Children and airplanes can sometimes prove to be a horrible combination. Whenever we get on a plane we can only hope there are no young children so we can have a nice and quiet flight.
Most of the time when one encounters an unruly child on a plane they’ll just put on their headphones and attempt to drown out the noise out while hoping the child will soon calm down or be quiet. The airlines, however, may try a different way to remedy the situation.
Just last month a family was kicked off of a JetBlue flight from Turks and Caicos to Boston when it's 2-year-old daughter threw a tantrum and refused to sit down. The captain of the flight felt that it would be unsafe to proceed with takeoff while the family was still aboard. Once the family got their child to sit down, they were asked to leave. The family had to spend $2,000 to find a hotel and rebook their flight.
JetBlue stated that the captain decided to remove the family for the safety of both the customers and the crewmembers.
"We did what we were asked to do. We weren't belligerent, drunk, angry or screaming. We were just having a hard time struggling with our children," Colette Vieau, the toddler’s mother, told a Rhode Island NBC affiliate.
This is not the first time that families with children have been kicked off an airplane before takeoff. In 2009, Southwest Airlines asked a mother and her son to leave a flight and the plane taxied back to the gate because the child was making too much noise while the flight attendants were presenting safety and emergency information. The mother received a refund and a $300 travel voucher.
These recent events bring about one important question: Is it fair to remove families from flights for reasons beyond their control? Young children are often unpredictable and it can be difficult to get a child to sit still for a long amount of time.
Many parents believe the airlines were being too harsh, while others believe the airlines made the right decision. It’s hard to determine the right thing to do in such a situation.
Perhaps in the future, airlines might look into creating flights intended especially for travelling families. This way, no one gets annoyed and no one is inconvenienced. This solution, however, would be very costly for the airlines.
A new service called Nanny in the Clouds connects traveling families with traveling nannies. This unique service was created by Julie Melnick, who once struggled while travelling with her 2-year-old son and wished there was an easier way to travel. The website allows families to search for nannies already scheduled on the same flight for a $10 fee. The website also allows users who “love kids, have childcare experience and want to earn some money while flying,” to register as nannies.
While this service may seem like the perfect solution, what are the odds that every flight will have a nanny and parents who are willing to pay extra for some assistance?
Children and flights just may not always be the perfect mix.
Reach the columnist at agales@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
