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.

There’s surely several key bits of information missing from this story?

Why did your friend and your MIL disembark? Why not just parents and child?

If your friend works the child is not “always with her” so why was she causing such a disturbance/throwing a tantrum?

When you say “no one would listen?” Does that mean in addition to the misbehaving child that the whole family were shouting at the cabin crew?

Children cry on flights all the time, they aren’t routinely reported and judged to be ill by other passengers.

I can see that it must have been a stressful experience.
I can see that you would be annoyed and frustrated and angry.

But “unable to work”? Really?

Goodness.

I’d love to hear another passengers perspective on this story.

@Effendi I went on one last month with downstairs toilets. Very odd.

Upstairs was v cramped last time (2000!) I was in one!

A crappy stressful experience? Yes but becoming a recluse because of it? Nah sorry that’s nonsense. Unless there’s drip feed on the way about SN then really it was just a tantrum that required some stern parenting not a load of nonsense swapping passengers around

Ok, at a random guess, the OP won't be back. She's off suing Emirates busily, whilst unable to work or function.

The lot of you sound like hysterical, attention-seeking nightmares; no wonder you got booted off. Thank God for the other passengers and tough titty for you.

Can't work? Become a recluse? Get a fucking grip, you total moron.

it seems op now knows yes, they are vbu, sounds like the plot of a comedy sketch, but then i do have a very strange sense of humour.

Bet this goes poof due to "privacy concerns".

Also, for you all to be seated separately you must not have online checked in early enough or paid for specific seats. If the niece is prone to such dramatics, perhaps that would have been wise

This is utter nonsense. I've flown many times with Emirates.
If you were offloaded because they thought your child was ill, you would not have been charged.
Only one adult needed to stay behind with the 'ill' child.
While it is possible another passenger complained as he didn't want to be sat next to a crying child, the cabin crew are assertive enough to assess the situation. Can you imagine if they started offloaded whole family groups just on the say so of another passenger?

My guess is, one/several members of your group started being disruptive about the other passenger or to the cabin crew, and the captain chose to offload the whole group as he thought there was a risk. They don't do that lightly, there is a WHOLE other side to this story.

I’m assuming it was an airbus a380 is a favoured airplane of emirates and the full upstairs cabin is business/ first class.
This doesn’t make sense, the airline won’t take the decision to offload a whole family lightly, it can cause delays which incurs costs and they need to take all the bags off. All this for a crying child.unlikely

What a strange story. Couldn't your mother in law have sat upstairs so that your friend could sit with her niece?

If your friend has some kind of disability (mental health) given her unusual reaction to this situation (stressed/broken/off work) did she make that known to the staff so they could make adjustments?

I always thought upstairs planes were something I imagined ( misses point of thread)

Obviously op anyway 🙄

Time to grow up OP.

Let it go.

No compo here .

There is some proper shit posted on this website

Think you have been owned big time here OP

If the family knew that the child could only be comforted by its aunt, then you’d assume that they’d have let the grandmother have the nice, quiet upstairs seat away from the kids when everyone boarded.

To be honest, I just don’t believe that a whole family would be kicked off a flight for something so ordinary as a crying child. Not that an aunt has magic powers to stop the crying that the child’s parents and grandmother do not possess.

Or that the OP’s friend has become a recluse who cannot work because she had to get off a flight and pay £100 to get on the next one.

I mean: really?

Good grief.

The "friend" seriously needs to get urgent counselling if this has turned them into a recluse.

Assuming you live in the UK and Heathrow was your final destination.... I don't understand how it ruined your entire holiday if it happened at the end.

Wwyd?

Well, prebook seats when going as a party.
deal with why the child was so desperate for auntie. This is weird.
Ask why no adult in the part swapped seats.
Wonder why EVERYONE got off the plane???

Bollocks. That is all. Bollocks. All of it.

Whaaaaaaat?

There are some proper wingnuts around here tonight. It's not a full moon, is it?

Wow how do you manage in everyday life if this leaves you unable to function?

Why didn't you book the seats if the child is so attached? Why didn't other adults change with you?

As others have said, airlines would not kick an entire family off the flight just because a random person says a child might be ill. I'd like to hear the cabin crew's side of the story here.

If the child got so upset that they vomited then the passenger is no unreasonable to complain. Planes are famous for harbouring germs and I wouldn't want to sit near someone vomiting.

The family is at fault here. They should have checked in earlier if sitting together was crucial or one of the adults should have swapped with the aunt. I don't understand why the whole party disembarked. Personally the child, one parent and possibly the aunt would have sufficed?

I’m assuming it was an airbus a380 is a favoured airplane of emirates and the full upstairs cabin is business/ first class.

They have a version with economy upstairs.

www.seatguru.com/airlines/Emirates_Airlines/Emirates_Airlines_Airbus_A380_Two_Class.php

This story doesn't make any sense. And has been reported to HQ.