Airline Travel

Thursday, April 14, 2011.....


I'm going to apologize in advance because I know I might offend some parents out there, but I have a beef with some parents who travel with small children AND not for the reason you think.

Small children make noise. That's okay. What's not okay is when I make my airplane reservations,choose my seat, but a parent with a small child comes into my row and turns to me and asks if her child can sit in my window seat. I politely turn to the mother and say no. She then turns to her child and tells him, "Sorry Johnny, but the nice lady won't move so you can't sit by the window" and promptly turns her head to see if I heard her.

This happened to me years ago on a red-eye from CA to NY. I thought it a fluke until I talked with my sister the other day. She was on a flight back to NJ and this family was sitting in her row when she boarded the plane. She went to get into her seat when the father asked if he could sit in her seat (he implied that he wanted to sit with his family). She said no and he, and other members of his brood, got up and moved. He went and talked to the flight attendant and my sister discovered no one in his party were sitting in her row to begin with.

So....what's my point to this story? When you book your tickets, if you plan ahead like I do, pick your seat. Don't pull out the kid card, it's just wrong. If I make the time (an additional minute) to choose a window seat, do the same.

I understand it must be hard traveling with a toddler, but that doesn't excuse you from doing the same thing I do when I make a reservation. Oh yeah, if you want till last minute, this still doesn't excuse you and give you the right for my seat.