Removed from flight.

[Madhatter24]

This is quite a long thread but I want you to get all the information as I am really confused and want to give my friend the best advice.

A friend of mine who was returning from holiday, she was travelling with her brother, his wife, their two young children and my elderly mother in law who is age 70+. They were seated separately on the plane, my friend was seated upstairs and everyone else was seated downstairs together. The niece was crying for my friend and she was becoming agitated as she is very attached to her and she is always with her, however as she was seated upstairs she couldn't sit with her. My friend asked the stewardess it was it possible for her to sit near her family and they said once everyone is boarded, if there's a way they can swap her with another passenger they will. She accepted this and was waiting patiently for the flight to board and take off. Another passenger on the plane complained to the steward and said that my friends niece is ill and should be checked over by a doctor before being allowed to fly (she was crying quite loudly and my friends sis in law was trying desperately to calm her).

The stewardess then goes over to the sister in law and asks if the child is ill. The sister-in-law explained that she's not ill and she is crying for her auntie and who is seated upstairs.

Another stewardess then goes upstairs and said that My friend need to go downstairs (she didn't say why and my friend thought it was because they found a seat for her near her family).
In the meantime My friend was not aware of this but the stewardess that was in charge was asking her family to get off the flight and get the child checked by a doctor within the airport. The sister-in-law and brother were saying that the child is not ill and that she is crying because she wants to be seated with her auntie. However they were refusing to listen and said that they must all get off the flight and get the child checked by the doctor within the airport. They were absolutely refusing to listen. They were trying to explain to them that they are travelling with an elderly person and to young children.

As they kept on trying to explain the situation to the stewardess and explain that the child is not ill and she is only upset because she wants to be seated with her auntie, they started getting increasingly rude and saying get out of this plane now. Eventually they had no option but to leave the flight. They went to the medical room and the doctor checked the child and said that there is absolutely no reason why the child cannot fly. They then went back to the check-in desk And they said that as they have missed their flight and that they need to pay a penalty of £200 each. Again they tried to explain the situation to the check in staff and said that they were removed from the flight due to no fault of their own and it was only because a another passenger complained that the small child was ill when she wasn't she was only crying because she wanted to be sat next to her auntie. However once again they were not being reasonable and would not listen to our side. They eventually had to pay £100 per person as a penalty for missing the flight.

When they arrived back at Heathrow, a few pieces of luggage arrived however the reminder of the luggage arrived in dribs and drabs over the next few days delivered to the home address.

My friend has been completely and utterly broken by this whole experience. It has caused her to become ill and she is unable to work because the of the stress this whole situation caused. What would you do in this situation? I was thinking of tagging the airline (emirates) on a Facebook page, however thinking a bit deeper was thinking maybe write to them and see what their response is.

She saying it's not just about the financial loss that they incurred, it's about the stress and ordeal they had to go through with two young children and elderly mother-in-law. All because another person just said that the child was ill. This has completely ruined her holiday and she has just become a recluse and feels like a complete failure for not having managed the situation better at the time. I'm sorry this is such a long post but I just want to get all the details in.

WWYD.

The children werent misbehaving, they were autistic and obviously having melt downs

Obviously to whom?

Obvious to anyone who has rtft. Fair enough it was a massive massive drip feed. But a visibly upset autistic child crying at a uncontrollable change of situation. Surely anyone with an ounce of knowledge realises that's a melt down and not naughtiness.

If your friends family have children that are prone to such violent meltdowns if members of their family are separated, then it was the parents responsibility to make sure this didn't happen. Autism doesn't 'happen' over night. ! Travel, different situations etc are all well known triggers. The parents should have prepared better.

Take responsibility for your own family. Don't blame people doing their job.
'Not being able to work' because of a difficult flight - is really wet and just about the definition of a first world problem!

The child may have been fine on previous flights. My ds loved his first few flights. Then had one where he started screaming when the plane had just taken off and kept going until disembarking - longest 90 min of my life... In retrospect we could figure out why but at the time it was a total surprise (autism not yet diagnosed).

It's also quite possible the mother is also autistic which would explain the extreme reaction.

But aside from all that, the scenario is: airline thought child might be too ill to fly, so child and family have to disembark. Child is cleared to fly by doctor, but family have to pay for new flights. Is it right that family have to pay? I'd argue not, but even if airline can legally require them to pay again, I'd hope travel insurance would cover it.

Obvious to anyone who has rtft.

But the cabin crew had to make a decision on the plane, at the time, not with the dubious benefit of a long drawn out tale on t'Internet.

The cost of delaying or diverting a 380 is massive: tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds, depending on how many connections are broken. It's a bad time to test out their willingness to make amateur diagnoses on uncontrollable children, and if the OP (or their "friend") was half as dramatic on the flight as they are here then they would hardly have de-escalated the situation.

If any of this is true, of course, which I doubt.

I'm sure she will get a refund with a complaint, but I'm also thinking it would have been better to book seats together, to put the Aunty with the child in the first place etc.

I'm sure it was a horrible experience but I'd also be worried about my friends health if she was utterly broken and unable to work because of it.

Is she maybe finding things a little hard?

Anyway, I don't think she could really expect much more than a refund or gesture. I think it would be better to put this behind her than dwell on an already stressful experience with a drawn out complaint

Its the aunt whos 'broken' and off work????

You have to be kidding. Ffs she wasnt even part of the dfama. She needs to get a serious grip. Talk about a major over reaction

I agree with PP to call her broken over such a trivial matter is incredibly insulting to people who have suffered real tragedies

mumtoanangel

I went on a plane with an upstairs back when I was backpacking in 1990. I've never travelled anything other than cattle class, so it definitely has been a 'thing' for some decades.

@reflect I'm not saying the cabin crew were unreasonable but calling out the other poster who accused the children of bad behaviour and saying the mother should be ashamed. That's a shitty thing to say when it has been explained that the young children are autistic (and possibly the mother too).

Drama llama central

But why is the aunt the one who has turned into a broken recluse? It isn’t her child or in any way, shape or form her ‘fault’ that her autistic niece had a meltdown in an entirely different part of an airplane.

The only way this makes sense is if the 'auntie' is actually the family nanny and is the one the child is primarily attached to, but was made to sit in economy while the family travelled business or first. If she was scapegoated for the child's behaviour and the insult that the child's attachment to her represents, I can see it would be upsetting to have to keep working for this family. But what I can't see is why the OP wouldn't explain from the outset that she's her friend is the nanny.

Lots of drama, OP! Are you hoping the DM will pick it up so as to facilitate a big fat damage-limitation payment?

I’ve had a niece booted of a flight I was on for being ill and I’ve had luggage lost on a flight. I’m struggling to see how these experiences would break a person but I’d definitely want my £100 back if I’d been chucked off because a relation was ill and not because I was acting like a dick.

Op, people aren't removed from a flight for no reason or on a whim. It needs to be signed off by the captain.

As such, there was significant disruption occurring, be it by the adults or the child or both, and the captain felt he or she could not safely fly with them on board. This can't be disputed. That's the way it works.

As for whomever has been made so ill by it, the aunt or the mother, to the extent they are broken and can't work, I'm sure you wil, agree this is not within the realms of normal behaviour and they need to seek medical help.

I would tell your mate to forget the compo claim, as there will be a log of why they were ejected, and evidence from the crew as to their behaviour that caused it, and a documented reason from the captain as to why he or she sanctioned the removal and felt it was unsafe to fly with them on board, this could be something like abuse they were giving crew, who are they for the passengers safety primarily.

I am thrilled to hear that Emirates’ customer service is just as good as I’ve heard it is.

There are other people on that plane other than yourself oh sorry your friend, OP.

I think your friend is overreacting wasaaayyy too much 🙄

I'd complain vocally to the airline to get the £200 each refunded however it sounds like this was handled badly at the time.

Why didn't the aunt just quietly swap with one the parents when boarding? It sounds like cabin crew thought the aunt wanted to swap with another passenger.

Did the parents make clear to the cabin crew that the child was autistic and that is why they were having a meltdown? The cabin crew may have assumed that the child was ill as she was becoming more distressed than an NT child reasonably would.

To be honest I'm pretty sure if the family threatened to do a daily mail sad face "forced to leave plane because my disabled child was upset" the airline would be giving them money hand over fist. That the family haven't done this makes me think there is another side to this.

Massive overreaction. Your 'friend' needs to get a grip. There are people in the world with real problems.

Back in September an Emirates was quarantined upon arrival at JFK due to a sick passenger on board so even you can understand why Cabin crew have to act on information. If a fellow passenger suspected the child was ill they were right to report it. I imagine there is maybe more to it (the family getting a bit irrate) as you generally dont get removed for nothing.

Emirates do have A380s with upstairs economy seats, I've flown on one.

Very unusual for such young children to have an autistic diagnosis. They must both have very serious needs. It would have been better to warn the airline of this in advance.

Back in September an Emirates was quarantined upon arrival at JFK due to a sick passenger on board

Not 'a' sick pax. Over 100. 10 of which ended up needing hospital treatment.

OP: I think your friend and the family should write a formal complaint to Emirates, stating clearly all the facts and asking why they were thrown off for a crying child, and why they were asked to pay more money when the airline had chosen to evict them.

The complaints procedure should be on their website.

This may or may not make your friend feel better, depending on the response.

Couple of things to learn here.

1. pre book seats.
2. was friend in economy upstairs or business?
3. elderly relative would have made more sense to go upstairs. 4)could have asked at the gate if anyone was willing to swap seats- have done that multiple times myself.
4. was airline made aware of the SEN issues before boarding? They are usually quite good with them.
5. friend needs serious help with her MH- if this breaks her, she has bigger issues than being removed from a flight.
6. contact airline and ask for the change of flight fee to be removed.
7. move on and stay wealthy with her own business, which I hope is unstressful, and never involves any conflict.

My friend has been completely and utterly broken by this whole experience. It has caused her to become ill and she is unable to work because the of the stress this whole situation caused.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Ooh. I think MattFreisCheekyDimples might just have it...