United Airlines Allegedly Forced Infant to Sit in a Dangerous Position

Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money.

Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

Flight attendants exist for more reasons than to fetch beverages and stroopwafels.  They’re meant to know and enforce rules that keep us safe.

But not only do some flight attendants appear to NOT know the rules, they sometimes strong-arm folks into unsafe practices!

Via FOX News, a woman flying United Airlines says a flight attendant forced her to face her infant daughter’s car seat forward before takeoff.

When the woman explained that her daughter is below the recommended weight for a forward-facing seat, and its potential dangers, another crew member boarded the plane to reinforce the flight attendant’s order. Then TWO MORE crew members approached her, and the woman says she was “berated.”

The woman claims one of the attendants said that “she didn’t really care about what I thought was safe, but this was just policy.”  When the woman challenged that statement, a flight attendant disappeared to check, and returned to admit that the infant “is supposed to rear-face, but the gate agents have final say in how the baby sits.”

So the gate agents superseded the airline policy?

United Airlines has since refunded the infant ticket, and said, “it was our mistake and we acknowledge that.”

Everybody makes mistakes and forgets a page out of the rulebook now and again.  The annoying part is how ferociously the mistaken airline employees defend their original statement.  Instead of finding the humility to double check before scolding a passenger.

At least the flight attendant didn’t insist she stow the child in the overhead bin.

Anyone out there have insight into how babies should be safely positioned on a plane?