" and the plane didn't move from the gate area for 45 minutes after the door was closed.
I know for a fact that United opens up the back of the plane 24 hours prior. Those seats are for anyone. Their is no way to really know if there will be any seats available when they open it up. There are people at United that can override the system and assign the closed off seats.
Well that would have solved the OP's original problem. Show up with two 3 y/o's and their car seats. They would have been seated together and had window seats. I really think she jumped the gun on this one. It would have worked out. We have flown three times a year from SYR to MCO and always have connecting flights, so we are on a lot of different planes with a lot of different seat assignments. We began flying when DS was 18 months (he's now 7) and have NEVER had to seat him alone. In fact on only one flight in all those years did our party of three ever have to even be split up. In fact though, it was a nice quiet flight for me in the back while DH entertained DS up front!NotUrsula said:BTW, someone earlier posted that there is an FAA rule that says kids under 5 must be seated next to a parent. Not true, I'm afraid. That rule only applies to children who are strapped into carseats. Some airlines have their own rules re: kids under 5, but the rule usually is that they must be seated in the same cabin as the accompanying adult. FA's will usually try to bribe people to get one parent next to a child that age, but they can't force it unless a carseat is involved.
3-years-olds are likely to be too large for FAA-certified-for-flight baby car seats.Alexander said:Well that would have solved the OP's original problem. Show up with two 3 y/o's and their car seats.
Alexander said:We even had a gate agent assign us the exit row knowing DS wouldn't be able to sit there because they were the only seats left together and she KNEW that another couple on the plane would definately want those prized exit row seats, and we could move to theirs.
Horace Horsecollar said:3-years-olds are likely to be too large for FAA-certified-for-flight baby car seats.