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.

Just for further clarification on the children's ages are four and three and they both have special educational needs.

this also gives the mum a break as her first child has special needs therefore the mum can pay more attention to the first child

two children with special needs.

It's the fact they got removed from the flight because of a crying baby

How did one child's SEN miraculously disappear and then reappear? And where the bloody hell did the baby come from?🧐

Babies do work well for Daily Mail sad face, I suppose 🤔

I would be extremely pissed off if I worked with --you— your friend.
Off sick for such a spurious reason? At a time when others are off on annual leave? I’d assume that —you— she just wants to extend her holiday.
Happened a lot when I was working, with families going to visit family abroad in December. They nearly always had “delayed” flights back to the UK.

I've lost track of whether it was the 3 year old or 4 year old who was crying

In her last post it was a baby...

It's the fact they got removed from the flight because of a crying baby

Baby or 3 year old?
Earlier the child was a 3 year old.

OP - glad it’s you posting and not your friend!!

I’m not sure why people think Emirates is so awesome at customer service. This story is has pretty appalling, doesn’t make sense to be charged a missed flIght penalty when it was cabin crew who (incorrectly) forced the family off the plane in the first place. Hope your friend gets her money back from the airline. I’m angry for her!

My Dh was on a business class flight from lhr to HK ( via Dubai) on Emirates, they overbooked the flight and told him he had to get on a different flight as his was full. It was only an hour or less later and he had no other choice so accepted this. When he got to Dubai they said he had missed his original transit flight - he had to queue at the flight desk and they made him pay 200 quid missed flight penalty too. Again , it was their fault!!! They made him take a later flight from lhr to Dubai ..
basically I think emirates have friendly crew, but if there is any issue beyond ‘can I please have a cup of tea’ the cracks will show and then you have experiences like THIS. I avoid them now unless I have no other option..

Not read the full thread but most of it.

When you are chucked off a flight they need to get your luggage off as they wont fly with it.

So I ashume the rest of the plane would have been annoyed at being delayed.

Also there was a story rescently of a plane being delayed. And a pregnant woman being sick due to morning sickness. Her whole party got removed too. It appears any sickness even if cause is known is grounds for removal due to germ and infection risk etc.

I can understand the child and parents being removed. Regardless of whether it's due to illness or not a child throwing a tantrum on a plane especially at take off could be a safety issue I guess. In the event of a crash and needing to disembark quickly. The crew must have thought it was bad enough to delay the flight while bags were offloaded.

Dunno why they booted the other adults off as well....especially as auntie wasn't even part of the booking group. I also don't think they should have charged £100 each.

But being unable to work is crazy.

Kisskiss, your story doesn’t make sense. They hold him he had to get a different flight because his was full? Did you leave out the part where he was late checking in? Because of course they can make him pay for a missed connection flight if he didn’t check-in within a certain time. The fine print we all agree to but never read.

@purpleelk No he wasn’t late for the flight, that’s why he was furious with them... it was just totally full in business ( and I guess in other classes) and he was one of the last few to check in .

It wasnt actually an issue except for the connecting flight, which the lhr check in desk should have mentioned as a potential problem .. they definitely should not have charged the missed flight fee for the connecting flight.

There's a lot of issues with this, but you, current, are totally out of order if you'd treat a child that way.

DD is 2 and I suspect ASD. I manage situations to avoid triggers for her. I would expect other parents in similar situations to do the same. This could have been avoided, especially if they are wealthy and could have afforded to pre book seats.

What an ignorant comment current

@HoneysuckIejasmine & @DoctorDread my apologies, I only read so far before commenting. I have now read that the child has autism so of course I completely retract that comment entirely! My apologies.

Current- even if the child wasn't autistic, if the child was mine I'd smack its arse is an appalling attitude. Do you have children? I hope not.

I’ve just rtft. Any update op? Did your friend you get any compensation?

My friend and I wrote a long letter of complaint and Emirates apologised for any inconvenience caused. They said that they were removed from the flight because they thought the child was too poorly to travel (didn't have temperature and was crying to be sat with auntie). In the letter we didn't mention compensation as this is not only about money. In their reply they didn't mention anything about compensation either. My friend has decided not to pursue this anymore as it's too much hassle.