What Happened to Family-Friendly Airlines??
 

In their desire to survive financially, certain airlines have made a conscious decision to ignore the needs of traveling families and cater exclusively to their business and frequent flier customers. Case in point: yesterday, I was flying Continental out of Houston with my wife and 21 month old son. We had a reserved seat for him and were traveling with a car seat to install in that seat, along with other carry-ons that are necessitated when traveling with an infant (e.g. diaper bag, chilled milk containers, etc.) Our son was tired and starting to get cranky--all we wanted to do was get him on the plane and get settled so we could put him to sleep for the 3+ hour flight. To our amazement, the gate agent refused our request for pre-boarding. First, the entire first class cabin filled. Then any elite frequent fliers. Then any gold fliers, then silver fliers (only 25k per year!). By the time we boarded some twenty minutes later, literally more than half of the coach cabin was filled, making our efforts to get on extremely difficult. Regretfully, we blocked the aisle for a good four minutes before we could get the seat installed, get a toddler situated, etc. By that point, a good line had backed up, and our son was over-tired which did not endear us to the other passengers. While I won?t begrudge an airline for letting paying first class members board early in this day of dwindling ticket sales, I find it beyond absurd and anti-family to let someone board early and at the expense of the rest of the plane?s boarding convenience simply because they?ve flown coast-to-coast three times in a given year.

<i>we blocked the aisle for a good four minutes before we could get the seat installed</i>

Makes me wonder then that as long as your seats were assigned they didn't board you LAST.

Actually, I think that with older kids, it would be a good idea to let them stay in the boarding area until the last minute before boarding them. We adults don't even like being cooped up in the seats waiting, so what do we expect of kids?

&quot;Family-Friendly&quot; is subjective. My family, all adults, have no problem with your experience. But however you wish to define it, it went south when dirt-cheap airfare arrived. You can't expect champagne when you're paying for beer.

Years ago pre-boarding was limited to those passengers who really had a need. Unfortunately as time passed, the number of people requesting pre-boarding increased dramatically even though many requesting this &quot;service&quot; had no apparent actual need and the rules became more and more relaxed until they were meaningless, i.e. parents traveling with infants became parents traveling with small children which in turn gave way to families regardless of the age of the children. It made for a lot of chaos and it was not uncommon to see as many as 15 to 20 (and sometimes more) passengers pre-boarding an aircraft.

Most airlines recognized this problem and after 9/11 the pendulum swung in the opposite direction. It has now gotten back to the point now that most airlines will only &quot;pre-board&quot; those with real physical handicaps, the very elderly and unaccompanied children. Instead of 20 pre-boarders you are now apt only to see 1 or 2. Unfortunatey, parents with todlers (such as you) are victims of this change. While I can understand your frustration at not being able to pre-board before the frequent flyers, they are the bread and butter clients of the airlines and the airlines feel they do deserve a little bit better attention than someone who only flies with them infrequently. Unfortunately there is probably no real good solution to this problem as there will always be some who will try to get around the system.

Rb: First, I wasn't paying for beer: 3 full-fare tickets, albeit in coach. Second, your family may all be adults now, but I bet back in the day when those adults were in diapers, they were allowed to pre-board. And as far as boarding LAST it's a little bit difficult to bring a full-size car seat on a fully loaded plane, and I'm sure you wouldn't begrudge us the use of this safety measure.

Couple of points:

1. The gate agent should have used let you guys pre-board, at his/her discretion.

2. If you're paying full fare coach, you can get guaranteed 1st class upgrades on many CO flights, when seats are available. You will have access to those seats IN FRONT of elite upgrades.

To get the lowest status on any major airline you need 25K miles. 3 coast to coast trips just won't do it. It will take at least 5 :-). For mid-tier at least 10 and for top at least 20 coast to coast R/T in 1 year, so yes, there is a reason why airlines like frequent flyers. Sorry.

with quick turn around times, security delays, etc airlines just want to board the planes asap.
I have young kids and should have more sympathy for you, but blocking the aisle for four minutes to buckle in a car seat?? Even a minute is too long! Next time place car seat in window or center of middle row. GET OUT OF THE AISLE .Thread belt through the back. Place child in seat. Sit in your seat and then tighten the seat belt. Wait until aisle is clear to make any adjustments. Not to toot my own horn, but I've flown solo with four kids multiple times (with 2 under two). I guess that's why I have limited sympathy for two adults with one child! Sorry.

Given a chance some people will abuse any privilege - it used to be anyone with a hangnail thought they should preboard - so soon there was no such thing as preboard because everyone lined up. Thankfully the days of everyone lining up at the boarding gate an absurd amount of time before the flight has ended - now when they say rows 1-10, they mean it.

Have flown with infant and assorted support items (car seat, etc.) alone many times - it is not easy. Perhaps you got a gate agent on a bad day or were so stressed by overtired toddler that it came across in a negative way in your request, because I have seen gate agents go out of their way to accomodate all sorts of special situations. That same stress must have been why you blocked the aisle for 4 minutes instead of waiting to make these car seat and kid adjustments until others had boarded.

Michael- beer vs champagne wasn't about YOUR tickets, but tickets in general. Adjusted for inflation, air travel today had hardly been more affordable (except maybe around 5 years ago) and with the effective price dropping, service has gone downhill.

I applaud you on using the carrier and even more on paying for the seat -- we never traveled by air with toddlers. I simply have a great distaste for placing &quot;family&quot; labels on anything; everyone belongs to SOME family, even if they're octogenarians (sp?).

A reminder, pre-boarding of families was invented because an airline felt that total boarding would be quickened. The fact pre-boarding was not offered to you suggests that the airline found out that total boarding was not quickened.

There is no need get all sweaty and worked up no matter when you board. Next time, preboarding or not, just please don't block the aisle. Put the kid in the unfastened seat (or hold him and croon to him) while everyone else passes, then get up and adjust things. Meanwhile if the others passing wanted to make the plane take off faster they could do the hustling so you could get up after them and re-adjust things sooner.

At least, if you board last, everybody else could be comfortably seated as opposed to standing and fidgeting.

Travel tips:
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Do families who get pre boarding priviliges leave the plane at the end, so as not to create an inconvenience to others?

One of my family is registered disabled and usually gets excellent service from the airlines (preboard etc). Similarly though, they will usually let the plane empty before trying to get off the plane.

Good point! Although slowness is not unique to families! My kids are ready to go asap- backpacks on, etc. We usually have to wait for THAT person who waited until the row in front of them was empty to think about where they put their bag overhead, slooooowly put their coat on.......

It may have changed, but last time we flew Southwest, they offered pre-boarding to flyers with children aged 4 or under. They don't have time for long backups, and getting the car-seat-and-stroller folks situated first seems to smooth out boarding for the rest of us. Their whole financial model is based on speedy turnaround at the gate, and evidently that is one thing that really helps.

Don't know about other lower-fare airlines, no experience there...

SWA *has* to preboard children in carseats, because they don't assign seats. FAA regulations specify certain seating positions as off-limits for carseats, so SWA has to preboard the carseats so as to make sure that they get a space where the carseat is allowed.

If the carseat is going into an assigned &quot;legal&quot; seat, the only reason for preboarding the party is to clear the aisle in a more timely manner. Most airlines these days will assign you a seat at the back of the plane if you tell them that you will be using a carseat. If you are in the last row, installing the carseat won't hold anyone up.

I think it might be Continental, or specifically that ground agent. United and UsAir have always done preboarding for families with young children. Sometimes it helps to send one parent on in advance with the carseat and paraphenalia and run the little one around the boarding area until the last minute, but it sounds like your son was tired. Unfortunately services for families have been cut because the perception is that they hold no carrier loyalty and buy the cheapest tickets. Not always the reality, but the way it is in the low fare world. Good luck next time.

Perhaps Continental heard your complaint. I flew two flights today, out of San Diego and Houston, and each offered early boarding to families with children under 4.

I flew CO IAH-EWR and JFK-IAH this past weekend, and paid special attention to boarding announcement because of this thread. As I expected, there really wasn't much consistency. The gate agent here in IAH didn't say anything about preboarding for those with young children, but the one at JFK did.

Thought I may as well post a follow-up on this, regarding a letter I received from Continental yesterday:

Dear Mr. xx:
Thank you for taking the time and effort to make us aware of the unpleasantness experienced when boarding the flight to Philadelphia in Houston. Please accept my apology for the sequence of events encountered during this process as detailed in your correspondence. Typically the courtesy of pre-boarding for those needing assistance traveling with small children is extended early in the boarding process. I was concerned to read that you made this known to the gate agent and your request was not honored. I deeply regret the impact this had on your family and your travel. Your comments and concerns will be made available to the Airport Services management team for their internal review and corrective measures.

I know Im going to get a lot of slack for this but I dont really care. I fly a few times a week on a certain airline. I exspect to be treated well. Im not saying familes shouldnt fly, but there is nothing worse then crying babies, bratty kids that seem to just want to turn around in their seats and stare, and parents who cannot control them, when all you want to do is continue to work, sleep, or relax for an hour or two, or 13 depending on the flight. So its a little upsetting that this man wants speacial treatment because he has a car seat..wooopdedoo, if you dont like it don't fly. If you didnt pay for it why should you get speacial prilidges over other people just because you decided to buy a seat and innconvienance everyone eles on the flight by backing up the line, bringing a crying child on the flight, and whatever eles Im sure occured on the flight once it began. Im so sick of the whining people do everyday. Deal with it, I have to deal with kids coming on flights in the first place. Parents should bring their kids on planes only if they are well mannored and prepared. Harsh but yet how I feel.
This message was not spell checked, Im in a hurry..thank you.

Dollars to donuts elle is not a parent