Why I hate the Airlines - RANT!

[kdtwiss]

Minor children should always be seated with their parents PERIOD. Should and emergency arise - who is going to help the child more (or at all) a stranger or a parent?

 

[NotUrsula]

Says who? While I agree with you that the technology could readily be added, that doesn't account for the impact on the ability to do business profitably. Anything that skews patronage away from the lucrative business traveler and toward the leisure traveler is a hardship,

Well, sez me, of course! We're all expressing personal opinions here.

We can chew over the FAA's dual mandate all we like, but in today's political climate, leaving kids in harm's way in what could conceivably be a terrorist-danger situation is guaranteed to earn you bad press during a campaign. The average legislator wouldn't risk voting against it; there just isn't a compelling enough pro-business reason.

I really don't buy the argument that a mandate to seat underage children within "arm's reach" of at least one accompanying adult would negatively impact profits in any meaningful way. We're talking about the defaults on seat distribution software here, it only comes into play when there is a change in schedule or equipment. There would be no guarantee as to where in the plane these contiguous seats would be, so they could be in the last row, or they could even be three middles one behind another, with the adult in the second row. On 95% of flights I'm betting that the elites would still be getting all the aisle seats forward of the wing. The Orlando routes might be the exception, but I doubt that the kiddies would be getting prime seats even on those. In fact, there would be a good argument to support the airlines auto-defaulting those codes to fill forward from the last row, since the seats in the tail are statistically safer.

 

[Lewisc]

Sorry but add me to the list of people against this. With SW well over half the plane will be eligible for pre-boarding. Those of us without kids under 12 and unwilling to fake an injury have no shot of decent seats.

Airlines will have to cut off bookings to famlies as the flight starts to fill or will have to keep blocks of seats unavailable to couples sticking us with less desirable seats. I think Bicker is right. The airline computer will simply refuse to take your reservation when the flight is sufficiently full to make the seat assignments without problems.

Children under 12 can travel on a school bus without needing a parent sitting next to them. Children under 12 can travel as an unaccompanied minor without a parent or guardian sitting next to them. Parents offer little protection against terrorist. I have no idea how expensive it would be to re-program the automated seat program to accomplish this.

It will be difficult or impossible to allow famlies to travel standby since the reamining seats are likely to be scattered and there may not be time to demand customers move in time for the plane to push off.

Face it under most circumstances other passengers and GA are able to get the famlies together. This is a law designed for a problem that doesn't exist.

Now banning lap babies is a pro-safety issue.

Well, sez me, of course! We're all expressing personal opinions here.

 

[NotUrsula]

The school bus thing isn't really relevant, if you've been paying attention to the objections expressed by quite a few posters on this topic. The truth is that for most US parents today, other than the child's fear, the objection to a child sitting near an adult stranger when a parent cannot see the child clearly is that there is too much opportunity for inappropriate touching. (I didn't say it was *my* objection, mind you; I don't have any problem at all with my child sitting alone. He's 7, he is a very experienced flyer, and he knows to call the FA if he is uneasy about something.) That reasoning notwithstanding, if the airlines are going to claim that the dominant mandate is safety, I have real issues with accepting the idea that running the risk of separating a fearful 7 yo (or his fearful parent) is the best choice in that regard. Personally, I don't feel that the sit-alone limit needs to be as high as 13, but a lot of people disagree; I was simply pointing out that ranting at the airlines is less effective than going through channels to get it mandated by the FAA.

Honestly, I've flown RyanAir many, many times, and the rule doesn't cause noticable difficulty with flights to European leisure destinations. I really don't think it would cause as much difficulty as y'all seem to think.

 

[madscrapper]

I wouldn't let my 7 year old sit by herself iin a movie theater, I don't let her go to a public restroom by herself nor do I let her go on rides alone.

Why on earth would it be ok for her to sit in an airplane for a few hours with a bunch of strangers??

Jeannine

 

[bicker]

There would be no guarantee as to where in the plane these contiguous seats would be

Exactly, so they could be in a different, less desireable, flight.