I Love My Baby Carrier Too, But Not Enough To Get Kicked Off A Plane

baby carrierFlying is the worst, first class or not. And flying with small children is its own particular brand of torture. But just because flying is difficult, doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want on an airplane, especially since no one is making you fly and there are safety concerns at play. In general, I find that when flying with babies, being nice to the flight attendants goes a long way towards getting your kids extra juice and animal crackers. But Nicki Gazlay apparently doesn’t agree with my methods. Mom to a five-month-old, Gazlay was kicked off a plane over her baby carrier.

From wmcactionnews5.com, comes the story of Gazlay, who was recently kicked off of a Frontier Airlines flight with her baby. Gazlay was boarding a connection flight from Denver to Memphsis. Although her baby was in his Ergo carrier for the first flight, as she was boarding this second flight she was asked to remove her child from the carrier by a flight attendant.

According to Gazlay, she questioned the flight attendant as to why she didn’t have to have take the baby out of the carrier on the previous flight with the same airline. Gazlay says she had her child out of the carrier when the attendant asked her again if to follow the rules. That’s when Gazlay said to the attendant: “Of course I am going to comply, I’m going to do whatever you say because you are the queen of this airplane.” Gazlay claims she was then removed from the plane and had to purchase another ticket with a different airline.

I raise an eyebrow at anyone who presents a conversation as though it radically jumped from polite questioning to a snarky comment about royal titles without escalation and then moans to the media that she was treated unfairly. My Nancy Drew-like senses appear to be on point, as Todd Lehmacher, the director of Corporate Communications for Frontier Airlines issued a statement, quoted in part below, that tells the story in a different way. From wmcactionews5:

Ms. Gazlay was attempting to use a restraining device not approved by the FAA for use onboard an aircraft.

Our flight attendant politely let Ms. Gazlay know that due to FAA regulations that were in place for their safety, that she wouldn’t be able to use the unapproved device. Upon verbal notification by the flight attendant, Ms. Gazlay immediately became belligerent and argumentative with our crew member (this fact has been corroborated by two customers seated in the vicinity of Ms. Gazlay).

The flight attendant then calmly repeated the FAA regulations concerning the device’s use and Ms. Gazlay continued to argue with the flight attendant which now made others on the plane ”˜very uncomfortable’ (this fact has been documented in writing by other customers). Federal Aviation Regulations require customer compliance with crew member instructions in this regard.

We support the actions of our flight crew 100% as they did exactly what they were trained to do in professional manner. Everything we do onboard is done with safety as the primary driver and we simply will not tolerate abusive behavior on board towards crew or other customers. This is the reason she was removed. We love children and families but customer compliance with crew member instructions regarding safety is critically important and mandated by Federal Aviation Regulations. This is for everyone’s safety on board.

It is Ms. Gazlay that owes our crew and the customers that witnessed the event an apology.

Lehmacher goes on to note that he received a letter from Gazlay’s husband, who works for an airline. According to Lehmacher, being part of the industry means this family should have known better than most the rules of child restraints on an airplane.

Some parents might say this is the airline’s fault for not having a consistent policy but I think Lehmacher’s point, however painful the burn may be, is valid.

I’m a hardcore lover of the Ergo, my boys are two now and we still use them backpack style for walks and crowded outings. Honestly, if they made an Ergo big enough for a school aged kids, i’d probably buy it, that’s how much I love the thing. But when a flight attendant tells me to do something, I listen.

I flew with my twins at seven months, eleven months, and thirteen months. When I checked the policies of the airline we were flying regarding infant carriers before our first flight, I saw similar rules to those of Frontier. Like Gazlay I’ve experienced inconsistent enforcement of that rule throughout my flights.

Some flight attendants made us take the babies out of the carriers for the entire flight, others asked the babies to be out for take off and landing, and on other flights, no one said a word and my husband and I smiled slyly at each other because we knew we were getting away with something. Our babies were just fine when they were allowed to stay in their carriers, they seemed happy and I had my arms free to flip through the Skymall catalog. The rule seems pointless to me, but I’m not an expert on airline safety, and that’s probably why.

I’m happy Frontier is standing behind its employees. Yes, the policies should be uniform across the board and with stories like this in the news I wouldn’t be surprised to see stricter enforcement of these rules going forward. But even if they don’t always make sense to us, we still have to abide by them. Flying is a privilege, not a right, and it’s time for people to stop fighting with the flight attendants who know better than we do.

(image: MNStudio/Shutterstock.com)

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