"lap" Children Flying On Aa
- Thread starter laura62
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LaBradford22
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Guys, there are risks to anything and everything that you will ever do with your child.
If I take my child in the car, I might get into an accident. Should I never take my child in the car?
If my child goes outside to play, she might get kidnapped. Should I never let my child go outside to play?
If I hold my child up over my head in a playful manner, I might accidentally drop her. Should I never hold my child up?
Maybe I should just buy one of those Y2K fall-out shelters and keep my family huddled in the corner of it - God forbid we should ever actually go out into the world. It's risky out there!
If I take my child in the car, I might get into an accident. Should I never take my child in the car?
If my child goes outside to play, she might get kidnapped. Should I never let my child go outside to play?
If I hold my child up over my head in a playful manner, I might accidentally drop her. Should I never hold my child up?
Maybe I should just buy one of those Y2K fall-out shelters and keep my family huddled in the corner of it - God forbid we should ever actually go out into the world. It's risky out there!
If you take your child on a plane. Protect yourself by putting on a seatbelt. Doesn't your child deserve as much?LaBradford22 said:
There a difference between day to day living. Good and bad things bound to happen, that's life. But to willfully put a child in a risky situation for nothing more than saving a few bucks is simply wrong,
jimntx
Veteran
Depends. If you take your child in the car, but don't put them in a safety seat, the answer is NO and you should be arrested. That's all we are saying. Yes, the probability of injury to a child during turbulence/accident/evasive action is low, but why not eliminate as much of that risk as possible. Millions of children travel by car every day and are not injured. Does that mean we should put them at risk by repealing the safety seat laws? Millions of people travel by air every day without injury, should we just save some money and eliminate seat belts because the number injured is low? I've seen a passenger get up and try to go to the lav during landing. The passenger was not injured. Does that prove that passengers should be allowed to move around during take-off and landing?LaBradford22 said:
Again, depends. What is your neighborhood like? How far do you allow the child to go without supervision? When I was a child (right after the last Ice Age), we left home on a summer morning and roamed all over Eastern Birmingham, coming home only for lunch and supper. I wouldn't recommend that an adult walk around alone in those same neighborhoods today.LaBradford22 said:
I don't know. Do you do it when you are drunk? Children are defenseless in the hands of adults. A number of years ago, I had to report a neighbor to Children's Protective Services for holding the child up in the air or slinging him around by the arms while drunk. The child had multiple injuries--not from beatings--from being dropped.LaBradford22 said:
The reasoning behind the requirement for car safety seats was that even though the probability of injury on any one car trip was negligible, a car safety seat eliminates the risk of injury in all but the most serious accidents. Why should we not extend the same protection to children on airplanes? At what ticket or car safety seat price point do you say, "my child's safety and well-being is not worth that?"
jimntx
Veteran
Here's a solution for those people who think traveling with a safety seat for their child is too much trouble...
1. Airlines could have approved safety seats available for rent. Say $25/flight. And, like the luggage carts in the airport, you could get a rebate of some portion of the fee for returning it to the airline in good condition. (Before the f/as and a/c cleaners start screaming, I would insist that to get the rebate you would have to turn it in at baggage claim. You couldn't leave it on the airplane for someone else to carry off.)
2. 50% off lowest "standard" fare. By standard, I mean published, but no last-minute promotions, like the Net SAAvers fares.
3. FFs could use miles to pay for the ticket with no capacity controls.
In fact, I think I'm going to send this to AA as a suggestion.
1. Airlines could have approved safety seats available for rent. Say $25/flight. And, like the luggage carts in the airport, you could get a rebate of some portion of the fee for returning it to the airline in good condition. (Before the f/as and a/c cleaners start screaming, I would insist that to get the rebate you would have to turn it in at baggage claim. You couldn't leave it on the airplane for someone else to carry off.)
2. 50% off lowest "standard" fare. By standard, I mean published, but no last-minute promotions, like the Net SAAvers fares.
3. FFs could use miles to pay for the ticket with no capacity controls.
In fact, I think I'm going to send this to AA as a suggestion.
jimntx
Veteran
Yeah right. Just what we need. 2 f/as and a cleaner in hand to hand combat over the car seat. That's sure to get that next flight out on time. 
jimntx said:Yeah right. Just what we need. 2 f/as and a cleaner in hand to hand combat over the car seat. That's get that next flight out on time.
[post="189285"][/post]
No kidding. Years ago I had to shoo away kids who would hang out at airports where the Smarte Cartes offered a quarter rebate for turning them in - the little b******s would constantly try to steal my cart. For a stinkin quarter. B)
Imagine what someone might do for $10. Employees would be knocking down the parents who rented it so they could return it. 😱
galleyguy4u2
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FWAAA said:
I had a flight not too many moons ago when I had a parent with a lap child strapped in with her son. In a polite and informative way I told her that was not permitted and the child must be held outside the seat belt for take off and landing.
Well, this pax chewed me out telling me that I had no right to tell her what was safe or unsafe for her son. Since this was TWA procedure and I am not sure about FAA, I simply informed the Capt. who came back to main cabin and informed her that if she was wanted to go to SEA she would comply with my instructions or she could deplane. With that, the irate mother promised to sue TWA. When that comment was made the captain asked her to deplane...NOW.
Well, we all wrote flight reports about the incidnet and never heard a word about it.
She probaly boarded the next flight to SEA and simply told the other crew "Well the last f/a let me do it." How many of y'all have heard that line before?
jimntx
Veteran
Yeah, it goes in the same scrapbook with "It fit in the overhead bin on my LAST flight".
I asked AA flight attendants about AA policy. The policy at my airline is no we don't ask for a birth certificate. I don't work for AA so I don't know AA's policy thus the question.
As it being suspicious that I "don't know to call AA to ask my question" so I must not be a flight attendant....well, that's just absurd. It was just a "simple little question" certainly not worth waiting on hold to talk to sombody at AA res about.
This has gotten tedious.
As it being suspicious that I "don't know to call AA to ask my question" so I must not be a flight attendant....well, that's just absurd. It was just a "simple little question" certainly not worth waiting on hold to talk to sombody at AA res about.
This has gotten tedious.
Garfield1966
Veteran
When I was in res there was no policy to advise a parent to bring proof of age for a child to prove they were under the age of 2 to ride as a lap child.
What may have prompted this thread was a episode of “Airline†where in a couple were traveling with a child very close to the age of 2. The gate agent asked for proof age which the parents did not have (how many do? Very few I suspect.) After much arguing back and forth, they bought a ticket and were promised a refund once they provided proof of age.
Personally, being an adult with out children, I have reached the point where I do not give a crap any more. I used to get irritated when I saw children in a car with out a seat belt. I saw a SUV the other day that was on it’s side in the middle of the freeway and I laughed thinking “it serves you right for driving that POS which everyone knows is unstable but no one thinks it will happen to themâ€. If parents want to endanger their children and them selves … let them do it. Darwin will just take them out of the gene pool and that is just fine with me. I also just love adults who have children who continue to smoke. “gee, sorry Bobby, I guess mommy did not give a SH&T about you enough to stop smoking so she would not get lung cancer and die before you graduated college and saw you get marriedâ€.
People are selfish and short sighted. People think about the here and now not what could happen 10 seconds down the road much less a day or a year.
What may have prompted this thread was a episode of “Airline†where in a couple were traveling with a child very close to the age of 2. The gate agent asked for proof age which the parents did not have (how many do? Very few I suspect.) After much arguing back and forth, they bought a ticket and were promised a refund once they provided proof of age.
Personally, being an adult with out children, I have reached the point where I do not give a crap any more. I used to get irritated when I saw children in a car with out a seat belt. I saw a SUV the other day that was on it’s side in the middle of the freeway and I laughed thinking “it serves you right for driving that POS which everyone knows is unstable but no one thinks it will happen to themâ€. If parents want to endanger their children and them selves … let them do it. Darwin will just take them out of the gene pool and that is just fine with me. I also just love adults who have children who continue to smoke. “gee, sorry Bobby, I guess mommy did not give a SH&T about you enough to stop smoking so she would not get lung cancer and die before you graduated college and saw you get marriedâ€.
People are selfish and short sighted. People think about the here and now not what could happen 10 seconds down the road much less a day or a year.
twasilverbullet
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TWAnr said:
AEROFLOT
