A Delta Air Lines passenger left their seat in a shocking state after a flight on Monday. There was food waste, brown smears, a ripped up safety card – and something that looks like a tiny version of the flag of Bolivia left in and around the seat. The passenger just got up and left at the end of the flight, blissfully unaware of their own chaos like Mr. Bean.
I think this may have been a child’s seat. That’s what the person sharing the photo says, and the brown left behind on the seat doesn’t seem to be chocolate, or a lavatory accident. I think it’s peanut butter? Kids can be messy, but:
- Responsible parents choose what they bring with them to entertain and feed their kids. Some choices are messier than others.
- And most importantly, they clean up after their kids.
Traveling with children can be challenging, but it’s important to work to set things up for success. Are you picking flight times that match your child’s schedule, or where the kids will be overtired? Do you have things to entertain them, that aren’t too noisy or messy? To be sure ‘things happen’ but there are usually moments during the flight to tidy as well.
Last year a mother let her child draw all over the seat of a Delta Air Lines flight in order to keep them entertained. They were erasable, and wipes took care of the Crayola drawings. She says that a flight attendant was on edge that the drawings might not come off the side of the aircraft, and off of the back of the tray table in front of them.
And here a United Airlines passenger flying to Saint Martin pulled down their tray table to find children’s drawings in orange, green, black and blue. Who draws pictures on their seat back tray, instead of using paper?
This @united flight was giving @SpiritAirlines Flight attendants were rude, a fight broke out, and surely no one bothered to clean my tray. Only Delta and JetBlue to St. Martin ever again! #unitedairlines #airlinenightmares pic.twitter.com/i1cD3rAFj1
— Anita Dolce Vita (@DolceFemmeAnita) December 21, 2023
A few years ago a mother helped their child draw on the back of the tray table in front of them. At the time I thought at least they could’ve used erasable markers? It seems to me that the principle here is that if you damage someone else’s property, you owe them compensation.
I’d be worried about leaving marks, but as long as the passenger leaves their seat in as good condition as they found it then I think that is ok?
However you cannot assume that someone else will clean up after you. Between domestic flights on U.S. airlines, with planes not on the ground for long, probably nobody will. The longer it stays, the more likely it is to stay for good.
All my many United flights in the past year or more have had at least a light clean between flights, even if they are running late.
Sure sounds like a Very crappy situation indeed lol
Oh, I suspect they (or their parent) were not “blissfully unaware” of the mess they left behind. I bet they just didn’t care.
The only way the scribbling gets cleaned off it at the RON station. There’s just no time anymore.
I would never have let our kids do anything like that to an airplane. We hated “parents” who let their kids trash seats and just waltz off like nothing had happened.
On a turn, we’d just wipe and sweep up what we could, then flip the bottom cushion (hoping no one had to do that on a previous turn). That also meant we lost an agent to cleaning for several minutes, which can directly affect the turn time. Some stations were lucky enough to be able to keep a few seat cushions for emergencies, but that was usually the hubs. Personally, I wish the airlines could fine the parents $100+ for letting their kids damage an aircraft.
When we flew on a intercontinental flight with our kids (8! aged 1-11) we asked the FA for a garbage bag in the beginning of the flight.
We filled it up and some more 🙂
But yeah, we told the kids that when we get off the plane our seats must be totally clean…
Premium!
Parents are to BLAME (period)! If I was the flight attendant and had seen this happen I would have demanded that the parent clean the tray table. This is considered destruction of airline property. Yes, shame them and make them pay. This idiot parents are allowing their kids to do the same thing at airlines clubs. They run around these clubs, pick through the food with their hands and create a mess at the tables and sitting areas. I will NOT allow this to happen when I’m at the Sky Club. I immediate call the supervisors and mangers of the club to their location, have them call security and call them out. I demand that the food it removed. I have also told them to review the security cameras. I have had 3 families removed from the Delta Sky Clubs. And before you say anything, YES my wife and I have 4 children, all adults now and we would never let them run around or act this way at the airport, clubs or on an airplane. Shame on them! Their homes must be a disaster. Again, PARENTS are to at fault.
Children are a reflection of their parents and the parenting they receive.
Sounds like A LOT of parents these days that just ignore the kids and “tune them out”. So many people are just not fit to be parents. Kids like this shouldn’t be on planes or anything other than the parent’s own personal vehicles.
On every flight between the US and Europe/Asia that I have been on, during disembarkation, you can tell where the Americans sit and where the Asians/Europeans sit.
The Americans tend to leave their seats pretty messy, not unlike movie theaters. Just like in our neighborhood, I can’t count the number of people who don’t pick up the poop their dog’s leave behind, even though the neighborhood provides free “doggy bags” and special cans to put the poop in. Even those that use the free bags often drop the bag where the dog poops instead of taking it to the garbage can.
Wow, what a load of self-congratulating parents in the comments above mine. So much misinformation both from the science on child and adolescent development — and so much ignorance of the way the world works.
People are hired to clean up messes. People aren’t fined for making messes. That’s how things work. If you want to clean up after yourself and not make a mess, that’s great. But, as soon as you impose your behaviors on other people–worse, calling them idiots or bad people because they don’t do exactly as you do–you reveal yourself to be intolerant and insufferable. Not every parent raises their kids to be as clean as you, and that’s okay. Who are you to say it’s not ok? If it’s not ok, why don’t you impose a $100 fine for making a mess. Oh wait, you don’t have the power to? Probably because you’re a powerless wimp keyboard warrior.
“Mark” will probably go to the grave with his most significant achievement in life being kicking 3 families out of the SkyClub. In other words he ruined 3 families ability to enjoy themselves on vacation. And, he spawned a whopping 4 children into the world which contributes to resource utilization and accelerates climate change. How’s that for immoral? Mark and his wife decided to impose on all the rest of us his 4 children. Not all necessities in the world are recyclable or renewable, and Mark selfishly decided that his 4 progeny can take those resources away from others. In that light, scribbling on a tray table sounds completely trivial, doesn’t it?
SFO/EWR sounds very self righteous. Just because people are hired to clean up messes, they’re not a nanny, and a mess like the one listed above requires more than the usual light cleaning that crews perform. I’ll can be certain that you would be the first to the desk screaming at the agent because your flight was delayed for cleaning given the pompous arrogance you displayed in your response.
It is neither intolerant or insufferable to expect parents to pick up after their children in public, especially when they make a choice to let their child act like a slob. Mark is 100% correct in demanding parent’s be held accountable for their child’s actions, especially when said child is picking through food. Sorry not sorry, I don’t want to eat something a child touched right after they dug around their a– with the same hand. It’s disgusting just like the parents who allow it and the people (you) who enable it.
If anyone is the powerless wimp of a keyboard warrior it is absolutely you.
@ SFO/EWR. FlyGuyMike’s response to your comment states it well. I can only add that your ignorance is only exceeded by your arrogance. There is a generation now that seems to want to have babies but doesn’t want to raise children. I suspect you will be dealing with repercussions of that much longer than I. Good luck with that.
No, WhiteGuyMike, I do not scream at agents, and moreso, I do not demand anyone do anything because making demands (outside of the sense of the word in a litigation context) is profoundly arrogant and classless.
Why don’t you check your prejudices. When you say something is (or is not) intolerant, insufferable, disgusting, or even within the duties of a nanny–how did you come to that conclusion? What evidence do you have to support your assumptions? Who made you the arbiter of what is or is not appropriate behavior?
You fall into exactly the dangerous supremacist ideology that has undergirded most injustices in American society. You think you’re right because you are. White supremacy is exactly this.
I can’t thank Mark enough for his attempts to make flying and waiting for flights more enjoyable. I would like to tell SFO/EWR to get off the high horse. A ridiculous level of tolerance of bad behaviors from people like him/her makes the lives of those who are not creating disturbances and issues miserable. Inappropriate behaviors are those that abridge the rights of orthers to enjoy the same space. I can’t enjoy the same space as children who are stepping on my toes and sticking their unwashed fingers in the communal salad bowl.
@Mark: You wrote, “Parents are to BLAME (period)! If I was the flight attendant and had seen this happen I would have demanded that the parent clean the tray table.”
Please remember that Delta Air Lines offers premium service to valued clients who usually spend more than other passengers. Imagine your flight attendant scolded an invitation-only Delta 360°™ or diamond Medallion® when their child made a mess around their seat or tray table. Did you know that a valued part of Delta 360° Membership offers Delta’s most premium customers the benefit of letting their kiddos scribble, draw graffiti, and dump their trash almost anywhere on the aircraft? Delta Air Lines flight attendants are forbidden to provide adult beverages for kids under 21 years old; instead, they offer juveniles a box of crayons and many other services exclusive to their top SkyMiles parent members. Many airlines can fire an at-will flight attendant for any business reason. When an elite passenger is ordered by a flight attendant to clean up their mess, a complaint made by a dissatisfied Delta 360 or Diamond Medallion member may result in the termination of that flight attendant. Why should a Delta Air Lines flight attendant risk getting fired for upsetting an elite premium passenger and their family?