When Frank Strong booked flights with his daughter to travel across the United States to visit her Grandmother a few weeks ago, the last thing he expected was to be allocated a seat 11 rows away from his daughter.
Frank explained “One of the first pieces of information they asked me was her age, but when I was given the option to select seats, there were no seats together. I couldn’t even pay them for us to sit together.” Frank made the decision not no preselect seats in the hope of securing two seats next to each other once he arrived at the airport. However after checking in online and at the airport, he states he was still unable to obtain a seat next to his daughter and immediately queried a staff member at the Delta airline’s ticket counter. Of this experience, Frank states:
“The gate agents exchanged knowing glances – they obviously had seen this before – and suggested I go to the gate. They said maybe they could fix the problem for me for free, otherwise I could pay $88 to get our seats together right away,” he says. “I did that, because I didn’t want to have to worry about what might happen at the gate.”
However what happened next left Frank unimpressed, he boarded the plan with his daughter to discover a large amount of empty seats and went on to say “This never should have happened in the first place…. No parent holds a higher responsibility – or more deeply visceral instinct – than keeping their child or children safe. That’s hard to accomplish 11 rows away when the fasten seat belt sign is glowing.”
The US airline involved has confirmed they are looking into the incident, however Frank is not holding his breath for an apology soon and he says “I’m not looking for freebies or anything,” he says. “I’d like them to think about their policies and make it easier for parents to travel with young children.”
Have you a bad experience when flying with your children?
