Southwest Airline does the right thing.
elizabeth
Kids will be kids, but one cranky 2-year-old was acting too much his
age for a Southwest Airlines flight crew who kicked him off a plane
getting ready to leave for San Jose.
Pamela Root says she was confident her son Adam's screams of "Go!
Plane! Go!" and "I want Daddy!" would subside once the plane took off
Monday in Amarillo, Texas.
But she says the plane taxied back to the gate and the pair was
escorted off.
The 38-year-old stay-at-home mom wants an apology and compensation for
the portable crib and diapers she had to buy for the extra night away
from home.
Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis says removing a crying child
from a flight is unusual, but crews have leeway to resolve situations.
McInnis says the airline is looking into the incident.
elizabeth
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/30/national/...
> Kids will be kids, but one cranky 2-year-old was acting too much his
> age for a Southwest Airlines flight crew who kicked him off a plane
> getting ready to leave for San Jose.
>
> Pamela Root says she was confident her son Adam's screams of "Go!
> Plane! Go!" and "I want Daddy!" would subside once the plane took off
> Monday in Amarillo, Texas.
>
> But she says the plane taxied back to the gate and the pair was
> escorted off.
>
> The 38-year-old stay-at-home mom wants an apology and compensation for
> the portable crib and diapers she had to buy for the extra night away
> from home.
>
> Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis says removing a crying child
> from a flight is unusual, but crews have leeway to resolve situations.
>
> McInnis says the airline is looking into the incident.
>
http://forums.mercurynews.com/topic/san-jose-mom-and-cranky-2-year-old-kicked-off-southwest-flight
the usual mooing and lots of CF opinions
http://forums.mercurynews.com/topic/san-jose-mom-and-cranky-2-year-old-kicked-off-southwest-flight
pic of moo and sprog
By Lisa Fernandez
Posted: 10/29/2009 04:34:00 PM PDT
Updated: 10/30/2009 03:02:17 AM PDT
Click photo to enlarge
Pamela Root gives her son, Adam, an afternoon snack in the kitchen
on... ( KAREN T. BORCHERS )«1234»Pamela Root's 2-year-old son was
screaming for the Southwest Airlines plane to "Go! Plane! Go!"
"I want Daddy!'' Adam shouted. Over and over again.
Despite her embarrassment, the stay-at-home San Jose mom remained
confident that once the plane took off and she fed him, Adam would
calm down and take a nap — just as he had on the half-dozen other
plane rides with Mom.
The flight crew wasn't willing to find out.
Root and her son, Adam, were on their way home to San Jose when they
were kicked off Monday's Southwest Flight 637.
"I left, rather embarrassed,'' Root said Thursday. "Then, I was so
mad, I almost cried.''
With her luggage heading back home without her, Root was stuck in
Have Your Say!
Would you kick the mom and child off the plane? Vote and comment
Amarillo, Texas, and forced to buy a portable crib and diapers and
stay another night with her parents. Still fuming, she wants Southwest
to apologize and compensate her for the flight and things she bought.
Adam's father, Mike Root, a software engineer at Symantec, who was
waiting for them in San Jose, is also livid.
Southwest, with its fun and family-friendly reputation, immediately
began looking into the matter on Thursday at the request of the
Mercury News. Spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said it's "very rare'' to
ask someone to leave a flight, and especially "unusual'' to remove a
crying child.
Root, 38, said she thought she had a foolproof flying routine with her
son. Wait until takeoff to feed Adam so his ears wouldn't hurt.
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Then get him to take a nap on the flight. The routine always made him
a bit cranky but never out of control, she said. There was always the
bag of trucks and books about trucks for a backup.
Monday, Adam was more than a little cranky. There were annoyed looks
from fellow passengers, Root said. Then the captain made a surprise
announcement: The plane would return to the gate because of a
"passenger issue.'' At first, she dreaded what sounded like a delay.
Then, she discovered the passenger was Adam. Suddenly, they were being
escorted off the plane by an attendant who told Root something to the
effect of: "We just can't tolerate that for two hours.''
"He'll be fine once we take off,'' Root remembers insisting.
"We've heard that before,'' the flight attendant told Root.
Like most other airlines, Southwest gives its flight attendants
discretion in determining what constitutes a "safe and comfortable''
flight, McInnis said. And they give attendants leeway in figuring out
how to "resolve'' situations.
Other airlines have similar rules. United Airlines spokeswoman Sarah
Massier said United has three pages of what they call "right-of-
refusal" reasons. "But no,'' Massier said. "We don't have a policy on
crying children.''
Tim Smith, spokesman for American Airlines, said it is "extremely
rare'' for the carrier to deny boarding to a disruptive child — "far
more rare than problems with disruptive adults, for sure.''
In June 2008, American Eagle removed a 2-year-old autistic boy and his
mother from a flight in North Carolina because of a crying fit.
Still, Root might not get much sympathy from frequent fliers whose
journeys often get bombarded with cries, wails and snores.
Palo Alto mom Kristin Loew, 32, sees both sides.
"This is a tough one,'' said Loew, who helps design the Silicon Valley
Moms Blog.
On the one hand, Loew said that she definitely would have fed her
girls, now 10 and 7, because she is hypersensitive to other passengers
and remembers her pre-mom flying days with screaming kids on the
flight.
On the other hand, Loew said, "I certainly never would have kicked her
off the flight.''
"Kids can't help it,'' she said. "And it's so ridiculous that people
can't understand that.''
Yes, she's mortified, but Root admits to learning a lesson herself.
When she rebooked her flight home Tuesday, she chose a 5 p.m.
departure and fed Adam well before takeoff. How did he do?
"He had his moments,'' she said. "I warned him what would happen if he
acted up, that we'd get kicked off the plane.'' But soon enough, a nap
kicked in and "he behaved beautifully.''
end
I hate flying, and the screaming of a child is very, very stressful to
everyone, except entitlement breeders who tune it out.
synthi...@yahoo.com
sometimes bring quiet by talking directly to the screaming infant. I
would use lots of facial expression and big hand guestures, and try to
keep it a real conversation, saying things like; "you, do have a
problem, do you have a problem with me?"
I like to think it was my amazing wonderfulness, but more likely it
just so unusual that they stopped to stare.
Nils K. Hammer
Terry Lomax
Southwest really messed up after their initial proper action of
removing the mother and 2 year old. The moo and sprog made too much
noise for people to hear important safety announcements, so the flight
staff did the right thing by removing the safety hazard. Then the
corporation caved in and apologized to the moo, refunded the tickets,
and gave her a huge credit towards future flights ($300?) Ideally the
staff won't be disciplined for their good act of removing the pair.
How in hell can the moo claim she deserves compensation for diapers?
The little s--- is going to use the same number of diapers whether
it's in San Jose or the other city.
Frank Apple
> How in hell can the moo claim she deserves compensation for diapers?
> The little s--- is going to use the same number of diapers whether
> it's in San Jose or the other city.
I'm guessing that when they're at home or at a relative's,
the sprog just roams naked and free and craps on whatever it
happens to be passing by at the time.
--
Frank Apple
Poppy
cuz the stupid moo prolly shops at a discount club and buys 100 at a
time and was now forced to buy a smaller package.
i can't believe the refunded her and gave her tickets