Too fat to fly?

[anitram]

I know some parents do that, but I wouldn't feel comfortable giving him medication he didn't really need.

Hey, that's the best kind!!

Actually my parents always gave us a dramamine on long haul trips, and as an adult I prefer to go drugged if possible. Just so long as I wake up when I get there.

What annoyed me most about that last toddler I took issue with is that the parents held him in such a way that they let him climb over the seat they were sitting in so that he his head was hanging right in front of me as he screamed, yelped and tried to grab at anything on the little pull-out table that I had down the whole flight (had my laptop, etc on there). I honestly wanted to throw all three of them off the flight.

 

[maycocksean]

Hey, that's the best kind!!

Actually my parents always gave us a dramamine on long haul trips, and as an adult I prefer to go drugged if possible. Just so long as I wake up when I get there.

What annoyed me most about that last toddler I took issue with is that the parents held him in such a way that they let him climb over the seat they were sitting in so that he his head was hanging right in front of me as he screamed, yelped and tried to grab at anything on the little pull-out table that I had down the whole flight (had my laptop, etc on there). I honestly wanted to throw all three of them off the flight.

Yeah, that sounds like a pain. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty careful to prevent my son from being a nuisance to my fellow passengers. Unfortunately, not every one is. . .

 

[AliEnvy]

I'm pretty careful to prevent my son from being a nuisance to my fellow passengers.

I like the idea of the airline grouping families/kids into the same area to minimize the fuss.

If you have the opportunity to bring a portable DVD player they are as useful and convenient for long trips as drugs without the worry.

 

[A stor]

I haven't flown. But, there is a problem with other events. Where as you have purchased a ticket for a certain seat, cannot move. And the person next to you. Is grossly overweight and is basically taking up half of your space. As a smaller person. This is uncomfortable for me. I am not trying to sound prejudice. But, it is not my fault if another has eaten their way to being 100 lbs. or more than a healthy weight. I don't think that I should have to suffer because of it. I may have to use the bathroom during the concert or event. And I want to be comfortable in the seat. That I have paid the same price for.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Weight-loss reality star Ruby Gettinger knows how Kevin Smith feels.

"The first time I went on a plane I was close to 700 lbs. and I had no idea how small the seats were," says Gettinger. "The man sitting next to me was not happy at all! I felt so bad!"

Gettinger, who stars on the Style Network's Ruby, has lost nearly 400 lbs. since that flight, but flying still isn't easy, she tells PEOPLE. "After that experience, I never flew without a friend to sit next to me, or I would buy two seats."

She doesn't know all the details of director Smith's recent removal from a Southwest Airlines flight, but the Savannah, Georgia, resident says she can imagine.

"This kind of stuff should be taken care of in private before someone like me or Kevin enters a plane," she says. "We need to remember that we may have different shells, but we are still the same on the inside."

 

[corianderstem]

I am not trying to sound prejudice.

Great!

But, it is not my fault if another has eaten their way to being 100 lbs. or more than a healthy weight.

Oh.

 

[Muldfeld]

Is it just me or have airline seats gotten smaller, too? I have no trouble on Canada's Via Rail train, but I struggle on plane seats.

 

[corianderstem]

It's not just you.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Bob Shallit: Petite passenger booted from Southwest flight

The Sacramento Bee
Published: Saturday, Jul. 24, 2010

Southwest Airlines made headlines earlier this year for kicking overweight actor-director Kevin Smith off a flight because he took up more than one seat.

Now we're hearing the airline recently removed a 5-foot-4, 110-pound Sacramento-area woman from a plane so a hefty passenger could have an extra seat.

The incident happened last week on an early-evening Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Sacramento.

The local woman was flying standby, paid full fare for the last available seat, got on board, stowed her bags and sat down – only to be told she would have to deplane immediately.

The reason?

A late-arriving passenger required two seats because of her girth.

The Sacramento woman, a frequent-flying sales rep, was stunned.

"It didn't seem right that I should have to leave to accommodate someone who had only paid for one seat," she tells us. (She has asked to remain anonymous for fear some may regard her as insensitive.)

She's even more miffed because she says Southwest personnel berated her when she questioned the decision to boot her from the plane.

She ended up getting on the next flight.

"It's small potatoes, in the scheme of things," she says. But she believes Southwest should have been more considerate.

Airline spokeswoman Marilee McInnis agrees.

"We know this was awkward and we should have handled it better," she says, adding that the airline intends to apologize to the local woman.

McInnis says normal policy is to ask for volunteers when a flight is overbooked for any reason.

In this instance, she says, airline personnel may have been influenced to choose a faster course of action to reduce embarrassment for the late-arriving passenger.

Why the extra concern? The person requiring two seats was just 14 years old.

 

[deep]

Are we supposed to be upset at SouthWest because they gave an obese 14 year old got a second seat for free?
And a standby ticket buyer, did not get to fly on that flight but had to catch the next one?

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Agree-I would say that an adult has an obligation of sorts to give up a seat to a 14 year old, especially kids flying on their own. I would have to

I think it's more likely that she had a problem with it because the girl was overweight

 

[deep]

Trains are better suited for larger passengers.

 

[Liesje]

I guess my problem with this example is that they should never have disclosed the reason for her being removed, only that her seat was needed. What does standby mean? I thought that meant you could get on if there were extra seats? So wouldn't she be the first to be removed anyway rather than asking for volunteers?

 

[deep]

sounds like she had a chip on her shoulder
some people can be small

(see what I did, there)

 

[kramwest1]

Trains are better suited for larger passengers.

sounds like she had a chip on her shoulder
some people can be small

(see what I did, there)

Hehe! I'm glad I looked in this thread.

 

[anitram]

Agree-I would say that an adult has an obligation of sorts to give up a seat to a 14 year old, especially kids flying on their own. I would have to

I think it's more likely that she had a problem with it because the girl was overweight

I don't think that's necessarily true. This situation is different but if I was going somewhere on business or had a very tight schedule with connecting flights, I wouldn't feel an obligation of any sort to give up my seat to a 14-year-old. This is why airlines in fact announce that the flight is overbooked and then generally offer pretty decent incentives to those willing to take a later flight - anything from hotel/food/airline vouchers to upgrades to first class. That way people who are not in a hurry can choose to participate, as it should be.

This woman was standby and she should know that there are certain risks with that type of ticket.

 

[coolian2]

the woman who was bumped is a whiny bitch.

 

[maycocksean]

Southwest can't win for losing.

 

[corianderstem]

It sounds like Southwest told her she was getting booted because the ticketed passenger was overweight and had to buy two seats. That's completely irrelevant, and it's just rude for Southwest to have told her that.

All they need to have told her is that as a standby passenger, she was getting bumped for a ticketed passenger.

End of story. There's no news here, other than Southwest potentially needing a lesson in knowing how much information to give.

 

[Liesje]

^ Exactly

 

[coolian2]

speaking of attention seeking airline cases...

Woman who already wore hearing aid wins payout after claiming child's plane scream deafened her | Mail Online

It is every air traveller’s worst nightmare – being stuck next to a screaming child on a long-haul flight. With no escape from the incessant noise, it can be annoying and deafening.

That is what an American tourist claimed after filing a lawsuit against the Australian airline Qantas, saying a child’s screaming left her with hearing damage.
Jean Barnard claimed she has been left partially deaf after a three-year-old boy screamed in her ear before a flight from Alice Springs to Darwin in Australia in 2009.
In her lawsuit, the 67-year-old said the toddler’s scream was so loud her ears began to bleed. She was helped off the plane and taken to hospital for treatment and was forced to cut short her holiday.

Mrs Barnard said she had been left with permanent hearing damage and sued the airline for physical and mental suffering, medical expenses and loss of income.

The trauma of the incident meant she had been unable to work as a business consultant, she said.

Mrs Barnard said she had taken her seat on the internal flight when the boy allegedly leaned back over his armrest towards her and let out a scream so severe that blood erupted from her ears, leaving her “stone cold deaf”. No other passengers were injured.
‘The pain was so excruciating that I didn’t even know I was deaf,’ Mrs Barnard said in her statement to the court.

In response, Qantas Airlines argued in court that it was not responsible for a ‘small child’s random, impulsive scream’ because it was not an ‘unexpected or unusual event and not related in any way to the operation of the aircraft’.

The airline argued that Mrs Barnard had a hearing problem before she arrived in Australia, including wearing hearing aids, and that the crew could not be responsible for the acts of a three-year-old.

Counsel for Qantas told the court: ‘Flight attendants cannot predict when children aboard an aircraft are about to scream. There is no evidence that the child was screaming in the terminal, or on board the aircraft prior to the particular scream which allegedly caused the damage.’

The airline also produced an email Mrs Barnard sent to her travel agent, in which she said: ‘I guess we are simply fortunate that my eardrum was exploding and I was swallowing blood.

‘Had it not been for that, I would have dragged that kid out of his mother’s arms and stomped him to death.’

Mrs Barnard and Qantas reached a confidential agreement out of court. Under the terms of the agreement, Mrs Barnard isn’t allowed to discuss the settlement.

A spokesman for Qantas also refused to comment.

not sure if the airline should have had to pay anything, but that little shit of a kid could benefit from reading the child discipline thread.

 

[kramwest1]

not sure if the airline should have had to pay anything, but that little shit of a kid could benefit from reading the child discipline thread.

I was on a 2 hour flight and sat a few rows from a guy that talked loudly through the ENTIRE flight. It was his monologue on absolutely nothing; he was an idiot.

I am now dumber from that experience and am suing the airline for my loss of braincells, and subsequent loss of future income.

 

[coolian2]

I was on a 2 hour flight and sat a few rows from a guy that talked loudly through the ENTIRE flight. It was his monologue on absolutely nothing; he was an idiot.

I am now dumber from that experience and am suing the airline for my loss of braincells, and subsequent loss of future income.

you could have just told me to shut up.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Um..yeah-not a good idea to be watching that video on a plane. Definitely sounds like a flight from hell.


By DON PEAT, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: July 22, 2010 10:11pm


This in-flight movie got a father and son kicked off a flight.

Two Air Canada passengers got pulled from their Orlando-bound flight before takeoff from Toronto’s Pearson Airport after another passenger spotted them watching video of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Sun columnist Joe Warmington, on his way to cover the Conrad Black story in Florida, was on the same plane where another passenger alerted the flight crew after spotting the young boy watching video on his iPod of the planes smashing into the World Trade Centre, just before the plane took off for U.S. airspace.

Air Canada officials confirmed to the Sun the two passengers, a man and a boy, were watching video of the 9/11 attacks before flight AC922 departed Tuesday night.

“Other passengers and our crew became concerned,” Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick told the Sun Wednesday. “The passengers were deplaned and following an investigation allowed to travel (Wednesday) morning.

“Safety and security as well as the comfort of all our passengers and crew is always our top concern and we take whatever steps we deem necessary to provide a safe, secure and comfortable environment,” he said.

An Air Canada employee told Warmington at first the man tried to cover up the video when staff went to talk to him.

“It made everyone nervous,” the employee said, adding the entire incident may have been a coincidence.

“I don’t know if it was the right decision,” the employee said. “But better safe than sorry.”

Peel Regional Police Const. Samantha Nulle said officers assisted the airline with the complaint, meeting the two passengers at the gate when they were taken off the plane.

Investigators found no criminal offence had taken place, she said.

Nulle said she couldn’t confirm the two were watching 9/11 scenes.

“The two were cleared of all allegations and set out on the next flight,” she said.

The terror video scare wasn’t the only delay on the flight that night.

Passengers were told missing baggage was delaying the plane’s takeoff even before they were told there would be a further delay due to the “security problem.”

After the two passengers were taken off the plane, it was going to takeoff but was then aborted due to mechanical issues.

Passengers were finally switched to another plane and the flight continued to Orlando.

A CBC employee, one of three CBC staffers and several other journalists on the plane heading to Florida to cover the Black story, commented he’d “never been on a flight like this.”

Passenger Mike Berrouard, a Toronto businessman, told Warmington the whole ordeal was “scary.”

“That was definitely the strangest flight of my career,” he said.

 

[anitram]

Gah! I fly to Paris in 9 hours, I sincerely hope to avoid idiocies of this nature.

 

[coolian2]

Sun columnist Joe Warmington, on his way to cover the Conrad Black story in Florida, was on the same plane where another passenger alerted the flight crew after spotting the young boy watching video on his iPod of the planes smashing into the World Trade Centre, just before the plane took off for U.S. airspace.

or, you know, mind your own damn business.

 

[maycocksean]

speaking of attention seeking airline cases...

Woman who already wore hearing aid wins payout after claiming child's plane scream deafened her | Mail Online



not sure if the airline should have had to pay anything, but that little shit of a kid could benefit from reading the child discipline thread.

I cannot see how the airline could have been held responsible for this. What happened to this woman may not have been frivolous, but the lawsuit certainly was.

Gah! I fly to Paris in 9 hours, I sincerely hope to avoid idiocies of this nature.

Lucky you! I visited Paris once in 1995 and I would love to go back.

(And nine hours isn't that bad. It takes about 15 hours--in flight time alone--to get to Saipan. Our two-year old has already made that transPacific flight five times since he was born!)

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

speaking of attention seeking airline cases...

Woman who already wore hearing aid wins payout after claiming child's plane scream deafened her | Mail Online



not sure if the airline should have had to pay anything, but that little shit of a kid could benefit from reading the child discipline thread.

it never even occurred to me to sue for "losses" when i got my migraine thanks to a screaming baby behind me (i was in the last row, and hey thanks baby's mom for not at least walking to the other side of the plane for a minute) on my emirates flight.

 

[maycocksean]

and hey thanks baby's mom for not at least walking to the other side of the plane for a minute) on my emirates flight.

She may not have been allowed to. I got reprimanded by the airline attendants on my last international flight for letting my son walk (okay, I admit it, run) in the aisles during our seven hour hop from Hawaii to Guam. Fortunately by the time they spoke to me, he'd already gotten his wiggles out. I understand their concerns about safety, but I also know that if I'd not let him get up and move around he would have been that annoying screaming child.

I think they should sit all the parents with kids in one section of the plane. They did that once on a flight we took to Florida and it was great. Everyone around us was in the same boat, and everyone was a lot more understanding of the issues that come up when you're flying with a kid.

 

[coolian2]

I think they should sit all the parents with kids in one section of the plane.

they do, it's the section that's always within two rows of me.


edited to add: children on planes are a necessary evil. if the child acts up, it happens. if the parent acts like a jerk, which i've had, that's what annoys me.