A mother traveling on United Airlines to Boston was forced to hold her two year old on her lap even after purchasing a ticket for him when his seat was given away to a standby passenger.
In the United States, children aged 0-2 are permitted to sit on the lap of their parent or guardian rather than purchase their own seat. But the day the baby turns two is the day that baby must have a separate seat. Shirley Yamauchi was on a trip from Honolulu to Boston via Houston on United and purchased a separate ticket for her two-year-old son.
The Honolulu to Houston flight was fine and everything seemed to be okay after boarding the Houston to Boston flight as well. But toward the end of the boarding process, another passenger showed up and plopped himself down in the middle seat purchased for Yamauchi’s son.
The man claimed to be a standby passenger and had been given the seat by a gate agent. Yamauchi flagged down a FA, but claims the FA dismissed her, shrugging and commenting that the flight was full.
Remembering the Dao incident, Yamauchi (who is of Asian heritage) claims she was too fearful to assert her rights and thus remained silent.
I started remembering all those incidents with United on the news. The violence. Teeth getting knocked out. I’m Asian. I’m scared and I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t want those things to happen to me.
She did complain after the flight and United has now admitted fault and provided compensation. United issued the following statement–
We deeply apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son for this experience. We are refunding her son’s ticket and providing a travel voucher. We are also working with our gate staff to prevent this from happening again.
Honest Mistake or Not?
I would hope (and tend to believe) this was an honest mistake, but there is this one thing. Interestingly, she called customer service directly after the flight was told that a refund could not be given to her because it would cancel the return segments. But if a gate agent had neglected to scan her son’s boarding pass in Houston, the whole itinerary would have cancelled out automatically.
If the itinerary did not cancel, it means her son’s ticket was somehow scanned. Then again, I’m not sure how standby passenger could be double-booked into a seat already accounted for. This is just my speculation…
United refunded the ticket and provided a travel voucher (undisclosed amount).
CONCLUSION
I place the majority of blame on the onboard flight attendant. Sure, we could scold Yamauchi for not being more assertive, but I think that would be deeply unfair: her fears in light of the Dao incident were reasonable. The FA should not have just ignored Yamauchi. Instead, she should have taken the time to fully understand her concern then investigate. The standby passenger should have been removed.
top image: Katie Haugland Bowen / Flickr
Maybe with Scott Kirby pushing for the planes to leave the gate on time, the flight attendant felt pressured to just brush off the situation so they could just depart on time. I agree with you though. The FA should have taken time to ask the simple question to see their boarding passes. The answer would have said everything.
Wouldn’t it be fun if United’s FA do the Cebu Pacific safety demo? Not for fun, but to planted image to passenger that they are fun people to interact with. So if any passenger have any needs or concerns, DO NOT HESITATE to call them, especially regarding safety.
@james, but they don’t want passengers to “disturb” them, unfortunately, the airlines in the US do not seem to understand that they are in the service industry. Especially since 9/11, where every small question gets you kicked off the flight. I had a friend kicked off a flight not too long ago because the FA incorrectly told him that he needed to hold his lap infant facing forward. He challenged the reasoning due to Fear of waking up the child, which would result in a total meltdown. However he complied after the FA insisted, once the baby started crying, the FA claims she felt uncomfortable traveling with them and had them removed from the flight……
@Alex
I have no word….kicking a passenger because the baby is crying can almost be categorized as inhuman.
Tough in this exact incident, the action (or lack of thereof) may cause serious legal trouble for United. Its not about inconvinience or discomfort of a passenger, BUT ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN BREAKING THE AVIATION LAW REGARDING SAFETY.
If there’s anything we learn from aggresiveness of TSA and the recent laptop ban, safety is considered paramount in US airflight. Will there be any sanction against United and/or the FA in particular? Sure is never. Because….
As a United Million Mile Flyer, I have traveled a bit. I have never witnessed anything close to the United passenger experiences I have read about in recent months, even though I was truly aghast at the video of the elderly man being punched, then ignored, by United employees. However, I have less sympathy for the other alleged “victims” in the news. Dr. Dao was dragged off an airplane because he refused to comply with orders given by law enforcement officers. We can disagree with the reason behind the law enforcement involvement, but once the police get involved, one needs to SUAC -Shut Up and Color – and seek problem resolution in a different venue.
As a frequent flyer from EWR to TLV, I routinely witness Hassidic Jews board the airplane at the last minute and demand to be reseated so they or their wives don’t have to sit next to strangers. The United FAs always work patiently and effectively to make this happen, sometimes moving around entire rows of customers to accommodate these unreasonable demands. If Ms. Yamauchi had merely offered up her boarding pass to the FA, instead of meekly acceding to the situation, I’m confident this incident would have been resolved without incident. FAs are human, and will make mistakes sometimes, but there are always two sides to every story. Let’s reserve our rush to judgement until we know the whole story.
@Steve
I don’t doubt there’s a bunch of nice and helpfull FA on United. However, we have to admit Dr. Dao incident does incite a little bit of ‘fear’ to requesf/complain/raising issue to FA. That’s why I suggest as weitten on my previous comment.
United is a failed airline. It should be broken down into little companies like At&T was. It is the VA of capitalism.
There is an instance where my flight on United Express were canceled. They provide me a ground transportation to the destination. But they forgot to modify my reservation so that my return flight gets canceled. I called customer care and they were able to reinstate the tickets. So I guess maybe the ticket counter somehow reinstate the tickets without explaining why.
I think it’s deeply unfair to dump blame on the FA in this incident. We have no idea what was actually said to her and as has been noted simply presenting the child’s boarding pass would have instantly resolved the problem. The fact is the child was over two and therefore not allowed by FAR to sit in their parents lap. I think there is also a responsibility on behalf of the parent here to speak up and make sure that the FA clearly understands the issue.
I think we also have to consider another scenario. It’s has been reported elsewhere that the child’s ticket cost $1000 which means it was very likely a fully refundable last minutes fare. Its it possible that the mom hoped she might be able to pass the child off as being under 2 during boarding, still get the seat, and then claim a refund. Or perhaps she is referencing Dr. Dao not because she was truly afraid but because she was looking for the same pot of gold he found as a result of his illegal and felonious behavior. There are multiple elements of her story that raise suspicion. Why did she meekly give her seat to the standby when he first showed up? I strongly suspect if she had told him it was taken when he tried to sit down the issue would have been much clearer.
It’s become fun and fashionable to bear up On United these days and sometimes they deserve it and sometimes they don’t. Airlines are also populated by humans and when they make a mistake what’s more important is that the airline owns the mistake and makes things right. It certainly seems by all accounts United has done that in this case. But instead of recognizing this as a human error that was in the end made right we create clickbait stories about United stealing a child’s seat that generate blog traffic while doing a disservice to the truth.
Unbelievable comments . Are you a former or current United employee or a stockholder? The fact that she accepted a refund (only for her child’s ticket) and a voucher 5 days later from the airline blows your incredulous accusations “sky high”. It’s people like you who are part of the problem with airlines these days.
I have zero connection to United. Zero
How does her acceptance of a refund and a voucher change anything? are you telling me that if you were in her shoes and someone sat in a seat you’d paid $1000 for you would just ignore it whe the FA said the flight was full? Given that there is much we don’t know ( we only have her side of the story) basic fairness requires us to consider if in fact United “stole” her child’s seat or if something else happened. Remember we only have one account of this story.
If Dr. Dao has taught United anything it’s that when you look bad even if you actually did nothing wrong it’s better to pay up.
On a side note it’s been reported elsewhere that United says the child’s boarding pass wasn’t scanned and that’s why they boarded the standby. It could be a simple error on the part of the gate agent or something else.
Simple error?
Lol. You sound like a United FA who just shrugged and walk away…..
Not really that unbelievable; in fact his suspicions sounded completely reasonable and believable to me — someone that flies a lot.
It’s uninformed people like you spouting your mouth off left and right who are the problem with society in general.
What’s most troubling is that the flight attendant seemed to be completely unconcerned with the safety and well being of the 27-month old child who was not adequately secured for take-off, landing, or in the event of turbulence, and others who could be harmed in any kind of incident where his mother might be unable to keep him secure, including a sudden decompression event.
I flew United shortly after the Dr. Dao incident when everyone was on their “best behavior” and the overall experience on the ground and in the air was actually pretty good — EXCEPT of course for the pathetically tight seat pitch in which my barely 5’8″ and 180 lbs body had my knees flush against the row ahead of me and my shoulders pinned against the person in the middle seat next to me.
Fortunately, that was my partner, so rubbing shoulders and elbows with him doesn’t present the type of weirdness that arises when one is constantly pressing their flesh against a perfect stranger, or worse, a teenager for several hours or more.
But getting back to this latest/yet another incident at United, the fact that everyone was on their “best behavior” in the immediate aftermath of the Dao incident, certainly makes clear, civility is possible — or as it was back in April, dare I say, actually very good service other than the despicable (and unconscionable) seating.
Alas, this very much possible “best behavior” was short lived indeed, as a recent experience at United’s Newark hub (10-days ago) included a flagrant disregard for both United’s stated policy, and Federal regulations, that allow one to accompany a disabled passenger to the gate as I did only after encountering a very surly agent, and then speaking with others after that who claimed they did not know disabled passengers could be issued a gate pass to ensure a loved one would have someone available to assist with any needs that might arise for a disabled traveler post security while waiting to board their plane.
This, of course, was the same old United we had grown accustomed to dealing with, and in fact, is one of the reasons why I try to accompany my partner to the airport whenever he flies for work, which is not quite “road warrior” often, but certainly often enough and includes trips to Asia and Europe several times per year.
He had polio as a young child, so his need for assistance is readily apparent. Yet for his recent trip, it required us to speak with a supervisor and for me to make clear that he was entitled to have someone accompany him to the gate for his flight.
At the time, I turned to my partner and commented that it certainly seemed like things had reverted back to exactly where they were at United before the Dao incident, so this latest incident that is being widely reported on the news (and others reported recently) is consistent with our most recent experience that little has changed at United now that the Dao incident is fading from memory.
Sad, but true…our very recent experience certainly left us believing nothing had changed.
Some seem enamored with Oscar’s leadership, and are under the impression that things are changing for the better at United.
Our recent experience (where but for the fact that I am aware of disabled passengers’ rights and the airline industry in general to degree greater than many passengers and could overcome the nastiness of one agent, and the sudden “lack of knowledge” by others to obtain a gate pass) suggests otherwise.
By contrast, our experience with Southwest is night and day when compared to what we’re used to at an airline like United, where adherence to Federal regulations apparently isn’t important enough that frontline employees can say with a straight face that they had no idea a disabled passenger can be accompanied to the gate by someone who is not flying with them to assist while they wait to board their plane and expect to get away with that without fearing any consequences from failing to comply with Federal regulations that if reported, could result in fines to the airline at a minimum.
Either they don’t know (as they claimed), which itself would be a serious problem. Or more likely, they’ve been instructed to feign lack of knowledge, which is even worse because it means the airline is encouraging its employees to break the law just as it did when the FA turned a blind eye and allowed a 27-month old child to sit in their parent’s lap despite Federal regulations which most assuredly should be known by a flight attendant is illegal per Federal regulations as part of their basic training.
Of course, one has to wonder how this seemingly pervasive the “culture of ignorance” regarding safety regulations and other Federal regulations is at United, and if it’s spreading like a cancer to other areas/departments where the margin of error is a lot narrower than it is on the ground at the airport when agents fail to comply with Federal regulations regarding disabled passengers, or when a Flight Attendant knowingly allows a 27-month old child to fly in its parent’s lap instead of in the seat that was purchased despite Federal regulations which prohibit anyone over the age of 24-months to do this for their and others safety?
I wa t to address one portion of your complaint the “despicable and unconscionable seating” There are two elements to that. First width which on narrow bodies is largely defined by aircraft type since all carriers in the US at least use seats the same width depending of course on aircraft type. So if you found elbow room lacking then it’s not United’s fault it’s an industry standard.
The second component is legroom which varies from carrier to carrier. So if your unhappy with United’s standard coach product in term of legroom why did you select it? Why didn’t you fly another carrier with more legroom? Or buy up to Economy Plus? Or if you really need the space buy up to first class?
Or perhaps did you do what the majority of a Americans do and purchase the ticket based on price alone? If so didn’t you get what you paid for in terms of seat comfort?
I notice instead of answering my questions you simply hurl insults. Always the mark of reasonable debate and an intelligent mind.
Sorry I think this ended up in the wrong place it was a response to @James saying I was just like the FA who walked away.
I think one thing that isn’t being considered here is once that Standby passenger was seated, would that passenger be removed from the plane?
I could see this becoming a Dr. Dao situation all over again if that passenger was forced to de-plane. While I would agree that if he was boarded by mistake, it shouldn’t be an issue for him to be asked to leave the plane, however, the days of viral videos and social media outrage, would it have been that easy?
Yes, Airlines are chasing every profit dollar, but the employees what to do the right thing and these lose-lose situations are casting an unfair light one them.
My question is was this a NRSA (non-rev) passenger or a revenue passenger who paid the $75 change fee to fly earlier?
Why does it matter if no one at United understands this is a seat dup because she is “too afraid” to speak up?