A family flying on United Airlines from Geneva to Newark had their seats scattered when flight 957 swapped Boeing 767 aircraft to one with a different configuration. The two parents, their four year old and their 18-month old were no longer all together in a row like they’d booked.
They received the aircraft change notification and were now:
- Mother and 18-month old together
- Father four rows ahead
- 4-year old diagonally across the aisle one row back behind the mother
The parents spent about an hour on chat with United trying to get two pairs of seats. They understood they wouldn’t all be able to sit together. They just didn’t want to be separated completely from their young child. United moved the father closer but left the 4-year old alone and said they couldn’t do anything further.
At the Gate, an agent took their boarding passes, said they’d work on it, but never followed up. They followed up, and gate agents did make an effort – negotiating with a man who said he refused to move unless compensated. The airline refused to compensate, and he kept his assigned seat. And the airline wasn’t forcing anyone to move.
Eventually, the agent claimed to have a “solution,” handing the family four boarding passes. One was rejected by the gate reader, but the agent told them to “just go,” so they boarded anyway. On the plane, they found that one of the new boarding passes actually belonged to the man who had refused to move—and who was already in his seat. Rather than helping, a flight attendant suggested having the four year old across he aisle and behind a parent was a non-issue.
Another flight attendant took the father’s passport and boarding pass back to the gate agent. The father followed – concerned about having his passport taken from him off the aircraft, in case it wasn’t returned and the plane departed. In the meantime he asked about two empty seats in business class, but was told those are “too expensive.”
The gate agent returned, seating each parent with a child. But a flight attendant threatened “to file an FAA report” because the father “deboarded” by stepping onto the jetbridge to follow his passport.
Along the way, too many people added stress to the situation by claiming “it’s out of our control.” I suspect some of this was related to United using a third party (I assume Swissport) for ground handling in Geneva. Meanwhile, they told a passenger just to board without a valid boarding pass. And they were happy to have a four year old fly solo.
Without assistance, the parents would ultimately have faced a choice: they bought their 18-month old a seat, but one parent could have held the toddler in their lap and given that seat to the four-year old (while the other parent sat in another row). They didn’t have to leave the four year old on their own. But they bought the 18-month old a seat for a reason. That’s a challenging age for a lap infant, especially on a daytime transatlantic flight!