boro1698
01-24-2007, 02:51 AM
Mom Says She Wasn't Allowed To Console Child
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A 3-year-old girl was removed from a flight when she threw a tantrum, but her parents said the airline went too far.
Julie and Gerry Kulesza and daughter Elly planned to fly home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers after a four-day visit. An AirTran spokeswoman said the girl was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding.
The family flew home the next day.
AirTran added that they were only following Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seatbelt upon take-off.
But Julie Kulesza said she just needed a little more time to calm her daughter down.
"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied.
The carrier reimbursed the family the cost of the three tickets and offered them three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies.
But that's too little, too late for the Kuleszas, who said they will never fly AirTran again.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A 3-year-old girl was removed from a flight when she threw a tantrum, but her parents said the airline went too far.
Julie and Gerry Kulesza and daughter Elly planned to fly home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers after a four-day visit. An AirTran spokeswoman said the girl was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding.
The family flew home the next day.
AirTran added that they were only following Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seatbelt upon take-off.
But Julie Kulesza said she just needed a little more time to calm her daughter down.
"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied.
The carrier reimbursed the family the cost of the three tickets and offered them three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies.
But that's too little, too late for the Kuleszas, who said they will never fly AirTran again.