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American Airlines makes parent move child’s safety seat so someone could recline

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Cynar

Member
Except you don't need to do that to transport a baby. You can hold the baby for the duration of the flight, which is what most people do to begin with. She instead opted for the option that was going to randomly select someone to have a shittier flight so she could have a more comfortable flight. Seems pretty self centered to me.
Self centered to buy a seat which is recommended to protect her baby instead of some ass wanting to recline who doesn't give a fuck over protecting a child. What are you on to think that the mother was self centered?
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Am tall, airline seats don't recline enough to save you. It's all about the leg room.

Woman should have swapped to a reclinable seat. Those things barely even recline anyway, it's more like "seat movement barely"

You can put up with not reclining a seat for a flight. Babies always get priority in this world.



The plane stops pretty fast, especially on shorter runways. The reason they're supposed to face backwards is not just for crashes, but for fast stops not breaking or injuring their neck either.

In theory the safest way for humans to ride anything would be to face backwards. We just can't currently do it for practical reasons.
That's fair I guess, but a landing is a predictable event which means the parent can intervene at that point to ensure the baby is safe regardless of which way the seat is facing. It's perfectly legal to hold them in your arms for the whole flight, so it can't be that dangerous in the first place.

On a related note, what are the statistics on infant injury/death on airplanes? Outside of actual crashes is there real cause for concern?

Edit: here's an article about risks of air travel for infants and children but unfortunately not s lot of detail about this specific issue. Interesting anyway.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-study-focuses-on-in-flight-risk-to-infants-1408574702
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
Does your reclining seat touch my legs? If yes, then sorry gonna kick your seat.

Don't kick my seat, wow. You can go find seats that fit you if you need to.

Don't start things over international waters, not a good thing to do. We should honour and respect each other, not fight.
 
Oh boy, 10 pages incoming.

Lets not get all technical about this. The person that wanted to recline and asked the flight attendant to sort it, and the flight attendant herself, are cunts.

It's a 5hr flight for christ sake.
 
The seats are meant to recline. You can go find different seats if you need your special legs to be accommodated.

Why would I need to be the one to find a different seat? You can go find a different seat if me moving my legs and hitting your reclined seat bothers you so much.
 

Ban Puncher

Member
Economy Class sounds like some kind of hellish nightmare world where the lawless inhabitants fight over mere inches of space.

I am thankful for the little curtain that separates us.
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
Why would I need to be the one to find a different seat? You can go find a different seat if me moving my legs and hitting your reclined seat bothers you so much.

Because I am using my seat as intended and you are kicking the person using their seat as intended and starting a fight because you have weird legs. Go pay for first class or get the emergency row if you want your fancy legs to fit in the space provided
 
Because I am using my seat as intended and you are kicking the person using their seat as intended and starting a fight because you have weird legs. Go pay for first class or get the emergency row if you want your fancy legs to fit in the space provided

I am using my seat as intended by literally sitting in it.
 
Do you like reclining seats? Do you hate children?

Well, we certainly do at Mandrake Air.

"Mandrake Air?" you ask, stupidly. "The airline that the US government literally declared war on?" Heh. It's true, we lost a lot of good men in what we refer to as the War of Landward Aggression, and what history books are apparently referring to as the "Atrocities of Lionel Mandrake." Which just doesn't have the same ring to it, but whatever, I guess it's just an honor to have a whole chapter.

But, Mandrake Air is back and better than ever, thanks to the preposterous incompetency of FAA paperwork. We found so many loopholes in our indictments we'll be in business until Judgment Day, which is hopefully a long ways off, because I am screwed.

We've heard our customers, and what they've mostly been saying is, "Wait. What? No, I thought I bought tickets with Delta! No! Please God, no! Don't put me on the plane! Don't put me on the-..." and so on. But other than that, they've been talking about how annoying your stupid kids are. Your kids. Specifically, by name. They also said they were ugly and smelled like oranges, yet not in a good way. Which I thought was weird. Oranges smell wonderful. But the customer is always right when it's convenient for the company. So starting this week, we have a new policy on Mandrake Air.

If your kid becomes an inconvenience to any of the other flyers or flight staff, we have a guy who stays in the under the floor compartment wearing a weird animal mask.

UNDiwU8.jpg


And if we give him the signal, he will climb out, take your baby and run off to the back of the plane where we have set up a small, dark room with a strobe light and loud backwards-playing dialogue from old Russian movies. Why? Honestly, we've had those rooms installed in the back of our planes for years and I, for the life of me, cannot remember why. So, this is as good an excuse as I've been able to come up with. But I think, over time, this will teach kids to be... better... at being kids.

"But Mandrake," you say, most unattractively, "I don't want to leave my kids alone in a dark, strobe light-filled room with some strange creep in a Halloween mask." Don't worry about it. Larry is a saint. We had to practically threaten the safety of his family to get him to do this. And by "practically," I mean "explicitly."

But you know what's great about planes? Reclining seats. Everyone loves 'em. The only problem is they don't recline enough. That's why we invented new Maxo-Reclining seats. You see, normally, these seats stop at just a few inches of recline.

vWKawF6.jpg


What the fuck's even the point? With Maxo-Recline technology, nothing can stop your relaxation.

9NlHaEH.png


And you know what, I say that still isn't enough. That's why our experimental division is testing out Maxo-Recline 2.0. With the ultimate in reclining tech.

PBL9C8T.png



... Any accidents that occur will be your own fault. Your bodies shouldn't be that prone to snapping. Clearly you people aren't drinking enough milk.

xKD10gZ.png
fh6ish3.jpg
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
I am using my seat as intended by literally sitting in it.

Here's an analogy that should clear everything up.

Lets say we are in a room where everyone can spray each other with a water/foam substance and we also all get repellent pants. If you have pants that are too small and rip and then your underwear get wet the solution is not to come and kick me. The solution is to get bigger pants.
 
I don't usually care if someone reclines in front of me. I'll just recline as well. Those two inches are important, I guess.

That changes if someone is a dick, like quite a few people in here. Legal? I suppose it's also legal to suddenly develop some super bad gas and start whispering things in your ear as you start to nod off.

#teamdontbeadick
 
Another thought: maybe airlines shouldn't be constantly figuring out ways to cut leg and recline room so that a) customers pay more to get better seats b) they fit more seats on the flight thus increasing per flight revenue. I remember reading an article recently about some seat arrangements that were barely scraping by the legally mandated seat to seat distances.
 
Had no idea r/childfree had a GAF branch.

Seriously. The barely-veiled contempt from some NeoGAF posters towards children and young parents shocks me sometimes. How dare young mothers with babies actually want to travel, and not only that, but travel and keep their baby safe!? Inconceivable! It reminds me of that thread a while back where posters were expressing their contempt and disregard for "expectant mothers" parking spaces.
 
The seats are meant to recline. You can go find different seats if you need your special legs to be accommodated.
While I'm of an average height and haven't had a seat hit my legs, I'd disagree that plane seats are arranged in such a way where there's enough space for someone to recline their seat without it making the person behind you uncomfortable. (It's always fun when someone tries to recline while you're trying to eat with the tray out, too.) That's in economy class, at least.

In my opinion, seats shouldn't be reclinable with the current amount of space offered.
 
Here's an analogy that should clear everything up.

Lets say we are in a room where everyone can spray each other with a water/foam substance and we also all get repellent pants. If you have pants that are too small and rip and then your underwear get wet the solution is not to come and kick me. The solution is to get bigger pants.

No, the solution for any reasonable set of people is to say "Hey, could you not spray me?" and for the other person to say "Sure, no big".

It's not about rights or anything else. It's about common fucking courtesy.
 
She choose the option that best safeguarded her child's safety, the self centered one is the cunt who wanted to recline and couldn't be an adult about it.

This ^^

Adults should make allowances for infants. Period. A helpless, dependent baby human should be afforded more consideration than a full-grown adult. And the adults responsible for the infant should be cut some slack too, because it's a hell of a job being a parent to an infant.

When our kids were born (we're talking 25 years ago now), it seemed the world was there to help/support us in every way; you'd go to the mall and people would hold the door for you, or help you on the bus with the stroller and make room for you, or offer to help you with some task or other in the checkout line because holding a squirming baby and putting groceries on the belt at the same time is a bit of a challenge... Now I'm the grandfather of three month old twins whose own father is such a useless and selfish little prick that they have returned with my daughter to live with me, and it's a 50/50 crap shoot on whether or not anyone out in the world can raise a finger to give you a hand when you go out to do something and bring the kids along... Anecdotal? sure... but I really feel like the world's changed, and not for the better...

Fuck the recliner...
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
No, the solution for any reasonable set of people is to say "Hey, could you not spray me?" and for the other person to say "Sure, no big".

It's not about rights or anything else. It's about common fucking courtesy.
We are in a spray room you are gonna get sprayed
 

Chococat

Member
All this could be solved if airlines gave passengers more space period. There should have been enough room for the recline AND a standard baby seat. Stop cramming people in like cattle and they will be civil to each other (mostly).
 

Guevara

Member
All this could be solved if airlines gave passengers more space period. There should have been enough room for the recline AND a standard baby seat. Stop cramming people in like cattle and they will be civil to each other (mostly).

You can have as much space as you want. Hell, you can have your own private plane, you just have to pay for it.
 

Nipo

Member
This ^^

Adults should make allowances for infants. Period. A helpless, dependent baby human should be afforded more consideration than a full-grown adult. And the adults responsible for the infant should be cut some slack too, because it's a hell of a job being a parent to an infant.

When our kids were born (we're talking 25 years ago now), it seemed the world was there to help/support us in every way; you'd go to the mall and people would hold the door for you, or help you on the bus with the stroller and make room for you, or offer to help you with some task or other in the checkout line because holding a squirming baby and putting groceries on the belt at the same time is a bit of a challenge... Now I'm the grandfather of three month old twins whose own father is such a useless and selfish little prick that they have returned with my daughter to live with me, and it's a 50/50 crap shoot on whether or not anyone out in the world can raise a finger to give you a hand when you go out to do something and bring the kids along... Anecdotal? sure... but I really feel like the world's changed, and not for the better...

Fuck the recliner...

If the recliner on your seat is broken and you complain to the airline they'll give you $100 flight credit. If the mom wants to stop someone from reclining she should compensate him at the same rate .
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
It's not physically possible for you to recline your seat with me sitting behind you in economy. Describe to me your next step.
Like the seat won't move at all? Interesting..

I guess in this case you win since reclining isn't possible.

I'm not a jerk I am not gonna literally break a knee of the dude behind me

Edit: thought of an analogy for this since I like analogies. Let's say I'm beside a large man on this plane and I want my armrests down. I will put them down even if it causes discomfort. My arms gotta rest. But if this person is so big that they literally can't go down because he is spilling into my space, of course I'm not gonna cram them down on him.

I'm not a mobster
 

ColdPizza

Banned
I think airlines should defer to the people with kids. Just flew this weekend with a lap infant in my wife's arms and the person in front of her reclined making it near impossible for her to maneuver.
 

Nipo

Member
It's not physically possible for you to recline your seat with me sitting behind you in economy. Describe to me your next step.

On a longhaul flight i'd wait until you get up or go to the bathroom. If you can go 15+ hours without standing or going to the bathroom i'd just be impressed. Short flight i'd call the flight attended to make note my seat is "broken" and get credited for part of my flight.
 
I only have two things to say about this entire thing:

1) Fucking deal with it, lady, you're in an exit row you have seriously as much or more leg room than people in first class.

2) Last I checked those damn seats only recline back like 10 degrees, what airline are you on where your seats actually fucking recline?
 

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Reclining should just be removed from the economy seats, it really adds no extra comfort for those 2 inches of reclining but is more than enough to be a pain to those behind.
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
I am on #teamrecline.
I think team recline is too negative. It implies we will recline no matter what. In everything I've been arguing it has been under the idea that conversation and compromise ended without resolution.

We should rename to teamdontbeajerkbutifnecessaryimreclining
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Seriously. The barely-veiled contempt from some NeoGAF posters towards children and young parents shocks me sometimes. How dare young mothers with babies actually want to travel, and not only that, but travel and keep their baby safe!? Inconceivable! It reminds me of that thread a while back where posters were expressing their contempt and disregard for "expectant mothers" parking spaces.
We have posters who expressed their contempt and disregard for disabled parking spaces. Some people are so self-centered that they see everything through a warped lens and pre-suppose a self-centered motivation behind benign or even selfless acts.
 

Nipo

Member
Reclining should just be removed from the economy seats, it really adds no extra comfort for those 2 inches of reclining but is more than enough to be a pain to those behind.

Seats are put on with reclining being expected. If they removed the feature they'd fit in an extra row and that would be the default amount of space. You're gaining extra space with the person doesn't recline, not losing it when they do.
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
I'm on mobile on the bus, can someone check the faa site to see what the actual minimums are for room between seats? I'm curious but the site won't load for me.

Do they actually take reclining into their minimums like stated above?
 

AntChum

Member
As a short guy, I have no problem with the person in front of me reclining, and I'm probably never going to recline myself (sleep is for infants and wimps), so these situations are always alien to me. That said, in this instance, the only people to blame here are Mrs. Recliner and the airline; that the mother and child weren't necessarily in the appropriate row for a child's safety seat is entirely on American Airlines.

AA should have either offered to move Mrs. Recliner to better seating, or asked her to put up with the unfortunate situation and kept her drinks glass topped up for free. Mrs. Recliner should've acted like the adult she is, not causing a ruckus, because sometimes you don't get what you want, and that's absolutely fine.
 

Nipo

Member
I'm on mobile on the bus, can someone check the faa site to see what the actual minimums are for room between seats? I'm curious but the site won't load for me.

Do they actually take reclining into their minimums like stated above?

The senate just (feb) voted down a bill allowing them to set minimums for airline seats. BUt you can just look at airlines like Spirit (where the seats don't recline) to get an idea what would happen.

Spirit Airlines:
Big Front Seat: Seat Pitch: 36″ Width: 20″
Everywhere Else: Seat Pitch: 28″ Width: 17.75″

Frontier:
Economy: Seat pitch: 30-31″ Width: 18″

Southwest: They only fly Boeing aircraft, so I compared it to those
Boeing 737-700: Seat pitch: 31″ Width: 17″
All others in their fleet: Seat pitch: 32-33″ Width: 17″

JetBlue:
Even more space: Seat pitch: 38-39″ Width: 17.8″
Coach: Seat pitch: 34″ Width: 17.8″



D
elta:
First: Seat pitch: 36″ Width: 21″
Economy Comfort: Seat pitch: 34″ Width: 17.2″
Economy: Seat pitch: 31-32″ Width: 17.2″

United:
First: Seat pitch: 38″ Width: 20.5″
Economy Plus: Seat pitch: 36″ Width: 18″
Economy: Seat pitch: 31″ Width: 18″

American Airlines: (Airbus A319)
First: Seat pitch: 38″ Width: 21″
Main Cabin Extra: Seat pitch: 34″ Width: 17.7″
Economy: Seat pitch: 30″ Width: 17.7″

Virgin America:
First: Seat pitch: 55″ Width: 21″
Main Cabin Select: Seat pitch: 38″ Width: 17.7″
Economy: Seat pitch: 32″ Width: 17.7″


A 28 inch pitch seat is fucking miserable and it would hilarious if everyone who wants planes to just make it so seats don't recline had to suffer with them as a result.
 

Chococat

Member
You can have as much space as you want. Hell, you can have your own private plane, you just have to pay for it.

Humane treatment should not be just for the rich.

I'm not talking about the same space as first class, but adding even 2 more inches between seats would be wonderful for many.

People travel with kids, so why not designate some seats seat up for car seats. This lady did better than most people- she researched and paid for a extra seat to be within regulations. If plane seat cannot accommodate both reclining and car seats, that is the airlines fault. Not the baby. Nor the recliner. The airline mislead both of them.
 

MikeDip

God bless all my old friends/And god bless me too, why pretend?
Humane treatment should not be just for the rich.

I'm not talking about the same space as first class, but adding even 2 more inches between seats would be wonderful for many.

People travel with kids, so why not designate some seats seat up for car seats. This lady did better than most people- she researched and paid for a extra seat to be within regulations. If plane seat cannot accommodate both reclining and car seats, that is the airlines fault. Not the baby. Nor the recliner. The airline mislead both of them.
They do have seats set up for car seats. They must. Airline messed up.
 

ColdPizza

Banned
Seats are put on with reclining being expected.

They were when the size of the average American was much smaller. Since then, leg room has been dramatically decreased by airlines in an effort to maximize profits. Just remove reclining seats in the no frills seats.
 

milanbaros

Member?
Why would I need to be the one to find a different seat? You can go find a different seat if me moving my legs and hitting your reclined seat bothers you so much.

The only reason you get that much space is because the seats recline. If you are too tall to sit in a seat where the person in front reclines then buy a seat with more leg room.
 
As a parent, there's a lot of good laughs in this thread.

Having made it through long haul flights both before and and after having a kid, I'll just say I feel for you singles on the flight, but being the parent on that same flight is like seal training. Sleep deprivation, thirst and uncomfortability merged with crisis management. (Just pray it doesn't get bad enough to have to change the baby right there on the seat.)
 

Nipo

Member
They were when the size of the average American was much smaller. Since then, leg room has been dramatically decreased by airlines in an effort to maximize profits. Just remove reclining seats in the no frills seats.

Seat sizes were bigger in the 60s-90s. They're getting smaller now as more travelers care about price more than anything else. If you want to fly an airline where seats don't recline those exist. They're super cheap and ridiculously uncomfortable because they have 28-30 inch pitch.
 
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