Southwest Employees celebrate "Bags Fly Free"
NOTE: See airline checked baggage fees
The situation at Southwest Airlines in which a crying 2-year old boy created such a fuss that he got himself and his mother thrown off has me thinking. It seems that though extremely friendly and customer-centric, Southwest’s employees definitely take swift action when they reach their breaking point. There is nothing worse than a crying 2 year old and I bet the mother was just as horrified by the situation as she tried to quiet the child down during the safety announcement. Hopefully she wasn’t reading a magazine.
If you’ve ever watched the show “Airline”, you know that they’re very serious when it comes to safety at Southwest, all jokes aside. When someone tries to board an aircraft with a beer buzz they are denied boarding immediately. I’ve seen the same thing happen when it comes to passengers who are too large to fit in an one airline seat. Oh, yes, there was another time that a female passenger, wearing a short skirt, was escorted off of the aircraft.
Although it would be easy bash Southwest; it seems that many times, such as during the events on the television show, they act in the best interest of other passengers whose experience is being adversely affected by those not playing by the “rules”. But it just seems strange that Southwest has had more than their fair share of these types of situations. They may be the fun airline, but the laughter can suddenly come to an ubrupt halt when lines are crossed!Southwest has since apologized to Pamela Roots, the mother of the crying child. The mother accepted their apology, only complaining that she and her son were separated from their luggage because of the removal from their flight. Bags fly free, bags fly free!
What do you think about all of this? You can comment here or join our new forum and get some discussion started.
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I retired from a legacy carrier about 15 months ago and in 20+ years we never did such a thing, it never even occurred to me that we could/should.
I’m pretty sure that what Southwest did was not legal – we were given two reasons why we could ever deny boarding to a passenger and those reasons were: 1) The appeared to be inebriated – note that the key word there is “appeared” as we were not trained to make that decision. The reason for this rule is safety related – if someone were inebriated and were on board then it could cause a safety issue in the air. 2) If someone were malodorous we could deny them boarding. However, if they were malodorous due to a medical issue then we could not take action.
Obviously, if someone were violent or threatening us, we would deny them boarding as we would get the authorities involved. Any other reason would put the carrier at risk of a law suit that most airlines do not want get involved in.
With all that said, if you can’t stand screaming babies on an airplane – buy some noise canceling headphones and an iPod.
nc
Thanks NC. Thanks for explaining the denied boarding crtiteria as well. Maybe my iPhone and headphones have kept me from hearing any crying now that you mention it. Let’s hear it for the headphones!
O.K. now they caused the mother and baby another problem. “Bags Fly Free” with all her baby supplies and wxtra clothing!!!! What a mess for Mom and baby. The mom did not have choice. The only thing she could do is stuff a sock in the babies mouth then she would have gotten arrested. Just put your headphones on and move on people!!!!!
bzb, fl
Everytime I fly, no matter what I do, my ears pop and they hurt. This child could have had that happen and had no other way to complain about it.
Interesting to me is that the comments HERE are the opposite of those on the Facebook thread. So far, the posters here mirror my own feelings. I am as disturbed as anyone else when an infant or child is noisy. However, I think we as a society are becoming out of touch with the reality of children and have lost our collective compassion.
If we want to be protected from the noise of children then we need to prohibit children from flying with us. Period.
It is so easy to blame the parent — and, to be honest, yes, some parents deserve blame. However, I have been the parent with the toddler having a meltdown. There are times when there is nothing to be done, no matter how perfect your parenting skills. It seems drastic to remove a cranky 2-year-old from a flight. How long do most tantrums or crying jags last? What if the kid had started his meltdown at 38,000 feet — would they have called for emergency landing?
We were all babies once. We were all cranky 2 year olds once. Many of us have suffered through sitting in public spaces with our noisy children. There is no way to be in the company of children and assure total calm. Again — if we do not want to tolerate the noise of children then prohibit children from flying.
I heard a different story this morning when this first came out. Some fact were the same, such as the disturbance happened while the crew was trying to explain emergency information. However I heard the child was screaming with excitement not crying. That he was yelling “Go Airplane, Go!!” and :I want to see Daddy” As loud as he could. The Mother Pamela Roots was quoted as saying she thought he would settle down once the plane did in fact get going.
Either way (Crying 2 year old vs shouting 2 year old) there may be a part of the story we don’t know. Like did the FA staff ask the mother to try to get him to stop yelling (in excitement) while they did the safety procedure? There is just too much unknown IMHO to really make a judgment call on what was and wasn;t done correctly here.
Bless Southwest. Kick off crying babies and fat people!
It wasn’t just a case of kicking off a crying baby folks, think about it. He was(4 years old) screaming during the safety demo and the mother would do nothing. We would do the same thing to an adult. This crap about, oh he’s just a child only goes so far. DICIPLINE people. Good Lord, haven’t you guys heard of that?? His ears didn’t hurt, they were taxiing OUT!! Screaming is not good for 136 other passengers on the plane either. Niether does some chick’s butt cheeks hanging out, no matter how pretty she is. You guys didn’t get the whole story. Yes, I fly for Southwest and the media doesn’t. As far as LEGAL, passengers have to be able to hear the safety demo,whether they listen of not, Mr legacy carrier, doesn’t that ring a bell? More than one person makes the decision to remove someone and they have to concur for the most part. Just because we are the “fun” airline doesn’t mean we have no rules.
Two years ago, I took a 5 1/2 hour flight to Hawaii, the return trip was during the night. There was a child on the flight (both my to flight and return flight, imagine that). This child, probably around 2 years ago did not cry the entire flights…it screamed bloody murder. Non-stop. 5 hours. Both ways. I thought the man sitting directly in front of the child with an earful of screaming might have a nervous breakdown. Nobody slept on the overnight flight. The parents did very little to quiet the child. It was excruciating. Everyone on the flight was exhausted and beyond frustrated. We pay too much money to fly to have to deal with 5 hours of loud screaming. Possibly the child was uncomfortable and this was his way of expressing this. And that is a sign that the child is not old enough to fly. I didn’t fly until I was 15 years old and I am just fine. Unless it absolutely can’t be avoided, wait until children are older rather than subject a plane full of passengers to hours of agony. I think Southwest did what they thought was appropriate and I am sure the other 100 passengers on the flight were grateful.
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for your comment. I feel it is especially irritating when parents do nothing to quiet their children; expecting other passengers to be as immune to the piercing screams of their children as they’ve obviously become. Parents such as these may possibly be blocking out many more serious warning signs from their children.
The fact that they removed a child from the airplane in and of itself is rediculous! The parents paid just as much and somethimes more than any other passenger on the plane!
I fly with my daughter regularly. She is only 6 months old and already has made 8 cross country flights, granted she has never once cried during any of these flights, but she rarely cries at all… sayin children shouldn’t be allowed to fly is obsered! Our family serves in the military and doesn’t travel often for just leisure we fly home to see sick relatives and things of that nature. Flying is our fastest means of travel to be with those we love, and are seperated from. Yes it is important to hear the announcements of safety, but give me a break! The kid was upset or excited… wait a moment and it will pass!
The South West Airlines pilot is a hero of real life for every business traveller. It is incredible to be several hours taken as hostage by uneducated kids, and in most time the parents to not care for this (my darling is not noisy, my dog is not biting…) and female flight attendants get eyes like cows (Oh how cute, I want such baby myself – bad business traveller, dont dare to complain).
Lufthansa some months threw a drunken Ukrainian minister of interior out of a plane. We should stop being politically correct with uneducated kids and incapable parents. If they not able to behave, kick them off the flight. 100 other passengers will say thank you (at least silent)
I flew with my son at 9 months of age and he was an absolute angel. It was because of incidents like these (and there were quite a few in the last 3 years) that I haven’t flown with him until this past week (he is now 4 years 8 months). I needed to get my CEU’s and didn’t have a choice. I will absolutely agree that some parents will totally block out their children and their screaming, yelling, or crying but for the rest of us to have people around us who think it’s honestly possible to reason, rationalize, or discipline your 2 year old child into behaving either has never been a parent or was absolutely lucky to have such perfect children. This flight I was just on was on Southwest and for the most part things went way better then I imagined. That said the longer leg my son’s ears did bother him and he was crying and I struggled to try and relieve the pain and comfort him as best and as quickly as possible. I spent another majority of the trip telling him to not kick the seat back in front of him. Of course on one leg I kept irritating (knocking the seat) the person in front of me every time I reached down to get something for my son out of my bag. I refuse to show jetiquette to anyone who puts their seat all the way back. Child or not I’ve always had an issue with people who like to put their seats in the lap of the person behind them (and on some airline it’s literally in your lap or has been in the past.
The only real issue was one flight attendant who had an issue with my son being in the isle. He was happy and quiet, not running up and down, just standing right next to me (and he would move to let anyone by) nope I don’t expect a 4 year old to stay seated for a 2 1/2 hour flight.
Now all that said I was really happy with my Southwest flights and how everything was handled with both myself and my son.
Little babies, given a pacifier and or a bottle of water, will help swallowing, and thus a more happy baby and will releave ear pressure… Today older children who misbehave, is due to a generation of parents, who don’t give a rats behind about any one, ” Its all about Me”. You see that at the airport, on hiways, they are the last people to merge and want to be let in at the head of the line wherethere is a lane closure . Maybe if more airlines would take a firmer stand on some of the issues, we would have humans flying again,and not a bunch of animals. The seats will be filled with them or without them,but it will be more peaceful.
I’m an FA for a regional carrier. Yes, it’s probably not legal to remove the 2-year old simply because it’s crying. HOWEVER, what about the rights of the other 49 paying customers on the plane? I would love to see a situation where all 49 of the other passengers voluntarily deplaned en-masse because of the crying baby. Wonder what the airline’s response would be then.