Buy 1 Ticket on United Get to Babysit a Two Year Old Free
Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 09:15PM What that doesn't sound like a good deal to you?
On Tuesday, I flew from Baltimore to Chicago with my two small children (ages 2, and 5 months) on my own.
I asked to be seated with my toddler when I made my reservation and was told I'd need to ask at ticketing because two-year-olds can't fly alone. When we got to the airport after I pushed my two-year-old in a stroller, wore my baby in an Ergo baby carrier, strapped a carseat to my back, rolled luggage and carried my diaper bag. The employee at United who handled our ticketing was rude. She didn't want to help us (or the man next to us). I smiled and asked to make sure our seats were together. After taking a really long time to get our tickets, she realized she hadn't checked to see if we were together. As she handed me the tickets, she told me to get them changed at the gate when I picked up a stroller tag. It took so long that by the time we got through security, I had to sort of run with one child in the stroller and the other in the baby carrier. When I got to the desk, the employees didn't acknowledge me until one asked if we needed a stroller tag.
I said yes and that we needed our seats to be changed. They told me they couldn't change our seats and that I'd have to see the flight attendants for help.
As we boarded the plane, I approached to flight attendants and said, "I need your help, my two-year-old and I are not seated together." They laughed and said if I could get someone to change seats we could sit together and that my two year old could sit alone.
I walked down the aisle behind my two-year-old and my eyes began to fill with tears imagining how scared he'd be if he had to sit alone. I started to cry and by the time we reached the aisle of our first seat 32A which was 4 aisles away from our other seat in 36B and a woman in 31C asked how she could help. I asked the man in 32B if he would switch with us and he did.
But United was content with a stranger paying money to babysit my two-year-old. My two-year-old that can wiggle out of his car seat harness, who runs faster than anyone I know. My two-year-old that's adorable and precocious and who knows creative ways of asking why, who, how, what, and where.
So if you want to buy one airline ticket and get a chance to babysit a stranger's active, scared, overtired two-year-old definitely fly United. They are happy to offer your free services.
Me? I'll fly any flights I've already paid for but short of an apology and a promise other families won't have to be separated from toddlers, I won't get suckered into their bogus deal. And I plan to follow up with United and my congresspeople to see why there aren't safety regulations and protections for our nation's littlest flyers. Join me?
Reader Comments (7)
This EXACT same thing happened to us (there were 2 adults and 2 little ones, all with purchased seats). We were also on United. They kept pushing off the responsibility to the next person (ticketing, gate, flight attendants). There was NO WAY we were going to let our kid sit alone, and when the attendants were rude and didn't help at first, we just camped in some seats until they figured it out.
I actually don't think they are allowed to let the 2 year old sit unattended. That must be against FAA regulations.
YES! Us too! My son was 3 but still. He was crying in fear b/c it was his first time on a plane. They actually wouldn't seat my 6 year old near me either. Which maybe seems okay only that he started barfing half way through the flight from sickness and the person next to him had to help him get the bag while the person on the other side of him turned away in horror while he got barf on his shirt! It was TERRIBLE.
This is outrageous! I'm tweeting a link to this site and sharing it on Facebook.
This sort of thing has happened to me several times on various airlines. I have found that airline employees are quick to 'pass the buck'. The people at ticketing tell you to ask at the gate and the people at the gate tell you to ask the flight attendants. The flight attendants tell you to sit in your assigned seats and they will help you when everyone has boarded. They usually don't. Fellow passengers have almost always been far more helpful, but it is embarrassing to have to ask them to change seats. I believe it should be the job of the airline to make sure everyone is appropriately seated. However since they don't, your best bet is to select all window and isle seats for the kids, and a middle seat for yourself (if you can). Most people will gladly trade for window and aisle seats, and you can be sure the people seated next to you aren't together. Then you camp yourself and your kids firmly in your row and politely ask people to trade.
Jennie, The flight attendants were really rude to me and told me there aren't any FAA regulations, and I can't find any.
dumb mom, I cannot believe that. Your experience sounds awful!
Victoria, thanks!
Kinny, there was a lot of buck passing here. The flight attendants refused to help. I fought with United before our next flight and he was seated with me.
A number of years ago, my kids were 4, 9 and 11. We booked tickets to Cancun for a family vacation. Two connecting flights each way.
I had checked and we had three seats in one row and 2 seats just across the aisle. Perfect, right?
Not so perfect. Turns out that the airline (I can't remember which, sorry) had booked us in the exit row. Which was not evident in the online seating. (Nowadays I think it is). On the first flight, we immediately realized on boarding this was a problem. The stewardesses came by and said "you can't sit there!" whereupon we politely asked them to find us new seats. (Of course, a full plane). They gave us no real help, and made us beg other strangers to switch with us. Through kind people, my 4 year old got to sit next to a parent but the other kids were on their own.
The next plane, we asked before we boarded if our seats were in the exit row. Surprise! ALL our seats for all 4 legs to-from were int he ext row. Would they change it before wqe boarded? No. Would they change the seats for the return flight? No. Could they warn the stewardesses in advance, so maybe an entire row could shift up to our seat, and our row shift back? No. Just like your family, "Just board and the stewardesses will sort it out after." NOT. They did nothing on each of four flights.
What really made it unpleasant was the attitude of the stewardesses. They were ANGRY at us. Like, somehow I had planned it this way. Really? The angry tones of "You can't sit there!" on each of four flights really helped make our vacation pleasant, ladies. Nice of you to be helpful polite role models for my children, besides.
I should also digress and mention at this moment that we'd already had a not-so-nice start at reservations counter where when we picked up our boarding passes we were told "You can't fly to Mexico with those children." WHAT???
Turns out the fact that I kept my own last name meant that my husband couldn't take the kids "without their mother." Yes, well, hello! Here I am, standing here..."No, you don't have the same last name, He can't take them." OK, but, we have passports for each and every one of the 5 of us. We go to Europe with them for work frequently. We've never had a problem. So?
"You have to have a statement that the mother allows him to take them." OK! Fine! I'm here! I'm making a statement. Where do I write? "It has to be NOTARIZED." At this point I admit I got a little strongminded, reminding everyone within earshot that we were a family, I was the mother & he was the dad, we had passports, we paid for a set of expensive tickets and we were NOT missing this plane. And NOT MOVING fromt he counter until something happened to make the problem go away.
After a 20 minute wait, they hauled out some person from the back who was a notary. I signed a statement, we finally got our boarding passes (for the exit row, remember!!). The ticket agent was not happy with me. "If you'd brought their birth certificates, you could have avoided this!" Gee, I always thought a passport was EVEN BETTER than that. At that time, few people had passports for their kids (this is about 12 years ago). I mean, we needed a birth certificate to get that.
After that, we took both passports & birth certificates. More stuff you really, really, really don't want to have stolen in a foreign country...
I sure wish I could remember for sure which airline this was, but my suspicion is, it was United.
I wanted to add a comment to your recent HuffPo article on your experiences on travelling with children.
Recently, my partner, her children, and I had the opportunity to travel from here in Washington to Auckland NZ, Melbourne AU, and Sydney AU. Although her children are teens, one is significantly ADHD, and since we wanted to ensure we might one day be able to go BACK to either country, we felt it was important that one of us be seated next to said child. Since I used to travel extensively with my own children when they were, well, children, I knew that making reservations well in advance was a key to getting seats together, which we succeeded in doing for all but the flight back from LA.
Terrific, right?
Well, here's a problem you have not seemed to encounter.
If the airline changes the plane, all bets are off.
When we checked in to our flight back to the United States, we discovered that the airline had indeed done just that, and that we were now strewn across a plane with 300 plus people.
Fortunately in this case, we had a very understanding and resourceful gate agent (who probably had an ADHD kid of his own) that was able to not only put us in a set of adjoining seats, but was also able to adjust our seating on the aforementioned flight from LA to Washington DC!
All of which goes to prove that for all the advance planning, it helps to have a sympathetic gate agent...