Re: Airtran (I think) asks family to get off of plane after 3 year old throws a temper r
I look at it a couple of ways.
I know first hand how much travel sucks. I have done a lot of it. I am sure that it is a special challenge with a toddler. I know I get tired and cranky and want to throw tantrums, so I can only imaging how a yound child feels. That being said..
If this was a little tasmanian devil of a toddler who threw these tantrums all the time and the parents are usually indifferent to it, then that is what they get for not addressing a problem.
On the other hand, maybe they are super parents and that is a wonderfully-behaved child who had an out-of-charecter tantrum. I still think they should have been asked to leave.
I do know that the family was trying to calm the child down. That's great they were making attempts, but it didn't change the sitation any.
There are a couple of issues here. Safety and dollars. First and foremost, safety. We can all appreciate the safety issues. I don't think I need to go into how important it is to have control over the aircraft.
Next is the dollars. Airlines have been financially tanking for years. 9-11 made it abysmally worse. With the skeleton schedules, crews and resources that they run on now, they can't afford flights to be held up. Not to mention that the airlines don't usually wait for passengers, regardless of the issue, so why should the airlines wait for this family?
The airlines gave the family tickets on another flight, so the family wasn't out anything.
I think the airlines made the right choice in asking them to leave. Two things that I pondered though. ONE: If I, as an adult did that, I would be in jail and out the price of a ticket. TWO: If the airlines can charge bigger people money for two seats, then should they have given this family their money back?