Mom Forced To Hold Toddler During Flight After United Sold His Seat

[TomCADem]

Source: Huffington Post

A Hawaii woman says she was forced to hold her son on her lap for a three-hour United Airlines flight last week after the company sold his seat to a standby passenger.

Shirley Yamauchi, 42, purchased two tickets for nearly $1,000 each so she and Taizo, her 27-month-old son, could fly together from Hawaii to Boston, where she was attending a teacher conference. United Airlines policy requires passengers above the age of 2 to fly in their own seats.

Yamauchi told HuffPost she was sitting on the plane with her son after a five-hour layover in Houston when a man came to their row and showed his ticket, which had the same seat number as her son’s. He said he was a standby passenger.

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When asked why she didn’t push the issue with flight staff, Yamauchi said she was afraid of retaliation due to previous incidents on United flights that resulted in violence.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/shirley-yamauchi-united-flight_us_595d5d41e4b02e9bdb0a154e

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Is it just a coincidence or is United targeting Asian travels thinking that they are more inclined to accept being mistreated without complaint.

[cstanleytech]

1. Sounds like human error started it but the flight attendant who she spoke to had to have known the

seating policy and was clearly negligent for not atleast informing whomever her superior was about the issue so it could have been resolved.

[Hortensis]

14. Yes. This era's business contempt for people who can be abused

isn't confined to the top; it becomes part of corporate culture. It could never happen if lower-level employees, like this attendant, didn't support their own oppression, in this case a woman abusing another woman to seat a male. Psychologists say conservatives tend to be comfortable with inequality and see it as natural, and of course roughly half of all are conservative.

I know exactly what I would have done in her place, and it's the same now as it would have been when I first went to work at 15. That woman purchased the seat, the guy's out of luck.

[Honeycombe8]

2. OMG. They must have been miserable the entire time.

Expensive! Hope she at least got double the money back for that seat.

I would've complained, but what can you do at that point? I would have insisted, though, since they can't sell a seat that's sold already! It's HER seat at that point.

Grrrrrr.

[duhneece]

5. When I saw the age of her child, I got mad for her...for same reasoning

27 months old is much older than the under-1 that I was first picturing...with no reason why!

[Chemisse]

8. What a nightmare! It's hard enough traveling with a toddler.

At least she got a refund AND a travel voucher. But a passenger should not have to feel afraid to insist on using a ticket that she paid for!

[Tanuki]

13. It was United Airlines, who recently had goons punch a ticketed

passenger in the face, knocking his teeth out while dragging him off the plane when he wouldn't give up his rightful seat .. She understood whom she was dealing with and probably didn't want to endanger herself and her child.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Fly the Fucked-up Skies of United

Beginning of the end of all this shit. Social media will destroy their arrogance.

[mnhtnbb]

4. You can bet they would have removed her and her son from the flight if she'd pushed it.

Last edited Thu Jul 6, 2017, 06:34 AM - Edit history (1)

Gotta' get that on-time departure.

Then, after they'd discovered it was their mistake--and the plane was gone--she'd probably have to wait a day to get on another flight.

ALL THEIR FAULT. But, hey! The plane pushed back on-time!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. FWA

Flying while Asian.

All sorts of POC know the feeling. America! Home of the Free (whites) and Brave (everyone else)!!!1!!!

[Achilleaze]

7. United sucks bigly.

I think of them as a republican-style airline

[IronLionZion]

9. What the hell is going on over at United?

It's like they are asking for people to take our business to other competitors. If she paid $1000 for the child's seat then she should get some comp for that. They seem to have terrible processes in place and have these issues often without being able to handle it better. They're never going to learn. I hope she sues them and gets some money for it. They are asking for lawsuits.

And yes Asians have the reputation of quietly doing as we're told and not speaking up the way other people would. So it is possible they could have gone down the list and saw an Asian name and thought this person won't complain. This is an outdated and false conception that leads to lawsuits but it endures until today.

[Hieronymus]

10. I flew United many times.

Their service sucked last time, and I wouldn't fly them again.

[mainer]

11. Plus, didn't United break FAA rules, forcing a 27-month child to ride on parent's lap?

I thought the rule was that any child over 24 months HAD to have his own seat? I've seen that rule enforced on a flight, where the parents were forced on the spot to buy a seat for their child (even though the child had just turned 2 years old in the middle of the family's holiday.)

It looks like airlines only enforce the 24-month rule when it works in their favor.

[joeybee12]

15. You are correct. They broke their own rule. 24 months and under for a lap child

[RobinA]

12. The Fact That

the doctor incident was turned into a racial issue instead of a customer service issue caused this woman not to speak up in what should have been a fairly easily solved situation. Neither issue was about targeting anybody, unless you consider the airlines' totally sh*tty customer service to be about their targeting of their captive paying customers.

[Hortensis]

17. Agree. Development of very wealthy classes has

fostered the filtering down, especially in business, of a culture of contempt for "ordinary" people, very much including customers.

During W's years, the MSM actually started referring to American citizens, including their own viewers, as "workers" and "consumers." Although I was immediately offended and on alert at a very bad sign, it was a few months before they dropped it. Before the cameras at least.

Although gender discrimination was almost certainly in play here, that could not have come into play without the development of a callous, abusive attitude toward customers.

[Sunlei]

16. All airlines seem to overbook & have to many layovers. 4 hrs+ 5hr layover+3 hrs with a child on lap

I bet she was exhausted when she arrived at the teacher conference.

My friend just got an unexpected flight cancel + layover by China airlines at 1AM in Beijing's airport.

They turn off the air conditioning and lights at night, no hotel is provided. Flight at 10AM come back then!

[joeybee12]

18. United will only change after they realize they're spending a ton of money

Settling lawsuits. They only understand the bottom line

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

19. A 25 lbs toddler is half her weight?

I'm sure that's inaccurate. I'd believe a fourth of her weight.

My sons were both 25 lbs at 6 months old. I know what it's like to have to handle that weight for extended periods of time because they weighed that much before they could walk. That had to be really uncomfortable.

[sakabatou]

20. I heard this other airliner did something bad

United: Hold my beer.