Flight attendants served a three-year-old boy sitting in business class wine instead of water on Cathay Pacific flight 255 from Hong Kong to London a couple of weeks ago. The child’s mother complained online after she found the airline’s response insufficient, and sharing concerns about her child’s long-term health from drinking alcohol so young. But the boy took only one sip, complaining to his mother that it was “too sour.”
His mom tasted the drink, realized it was wine, and flag down cabin crew – who immediately apologized, took the glass and brought back actual water. The woman escalated this to the purser, and the cockpit got Medlink involved for advice. They also sought passengers onboard with medical training, and a French doctor consulted – who said, look, five year old kids in France drink all the time and one sip is no big deal.
The boy has shown no immediate symptoms, but Wong and her husband are currently arranging comprehensive medical assessments with pediatric specialists seeking one who will support a claim for delayed neurological, developmental, and physiological effects.
Credit: Mother’s Post on RedNote
After the flight Cathay Pacific apologized and offered:
- a refund of the child’s ticket
- three upgrade vouchers to move to first class
- reimbursement for medical treatment
They also insist that they’re reinforcing crew training to prevent similar incidents in the future. However the mother is still not satisfied, claiming that the carrier should provide more of an explanation for how such a mistake happened (‘the flight attendant made a mistake’?) and accuses them of attempting to avoid responsibility. She feels that:
- the flight attendant should be following up directly to apologize
- the airline should provide concrete proof that new safeguards have been implemented
Credit: Mother’s Post on RedNote
As a result, she has filed formal complaints with Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department, the Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office, the Consumer Council, and the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Meanwhile, cabin crew forums discussing the issue argue that declining service standards and insufficient training for new flight attendants rapidly hired to support the carrier’s expansion are likely to blame. In this case, properly-trained crew might have marked the beverage to avoid delivering the wrong drink to the wrong passenger.
Some people are so puritanical about alcohol consumption. The kid didn’t drink a whole glass, for Pete’s sake. Of course, it must be removed once discovered, but it’s really no big deal.
Mom sees a payday.
“Wong and her husband are currently arranging comprehensive medical assessments with pediatric specialists seeking one who will support a claim for delayed neurological, developmental, and physiological effects.” So really they’re grifters trying to spin this into a big payday for them.
Making sure the incident is reported to the relevant authorities is fine, and hopefully the airline did that on their own, but beyond that, they’ve already gotten much more than they deserve for such a mistake!
another reason I plan to start going to French doctors from now on. He/she is the real hero of this story.
Refunds and upgrades worth thousands of dollars, multiple apologies, and covering medical costs. I believe they’ve gone above and beyond. Karen needs to sit down and drink her kids wine.
Much to do about nothing! Obviously seeking a big payout
from the airline, which IMHO has gone over and above in their response. I’m joining David Dutil for my next doctor appointment.
I hope they counter sue as a frivolous lawsuit.
Is the complaining lady’s first name “Karen”. And her father must be “Daddy Warbucks”.
What a waste of effort when there are real aviation needs to resolve. This Karen smells a payday.
EdSparks58
One sip and his long term health??????
Stupidest thing I’ve read all day
Stop having kids. Use condoms.
Where was the mother when the drink was given to the child?
Too many people have way too much time on their hands nowadays and given that, every day I wonder how so many people manage to make it through another day.
When my brothers and I were toddlers and small children, we loved to sip the foam off our daddy’s beers; it always looked better than it tasted and we never really learned, but we grew up just fine (Boomers) and often long for the good old days when people weren’t so fragile and the social norm was undersharing..
I feel sorry for that kid because with parents like that he’s probably in for a lifetime of therapy; just hope his mother stops at the kids she already has.
Wild to see that the hyper-litigiousness that we’ve become accustomed to in the USA has apparently spread like a virus to all ends of the earth. Then again, every country and culture has its scams. Not sure this is the ‘case’ that the family thinks it is, but good luck with that anyway. Just seems like fodder for us on blogs like this. Good for Gary, yay!
@Raphael — You’re not wrong. I’m surprised the typical ‘ban alcohol on flights’ commenter hasn’t shown his or her face yet. I have to remind them each time that we’ve already tried prohibition, and it was an abject failure. See the 18th and 21st Amendments to the US Constitution, too. It’s better to drink responsibly, live a balanced, moderate lifestyle. It’s the extremes that cause trouble.
Lynn mom is not to blame she can not know the difference between a wine glass and water glass. She is not that bright. She did not even put it in a sippy cup.
Let them be Banned
Currently on a road trip through the southern US. Many if not most billboards on the highways and cities are advertisements for ambulance chasing attorneys. Disgusting really, but that is the lotto fever world we live in now.
One small sip of “gross-tasting” alcohol in a 3-year-old isn’t going to do any substantial harm to a child as long as it’s not part of continuing to supply the child with alcohol. But it is a service failure by the airline, and the airline should apologize and provide a goodwill gesture to acknowledge its failure to protect minors from its own service offerings.
What a low class, trashy family. One sip of alcohol has zero effect on anyone – even an infant. Alcohol is processed swiftly by the body. There are no longer term effects on an acute, one time sip of alcohol – and any medical practitioner supporting that claim ought to lose their license.
Very low class, trash parents. I feel bad for the kid.
This is up there for one of the most ridiculous stories I have read….I quite sure the flight attendant didn’t purposely do it….my god this lady is insane! The airline did quite enough for them and I agree with all of the comments on this…she should shut her pie hole….but I drank from the hose growing up…so what do I know!
She should sue the airlines to have them pay for her psychiatric therapy which she surely needs before it gets completely out of control. I am amazed that mom did not demand an emergency landing of the aircraft.
Oh let it go. Chinese parent or American parent?
These guys just want free stuff. Plenty of cough syrups contain alcohol. Even children’s pain medications are essentially drugs.
Long term effects will be none from one sip but potentially massive from psychological effects that these parents will create to this kid trying convincing the kid how damaged they got to get compensation for their own benefits.
The kid is flying Biz Class at 3 on a $10K + ticket and he just got wune instead of Dom.champagne…totally.unacceptable…parents should.have the right priorities…they got ripped off!!!!
There’s no version of the story that makes mom look good. If she really believes, given the medical advice I’m sure is available to her, that this endangered health, she’s crazy overboard. The alternative is she hopes this is a lottery win. Oh, BTW, I did the research and math. Eight ounces of OJ or grape juice can have the same alcohol content or more than a sip of wine (1/3 oz).
A sip [a least mine, I tested] is 9 ml. Eight fl. oz. is 227 ml. A sip of 12% ABV wine is 1.08 grams of alcohol (9×12%). The 8 oz. of juice is 1.14 g (227×0.5%). Juice may be less, but can be more than 0.5% ABV.
Wine instead of water? That Jesus, what a prankster.
All judgement aside, there is an issue at play here…
I was on a Delta domestic flight in F with my son when he unexpectedly vomited while at the gate on a diversion. It took me until we arrived to figure out that my cranberry vodka was swapped with his virgin cranberry juice.
I know restaurants make specific protections against ‘mixing up’ drink orders, but I don’t know that airlines are as careful. It could be a legal issue just waiting to happen.
Sometimes the customer is always wrong. I drank wine when I was 8 days old and I somehow survived.
Get a grip, people.
So the mother never looked in the glass before allowing the kod to sip. I doubt it was “clear” wine.
The damage to the kid from living with this entitled crazy Karen mom will be thousands of times that of an innocent sip.
They should try France or Italy…. people are so opportunistic.
P.S. In this case, Cathay Pacific reacted poorly by giving these parents anything at all beyond the replacement glass of water and a simple mea culpa. The parents did not get what they deserved, which is to be banned permanently from the airline. God help the child who tasted the wine, as she will surely endure a lifetime of trauma subject to their helicopter parenting.
@Ron is right. It’s someone looking for a payday. The entire scenario isn’t believable. Even white wine looks very different than water. And I can’t see even the most dimwitted flight attendant getting confused and putting a class of wine in front of a three year old to drink. And if said three year old had a sip he’s not going to die or surely become a harden alcoholic.
Who woulda guessed it’s a REDBOOK user aka mainland people.
Unless the kid have allergies or something, they’re just being stupid and unreasonable. I hope they blacklist b*tches like these passengers.
Drama much? What a queen! This is all about the Benjamin’s, pure and simple.
Yup, let’s turn an innocent and harmless mistake into a world crisis … see if we can become famous online and, best of all, pry come compensation out of the airline. Just pathetic.
More whine than wine.
No big deal.
Let’s all hope this is the kind of biggest problems we have)
This mom is the one abusing her child. If this is true, its idiotic and shows a woman who should not have had children. One sip is nothing. The flight attendant made a mistake. Nothing more. I would ban this family from flying my airline.
In China, if a disability is caused by someone else’s negligence or intentional wrongdoing, a person can sue for compensation for expenses related to the disability. This includes medical expenses, nursing care, rehabilitation costs, and disability compensation. China’s law protects the rights of people with disabilities and allows them to seek legal redress for damages caused by others. There are stories everywhere of people running into slow moving cars in China so they can be injured and sue for damages. While I’d like to assume positive intentions, my spidey-sense tells me this is someone looking for a lawsuit, or just a crazy Karen who thinks she know more about pediatric neurocognitive development than a doctor.
Maybe the flight attendant served the kid water and the kid pulled a Jesus.
The mother’s reaction seems over the top. One sip of wine does not cause delays or cognitive issues. I think someone is overly litigious.
I was born in Normandy, where they make Calvados. It is rubbed on the gums of teething babies. When I had a bad fever or sore throat as a child, my grandmother would spike hot cocoa with Calvados to break the fever. I still use this method to this day when I have a fever or sore throat because it works. I went on to graduate university, work for top companies, travel and live a good life. And I know I was drinking wine mixed with water at family holiday meals by the time I was 5. Small amounts of alcohol do not harm a child’s physical or cognitive health.
They are grifters and opportunists and way over reacted. With parents like that the child will have bigger problems than a sip from a glass of wine.
Big deal. So the kid had a sip of wine. What, exactly, do the parents think is going to happen? Unreal that they are making such a big deal out of this.
Mother is looking for a Big pay out. I would withdraw all compensation offered and say
“So sorry”
Having read the comments to this post, most of which I wholeheartedly agree with, I can only conclude that @Gary was scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to blog about that day.
Nothing to see here folks…………..
The passenger was only identified as Wong. Please give the full name: Sum Ting Wong. No wonder she is trying to get from China to London: In her own country, people who complain are imprisoned or disappeared.
Maybe instead of it in addition to a full evaluation if the child, cx should insist in a full psych eval for the parents
And you wonder why many of today’s kids are so messed up
I fear the parents are going completely overboard – a sad reflection on today’s culture
What’s Wong, Karen? Wine is really good for you. One less child awake and not causing a raucous is a win for everybody. Take you free upgrades!
The family should also be banned from flying CP for the rest of their lives. Too much potential liability risk.
1. The medical response was excessive. Calling medlink? That is reserved for serious in-air medical situations. The doctor’s assessment should have been adequate.
2. Where is the parents involvement in this event? Who is supervising their THREE YEAR OLD CHILD.
The fact that parents expect flight attendants to be their babysitters is, in my opinion, outrageous. (And all too common. I was just working a flight recently that went through horrible turbulence. A woman attempted to bring her two twins to the bathroom during the worst of it. I’m strapped in my jumpseat when she asked me to watch one of her girls while she helped the other one go potty. No thanks.)
3. Children under the age of 10 should not be in first class. Who wants to spend $15,000 USD to sit next to a THREE YEAR OLD CHILD. Or a parent who is going to escalate a minute issue into a plane-wide medical emergency.
Children under 10y.o. should not be able to sit in First Class, IMO.
4. What else could they possibly want the airline to do? They’ve already been offered THOUSANDS in freebies and medical reimbursement (wtf?)
Asking for a personal apology from the flight attendant? They’ve probably been fired for this parent’s stupidity. Good luck getting them to apologize.
This story seems too ridiculous to be real.
I guess it’s some small comfort that, for once, this wasn’t an American Karen.
I would let my kids drink alcohol every flight if it got me a refund and upgrades.
Give them a hot pocket and 5000 miles and if it goes further ban them for extortion …. Some people suck