An American Airlines passenger found that a chld took the aisle seat he says he paid extra for, and had words with the family over it – but a flight attendant seems to have come down on the family’s side.

Osaac Summer took a redeye American Airlines flight. A young girl was in his aisle seat so, her family said, he’d need to take a nearby window seat. That way the family wouldn’t be separated.

@lalawright2

Respectfully they should’ve asked him if it was coo first cause he did pay for that seat.

♬ original sound – lalawright2

He… was not amused, declaring “I don’t care about your daughter” and told the family, “Stay in your lane and in your seat!” It could have been handled more diplomatically, but it was his assigned seat right?

Except that he says a flight attendant told him the family was entitled to the seat, “She got on the plane before you” and told him “you are being the bad guy.” He says he was even threatened with ejection from the flight over it.

Afraid the flight was going to be delayed, another passenger offered the man their aisle seat. And a flight attendant apologized to… the family, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. Your daughter is really beautiful.”

That is not how this works! That is not how any of this works!

Live and Let’s Fly says that he doesn’t “think families should be permitted to buy basic economy tickets” since they don’t come with free seat assignments, and those are “necessary for families with young children; therefore, basic economy class tickets should not be sold to families traveling with children who cannot be separated.”

I don’t think that’s the right take here.

• Basic economy fares are literally intended by the airlines for price-sensitive leisure travelers (and families are often among the most price-sensitive). Airlines are trying to segment those customers from business travelers who will spend more money.

• In fact, families buying basic economy are entitled to be seated together on American Airlines!

American was actually the first to commit to family seating in its customer service plan. That’s a commitment which is enforceable by the Department of Transportation.

• They will “guarantee children 14 and under will be seated adjacent to an accompanying adult at no additional cost, including Basic Economy fares” provided that passengers are all booked on the same reservation (otherwise they won’t know to seat everyone together) and adjacent seats are actually available to assign when buying the tickets.

• Basic economy passengers are instructed to “skip choosing seats for the entire reservation” to have them assigned.

Of course it is important to check when buying tickets for a flight, traveling with small children, that there are actually seats open beside each other! It’s important to make sure the seats do get assigned, if relying on the airline to handle it for you. And it’s important to garden your reservation and make sure nothing changes between the time you book and when it’s time to travel.

Sometimes you’re stuck with a last minute flight change. Maybe your original flight cancelled and you got rebooked, or your first flight is delayed and you need to have your connection rebooked, or there’s a change to a smaller aircraft. That can put you on a plane without seats by your kids – and that needs to be solved.

Gate agents are rushed, and often it is agent singular rather than plural (a domestic flight less than 80% full is only going to have one agent to take care of all the duties involved in getting a flight out on time). So they may not be as helpful as you’d like, although still try to enlist their assistance. Then ask a flight attendant for help.

Most of the time other passengers aren’t going to want to sit next to your unsupervised children! Just consider offering the better seat that your family has in trade (an aisle, or at least a window), rather than the worse seat (like a middle). And if there are two parents, consider than in a pinch one parent can sit with a single child you may not all have to be seated together.