Kicking the seat in front

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Viewing 5 posts - 31 through 35 (of 35 total)

  • Airtravel104
    Participant

    How did the Airline personnel deal? How did they re-seat?


    Airtravel104
    Participant

    You are and you are lucky that the mother is reasonable instead of lame. I personally have seen many instances when the mother would use tears to turn the cards around make the complaining stranger seem like the bad guy, with collusion from airline staff. As one “offending” man once said, famously, that “A woman’s tears are the most lethal weapon in any dispute.”

    Any suggestion for GF?

    It seems from everyone’s answers that
    1. regardless of a parent’s plight, a passenger should not have to endure his seat being kicked. Does anyone think it is reasonable to expect a stranger to put up with his/her seat being kicked by a child simply because another culture condones it?
    2. If the airline cannot solve the problem, a parent may offer to sit in front of a kicking child? Is that a reasonable request? I.E. If a parent says there is nothing (s)he could do, then (s)he might suffer the abuse instead of a stranger. Why can’t airlines use this as a protocol?
    3. Does anyone else have a solution which is better. These days with divergent cultures and relatively uncultivated, less than seasoned air staff, international protocol might be a better guarantee than airline staff having any good sense that tears could be merely crocodile tears. Humans have gotten so good at pretending and lying and diverting.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    In my case there was no need for the crew to get involved the mother was delightful in understanding the issue and warmed to my softly softly approach … so alls well that ended well ..


    Airtravel104
    Participant

    This discussion reminded me of an earlier time when air travel had a certain amount of finesse and charm. I was flying from Copenhagen to Hamburg one year, many years ago, on SAS. The flight was delayed at dinner time, and perhaps half full. Passengers were grumbling and hungry. It was not a long flight and so there was no food being served in tourist, and not enough from Euro class to feed hoi polloi. As soon as the flight took off, the captain came on the loudspeaker and apologized and announced that champagne would be served. This is champagne which could be purchased for duty free, and as champagne was passed around, very nice, capable Scandinavian hostesses (they were called air hostesses in those days) came around with pate, and goodies from duty free in lieu of food.) Then chocolates were passed around. There was not one single complaint from about the delay, and we all arrived in Hamburg, happy as clams. No amount of money could have bought the classy goodwill SAS did, in the minds and hearts of those passengers.
    I am just thinking how ironic that humans have sunken so low these days. When passengers are compromised they are faulted instead of being treated well in some other way. One of you thought that the quickest way for GF to have dealt with that situation was to have reseated the couple into First Class. The kicked passenger did not want to budge and suggested that the family be seated in first class. That would have stopped all the drama which befell the other passengers. However they “have no authority.” That of course could have been, “the computer says no,” as in “Little Britain.” Money can buy the newest 321, and East European staff, but cannot buy class, or classy staff. Captains are in this case probably only someone who could fly an airplane, not someone who has any judgement or breeding.


    Airtravel104
    Participant

    The mother on that GF plane was shrill and hysterical. After the switch the daughter was screaming a great deal and the boy began to run up and down the aisle, zooming among the serving crew. (The servers were South Asians who obviously would say nothing to the boy) The mother merely shrieked but seemed to have no skills in communicating with these 2 children. Though unveiled on the plane, she mostly likely had SouthAsian servants at home dealing with the children. (They cost less than 100Euro a month in the Gulf states and work very hard for their wages, which all get sent home to their families) When mothers have no relationship with their children at home, why would they have any clout with their children out in public, without the servants. As soon as the male attendant arrived, who was part of that culture, she burst into tears, which of course meant nothing to the girl or the boy, probably because they have seen her do it too much. But the male attendant sucked it up and without dropping a beat decided that the kicked passenger was making trouble. No wonder the boy continued behaving without any consideration for any of the passengers. The sister must have seen how he gets away with transgressing and so she had her say too. Children seem to scream a great deal in public these days. Why? Any parent has any explanation?

Viewing 5 posts - 31 through 35 (of 35 total)
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