Kicking the seat in front

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 35 total)

  • Airtravel104
    Participant

    2 and half hour flight. Airbus 321 with 8 first class and 161 tourist class seats.
    Mother in Aisle seat, 3 year old daughter middle seat, 8 year old boy window seat.
    Boy kicks the seat in front for half an hour before take-off. Passenger in front first thought the thudding came from bagging being loaded into the hold. Onsluaght of kicks continued after take-off, so passenger asked the boy to stop the kicking. Mother says, “He is just a boy.” Passenger waves to hostess to deal.
    What do you think should happen?
    Passenger is traveling with spouse. Only one seat not taken in coach. First class half full.


    Edski777
    Participant

    I hate cliff hangers.

    So????


    penfold69
    Participant

    I think the obvious option would be to move the passenger travelling with his spouse to first class, but I’m going to guess they moved the adult with the 2 children?

    Edited to add; when I was just a boy, I’d of gotten a clip round the ear for kicking the seat in front, well before anyone would have turned around to complain.


    Airtravel104
    Participant

    Just curious to see how different travelers think the situation should be resolved. A lot of conflict between travelers and airlines result from different concepts of resolving conflicts. Just curious to hear how different travelers might handle a difficult situation if they were in the airline personnel’s position.


    GivingupBA
    Participant

    I do not work for an airline. Here’s what I think:

    1. passenger who receives kicks should not speak to the passenger. They should speak to cabin crew about the situation.

    2. cabin crew should speak to kicking family, and ask them to desist.

    3. if no. 2 fails, most senior cabin crew should then speak to kicking family, and ask them to desist.

    4. if no. 3 fails, [a] passengers who received kicks should be moved to first class, and sanctions should be applied to kicking family. However, I fall short in that I cannot say what those sanctions should be.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Personally I could not understand any parent that would permit a child to continually kick the seat in front. Saying “he is just a boy” – would result in me saying “you are just a parent, please act like one”…

    The answer for me would be for cabin crew (or the senior cabin crew member) to sternly ask the boy to desist. If he didn’t, then there would be no alternative other than to move the affected passenger to whatever seat was available.


    Londonfrog
    Participant

    Martin, perfect suggestion of a reply to a statement “he is just a boy”. I wish you were my companion on a recent flight from Moscow because I was lost for words when I heard a (very) similar response from a parent.


    Poshgirl58
    Participant

    Great suggestion Martyn!

    Sadly it’s not just children who indulge in this poor behaviour. I’ve experienced seat kicking by a so-called adult unhappy that I was occupying “her” seat, the paid for emergency exit ones. When she added in the bovine name-calling, my 6ft+ partner stood up and suggested that as well as “taking one to know one”, she should put her hand in her pocket. Smug grin wiped quickly from her face and not a tweet or kick for remainder of flight. Result!!


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Best result is the senior cabin crew or even the captain to re-allocate the window seat to a female pax (next to the girl) and the boy in the aisle seat behind his mum!
    If she likes the kicks she can have them! Parental duty to bite back!


    AlanOrton1
    Participant

    My boys could be described as ‘seat kickers’ (I guess it beats being tyre kickers).
    It is something that increases my stress levels a little on flights, as I know like many others, when in Y, having the back of your seat kicked, pushed, knocked etc can be irritating.

    However, I suspect there are a great many children who do not engage in this heinous act on purpose. At a young age, when seated, their legs don’t reach the ground, so it can natural for them to swing.
    I’ve seen my kids do this, and I always ask them to cease / be careful / mindful of the person in front etc. I go through all this with them before we board.
    However, I think it is quite likely that some seat kicking can happen when a child is sat for 2, 4, 10 hours etc.

    Also, there are numerous kids that have additional needs (Autism / ADHD), and the ability to follow parental or other instructions to the letter of the law may not always be straightforward.

    As Poshgirl says, it isn’t just kids, plenty of adults will hammer away at the seat back touch screen behind a person’s head, stick their knees into the back of the seat, push the seat in front of them forward when they get up to stand. Not to mention recline the seat immediately on take off into the person behind’s lap.

    To answer the OP, I don’t think there is anything wrong to ask very politely if they could stop by mentioning this to the parent. I suspect this would solve 90% of such cases.


    mkcol74
    Participant

    [quote quote=815776]2 and half hour flight. Airbus 321 with 8 first class and 161 tourist class seats.
    Mother in Aisle seat, 3 year old daughter middle seat, 8 year old boy window seat.
    Boy kicks the seat in front for half an hour before take-off. Passenger in front first thought the thudding came from bagging being loaded into the hold. Onsluaght of kicks continued after take-off, so passenger asked the boy to stop the kicking. Mother says, “He is just a boy.” Passenger waves to hostess to deal.
    What do you think should happen?
    Passenger is traveling with spouse. Only one seat not taken in coach. First class half full.

    [/quote]

    I think personal responsibility extends not just to the parent, but also the affected person – so yes, the “victim” should speak directly to the parent & child at the same time, making it quite clear that you understand they might not realise what or how it is happening but that it is affecting you negatively.

    Any dissent from the parent (the child can be negated as they ought to respond to discipline from the parent, not a random stranger) then merits it being brought up with cabin crew.


    esselle
    Participant

    As ever in this kind of situation, the way you say it will determine the outcome. Surely most parents would understand that it’s not something that should be tolerated?


    Airtravel104
    Participant

    So when the mother answered, “What can I do!? He is just a boy,” the kicking got more violent.
    The passenger sitting in the aisle seat next to the couple, in front of the mother, said,”Boys will be boys. I am sure the mother has done her best.”
    The female cabin attendant who was alerted to the kicking went and got a male, who came and said to the passenger directly in front of the boy, “What is your problem? The mother is very upset by your attitude!”

    So by that point somehow the passenger being kicked had been turned into the ogre.


    Airtravel104
    Participant

    I don’t think the why kicking occurs is relevant to the issue. If a parent has a child who does not understand that it is not good to kick someone else’s chair, then perhaps minimizing public travel is one solution; driving to a destination is another one. You might also advice the airline agent who books your seat to give you the first row so that he will pick the partition and not someone else’s seat back. There are lots of things a parent can do, though it is understandable that the stress of travel in a confined environment can make anyone not think out of the box. I have friends who for years took vacations only driving in their car so that they did not have to worry about streaming kids until they are grown.
    There are many ways parents could think of minimizing the discomfort of other people who would have no reason to deal with discomfort.
    One response about a parent taking a seat which the child gets to pick is a solution very few parents would think of. Assuming that a stranger should put up with it is what makes for a lot of antagonism in air travel.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Jealousy ……. last year I travelled AMS-CPT and had a seat in the last row of ‘comfort’ seats. Halfway through the flight the man behind me stuck his bare foot onto my armrest. When I asked him to remove it he went into a diatribe about how he also had the ‘right to be comfortable’, to which my reply was that had the right to enjoy the space he’d for, but not that which I’d paid for.

    He then said that everybody should pay the same fare and get the same space, and it ‘wasn’t fair’ that I’d got a better seat. I called the stewardess and told him to complain to the airline if he thought the seats were too close together, and she told him that had had the opportunity to cough up more for a better seat.

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