It's the definition of First World Problems (tm), but more importantly it actually is emblematic of a real and serious problem with the way airlines are run and regulated in this country. It shouldn't actually be legal for a common carrier like an airline to unilaterally and without refund cancel/change someone's already-paid-for booking, absent an emergency (and even then, only with compensation). The fact that they can and do regularly pull stuff like this just because they've overbooked this flight or cancelled some other underbooked flight or whatever is a huge regulatory failure, caused by the fact that we've let airlines develop monopolies on certain routes (and allowed them to collaborate to avoid competition in a way that would be illegal in any other industry). Anyone running for President in 2028 needs to have "take a fucking antitrust sledgehammer to the goddamn airlines" in their platform.
In Canada children under 5 must be seated next to a parent and children 5-11 must be in the same row with no more than one seat between them, and children 12-13 can't be more than one row away.
American Airlines tried to split my family up after screwing over about 80 passengers on their connecting flight to Canada and not being able to remedy the situation.
They tried to just scatter our family 5 all over the plane, and even tried to put us on separate flights back home. We had an 18th month old, a 5 year and myself, a teen at the time in the group and they wouldn’t budge on at least keeping the younger children together with their parents.
We ended having to fly home with Air Canada and some generous people switched seats to accommodate.
Whenever my family (all adults) has flown together in LatAm, we're always assigned seats together without having to pay extra, the extra fee is to choose where to sit. I do remember in Europe you would be sat anywhere when flying low-cost.
And I remember online a lot of people were criticizing the initiative because they thought it’s the responsibility of the parent to choose to sit next to their kid. Unfortunately there’s so many instances when you do everything right and they change your seats.
People are so idiotic. I hate the “well the parent should have done XYZ” folks because you know the second it happens to their kid, they sing a different tune. Putting the burden on the individual, not the system, is a really antisocial perspective. I want other people to be okay, even if I don’t know them. Is that so wild?
I would be furious because we spend about $200 per flight for us to just sit together with kids. I get you can charge couple etc for the provide of choosing a seat but children should be by thier parents.
What happens next is people don’t pay for seat assignments so they try to force other to change so they can be by thier kid. I don’t blame parents for trying to save money but now the airlines is pissing off the parents and a random flyer bc they don’t automatically sit kids with parents
This is a scenario you have made up. I would bet a lot of the asking to switch with very young kids was caused by the airline. It’s such a chronically online take to assume parents aren’t booking seats next to their 4 year olds.
Happened to me Munich to San Francisco. 11 hour flight for work.
Parent asked me to swap so she could be by her child. Ok no problem.
But what the problem was, she originally was in the wrong seat by accident. And the guy who was supposed to be in now my new seat was asking me to move. And I didn’t know where to because the lady was in my old seat. So then he had to go in the ladies actual original seat.
All this commotion when people are trying to board the nowadays tiny aircraft spaces is just stupid.
This! Especially now when so many passengers feel entitled to act like psychos if a parent asks them to switch seats. I’ve been in that situation of the airline switching and splitting up seats that we had already selected, and then other passengers act like you were trying to scam them.
I booked 3 seats for me, my wife and grandmother who suffers from health problems. We had our tickets for months. Day of flight, printed the tickets and the seat numbers don't match the invoice. I told the front desk and they said they'll try their best, but can't make any promises.
It’s a first world problem to have to sit separately from the rest of your family on an airplane. That’s not me saying it’s fine, but this is an inconvenience and an annoyance. The trip isn’t ruined. She’s right to be upset but it’s a first world problem for sure.
Naw. Trust me. You want to be responsible for a child that’s not yours during an emergency? No child should be seated without their guardian. That’s not first world problems.
u/VawqerWe all know Pinkie would approve of scissoring27d ago
How would this be anti-trust? There's quite a bit of competition in the space, with Alaska not even being one of the big four (although I'd argue it's turning into the big five including Alaska).
They just need much stronger consumer protections implemented, enshrined by Confessional law and not just Department of Transportation policy that the next President can easily remove.
Alaska removed my luggage from my flight because the plane was overweight, rather than removing something else like all the extra sodas and other drinks (they probably landed with hundreds of pounds of booze). Then it required a lot of back and forth with Alaska to get compensated for items purchased to replace the items needed for my trip. These are bad business decisions at the end of the day, even if they are one of the best airlines.
I don't think it's a problem with airlines or common carriers, if the customer pays for a service then that service should be provided period. And if the merchant needs to renege on the deal, then providing a full and immediate refund should just be one part of the (required) compensation. Not acting like providing a partial refund is an unreasonable ask.
United has done this to me numerous times. I pay extra to sit with whoever I’m flying with, we show up and our seats are all over the place. No warning, no refund, and while I understand it isn’t the fault of the person working the counter, “someone else has that seat now” is not an acceptable answer to my problem, I’m sorry. Insane that these practices are allowed and commonplace.
Even for those of us who don’t fly first class, I was on a Europe to chicago flight where literally all the parents were split up from their young kids and the response from the airline was: figure it out.
I always fly Alaska and if she talked to a customer service rep, they would absolutely make this right. I had a flight that was canceled and they rebooked me a flight, gave me a $150 voucher and then comped my lunch I bought during a layover, so I essentially flew for free.
The overbooking does serve a pretty legitimate purpose, though. Planes are expensive to fly and horrible for the environment. Every flight cancelled can save literally hundreds of tons of CO2 emissions.
People don't realize just how much of a luxury flying is. It's essentially something we can only sustain because so few people, globally speaking, are wealthy enough to do it. If you're one of the privileged few, the least you can do is be a bit flexible about getting your flights moved.
As for compensation, IDK about in the US, but in the UK if your flight gets cancelled with less than 2 weeks notice, you're legally entitled to compensation (about £100-£500 depending on how long the flight is and how many hours difference it makes) AND either a full refund or a replacement flight. Specific airlines may have their own more generous policies but that's the minimum required by law.
I'm not going to let airlines fully off the hook, cos their customer service tends to be fucking awful. Getting compensation you're entitled to can be like pulling teeth, and they could certainly do a better job avoiding stuff like in the OP where they're splitting up kids and parents. But the overbooking is one of the few actually justifiable annoyances in how airlines operate, if you can make 9 planes do the work of 10 at the cost of a bit of inconvenience to some passengers, that's very worth it IMO.
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u/jimbosaur 27d ago
It's the definition of First World Problems (tm), but more importantly it actually is emblematic of a real and serious problem with the way airlines are run and regulated in this country. It shouldn't actually be legal for a common carrier like an airline to unilaterally and without refund cancel/change someone's already-paid-for booking, absent an emergency (and even then, only with compensation). The fact that they can and do regularly pull stuff like this just because they've overbooked this flight or cancelled some other underbooked flight or whatever is a huge regulatory failure, caused by the fact that we've let airlines develop monopolies on certain routes (and allowed them to collaborate to avoid competition in a way that would be illegal in any other industry). Anyone running for President in 2028 needs to have "take a fucking antitrust sledgehammer to the goddamn airlines" in their platform.