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.

Nah, I doubt you'll get compo OP.

Well my presumed version of events is that the 'friend' got aggressive with the staff and got everyone booted off the flight, and now the friend's family are not speaking to her because she couldn't keep her cakehole shut.
What I can't understand though, is how she has become a recluse.

What would i do? I'd get a fucking grip.

Why did no-one downstairs swap with auntie upstairs to calm niece??

Because the Aunt had paid for an expensive seat and sitting upstairs in premium/business was more important to her than sitting with her niece.

This is actually my friend not me. The reason it says 'my' is because I started writing this as if I was my friend. (I know it's all confidential and there's no way of any of you knowing who I am, and that's not the point the story anyway). Just for further clarification on the children's ages are four and three and they both have special educational needs. The four-year-old has autism and other special needs and a three-year-old is been diagnosed for autism at the moment and has speech and language problems and is seeing a therapist about that. It's not very easy to calm down a child who is tired, hungry and unreasonable (and can't communicate well due to speech and language issues. The reason that someone didn't swap with the auntie that was sitting upstairs is because the child was having a tantrum as the whole family were not sitting together. She would have been just as bad if it was her dad, mum etc.. sitting) upstairs. I know there are times in place for throwing tantrums, and in the middle of her flight that is due to take off is not ideal however the whole situation was not ideal and they thought that she would eventually calm down. If they had known that they could potentially be kicked off the flight due to a crying child who they thought was ill (even though she wasn't), they would have swapped seats. My friend said it's not about the money or any kind of compensation. It's about the way they were treated. It's also about the principle of the whole situation about why they should pay to get on the next flight when they didn't miss their flight they were purposely removed from the flight due to no fault of their own. The chimes did eventually calmed down and she fell asleep, so this situation wouldn't have lasted very long anyway. It's just unfortunate that they were asked to leave the flight. My friend is self employed and is wealthy. The stress of the whole situation has caused her to become ill. I must say you are all being quite violent today I'm not really hearing what is being said. It looks like you're all copying each other and not having your own opinion. 

Jesus, how do some people get through the day?

Wow everyone is being harsh! If this is the full truth of it then yes it is dodgy and I would complain. I would be furious. The person who has been very stressed out by it- do they have anxiety and depression? Sounds like it and if so this would not be an unusual reaction. A rubbish experience, but not a common one. Make your complaints and chalk it up to experience. Don't go with the airline again and/or make sure you book prebooked seats so you can all be together. Eventually this may become a funny horror story you tell 5 years from now.

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.

And turned into a recluse to boot. Completely unbelievable and there is always another side to the story. Your 'friend' has obviously never suffered any upsets in her life if this experience has broken her.

I think someone's daily mail fishing!

i didn't even know that planes had an upstairs!
misses point entirely

Well you’re very het up about it all considering it’s nothjng to do with you op!

And as for us all copying each other... maybe that’s because we’re all right and your friend is being an over dramatic wet blanket?

Epic drip feed by the way

Wouldn’t the airline have been made aware that the child was autistic?

Still doesn’t explain why mum is so stressed with it she is off work ill.

Christ on a bike. All I got from that is 'you're all being violent'.

My OWN opinion is that if something like this makes your friend so ill that she cannot go to work and becomes a recluse, the flight and what to do about it are the least of her problems.

She urgently needs to seek help for her issues.

Wow ott reaction re not being able to work etc. Has your sil had previous history of mental illness as maybe see gp as sounds like she needs support. Hope she feels better soon.

Re the payment of being moved letter to airline to complain about this. Honest and factual but polite letter. Expect nothing back but you might be lucky.

I have an opinion. The family didn’t check in before to ensure they could sit together. If the children get that upset then surely this is something to ensure is in place via online check in?

Emirates are one of the best airlines with children. I don’t for one minute think they would ask an entire family to disembark due to a crying child. I suspect there is way more to this story. Possibly much that you haven’t been told.

I've never been on a plane with 2 floors for passengers and I've done long haul. Is this a new thing?

Nickynacky, it's not even the mum who's unable to work, it's the friend op

It’s interesting that both children are now autistic... Didn’t that seem relevant to include in the long (and full of not that relevant information) OP?

Any particular reason why your friend didn't book seats if she knew her child would be upset,op?

jezebel true 😂

Rudgie - no. I went on a plane with an upstairs in 2000ish

Epic drip feed indeed.

If this is such a huge issue that a child makes itself ill over it why didn't they prebook seats together?

Did they expect the flight to sit on the ground for hours until the child was brought under control, delaying the rest of the passengers and disrupting the flight schedule?

Or is this just another one of those instances where a group didn't book seats in advance but expected other passengers to reshuffle to accommodate them.

And, if the children were autistic and couldn’t cope without all the family sitting with them, why didn’t the family pay to book seats all together? Because you’d totally do this if you anticipated an issue.