I’ve had my share of travel nightmares flying back and forth from Chicago to Hawaii with my daughter. While our mishaps make for funny blogs, I would prefer experiencing incident-free trips. Then again, even the shortest vacations with children can lead to high drama, which is why most parents spend countless hours researching and planning the best ways to avoid meltdowns while on the road or in the air.
Believe me; you can not over-prepare when it comes traveling with kids. It’s a lesson parents from North Carolina learned the hard way this week.
When Jason and Kathy Fickes of Charlotte booked airline tickets to fly their entire clan to see their grandparents in Chicago for Christmas, they never dreamed their trip would land them in the national spotlight… but it did, and now other parents can learn from the family’s mistake.
The Fickes are parents to four kids under the age of 3. The couple has a 3-year-old, 20-month-old twins and an 8-month-old. That, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment, and it’s no wonder the family doesn’t fly very often. However, this year, the parents were determined to have their kids experience Christmas in the Windy City with their grandparents.
According to news reports, a few weeks ago, Kathy bought three tickets on U.S. Airways’ website. The site prompted her to enter “two adults and one child above 2 years old” in the passenger information section. However, Kathy maintains she didn’t see an option that provided details regarding traveling with young children.
“We were going to have one of the twins sit with my 3-year-old and my husband and I each hold one of the two remaining children,” she told reporters.
The family’s cramped seating situation wasn’t questioned in the airport, but once the clan got settled on the plane, a flight attendant raised a red flag.
“She came back over and said, ‘I’m sorry, due to FAA regulations we only have four oxygen masks in each row. Someone is going to have to move seats,'” the exasperated mom told reporters.
At first, Kathy and her husband moved seats, but that still didn’t fly with the flight crew. After 45 minutes of trying to accommodate the family, including an offer by another passenger to pay for an extra seat for one of the Fickes’ children, the entire clan got booted from the plane.
U.S. Airways says it stands by its move. The carrier blames the parents for not reading its policy regarding lap children, which is posted on the airlines’ website.
“What we had here was a case that the math didn’t add up. You had two adults who wanted to travel with three lap children. The safety regulations are such that you have to have one child per one adult,” Michelle Mohr, a U.S. Airways spokesman, told a TV news crew.
According to U.S. Airways, an adult must be traveling with an infant in order to get the lap child fare. So, basically, the Fickes could have made it to Chicago without incident if they bought a ticket for one of their kids under 2, although that child would have been required to fly in a car seat.
In the end, U.S. Airways refunded the family’s tickets, and the family decided to stay at home for the holidays.
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