I appreciate the response. My mom and stepdad have lived in the Denver area for nearly 20 years, and

Loves how Frontier won t let me sit next to my 2 kids on the plane tomorrow unless I pay $20 per seat for the arrangement. Which I won t do. My kids are very social and would love nothing more than to get attention from a new person. For me, it s free babysitting
Of course, I was joking. Not that it wasn t tempting to hand off my kids to someone else so I could have two hours of peace, perhaps reading a book uninterrupted, 3 stars hotel venice taking a catnap, listening to music other than nonstop Katy Perry. Such a break would be a vacation in and of itself.
Yes, let someone else dish out the Goldfish to Zoe and Ryan and that person can count each fish individually to make sure each child receives the same amount because, God forbid, if one gets more, the other will start loudly bemoaning the injustice. And let someone 3 stars hotel venice else take 4-year-old Ryan to bathroom five times during one flight, and let that person s face turn red when Ryan amuses other passengers by taunting his sister: Ha, ha, Zoe, I got to pee standing up because 3 stars hotel venice I have penis and you can t do that because you have a ba-gina.
But despite my kids being a handful, I wanted to sit next to them. I love them. They re my kids and I am responsible 3 stars hotel venice for their well-being, not a stranger. And speaking of strangers, if I was a childless 3 stars hotel venice passenger seated next to a young kid without parents, I d be annoyed. It s not fair to anyone. Also, what if my kid was seated next to a psycho or a pervert. Wouldn t there be liability issues if something happened?
Now, onto the money aspect: For three round-trip plane tickets, booked online well in advance, it cost our family $781.80, with taxes and standard fees. That s a lot of money. I get it and I don t like it, but that s how airlines are these days. However, to pay an extra $20 per passenger to change seating arrangements so a mother could sit with her small kids is beyond ridiculous. That s potentially an additional $120 for the round-trip privilege of taking care of my kids. Hell no was I going to pay that.
I thought maybe my experience with Frontier Airlines was an annoying fluke. But it seems other airline passengers have experienced the same thing . One of my Facebook friends commented on my status update: You would think [airlines] would make an exception for kids under 12! My boss had the same issue flying with his 4 kids one age 2 and one who is diabetic. Can you imagine the person next to kid Sir, would you mind checking her blood sugar?
As it turned out, I sat next to my kids on both flights. In St. Louis, the ticket agent immediately understood that a mother needed to be with her kids. She did a little magic on her computer, asked a kind couple to relinquish their seats and sat my kids and I together. (By the way, it s not fair for a passenger who probably paid big bucks for a ticket to give up a coveted seat).
In Denver, however, the request to sit next to my kids morphed into an ugly scene. The ticket agent said he couldn t change our seats. He gave me two choices: My kids and I could be scattered throughout the plane or I could ask people to play musical chairs once we boarded the plane. Ridiculous. Wouldn t this anger passengers and potentially cause delays? I swear, airlines generally don t seem to care about customer service.
When Zoe heard the ticket agent, she started crying, I want to sit next to my mommy, I want to sit next to my mommy. At first, Ryan thought it was all a funny game but after a few minutes, he started wailing, too. The ticket agent kept trying to push me aside to attend to the long line forming behind 3 stars hotel venice me. I turned into mama bear and started saying, loudly, So you want my kids to sit with strangers? You re going to ask a passenger to feed my kids snacks, read them a story, make sure they re properly buckled? What if my kids cry or scream? Will a stranger wipe their nose, if needed? Or what about their behinds?
Passengers either chuckled or shook their heads in disgust (maybe at me, maybe at the airline). I kept ranting with no plans to stop until he changed our seats: So you re saying Frontier 3 stars hotel venice won t allow a mother to sit with her kids? Zoe cried, cried, cried. This all went on for a good 10 minutes 3 stars hotel venice until finally the ticket agent suddenly 3 stars hotel venice remembered how to change seats so we could all sit together.
To be fair, I emailed Frontier twice in the past two weeks for a comment regarding parents sitting with their kids. This morning, Lindsey Carpenter, a top-level spokesperson, offered a detailed 3 stars hotel venice response:
We are a family friendly airline and you certainly did everything 3 stars hotel venice right by booking on our website and you proactively went to our agents with your seating issue. I am sorry that the second agent was not as accommodating as the agent in St. Louis, as it is our policy to ensure that anyone 3 stars hotel venice eight and under is seated with a parent on our aircraft.
Without having the ability to dig into the flight specifics, I can guess that when you booked which was during the peak summer travel 3 stars hotel venice season the flight you were traveling on had booked up quickly and left few seats left to assign by the time you booked, which in turn left you in that predicament. While I understand that can be frustrating, summer travel is unlike any other time of year and, unfortunately, these things can happen. This is why we have policies in place to ensure that children eight and under are seated with at least one parent during their flight and our customer service team will gladly work with our customers to make that happen.
Additionally, Carpenter noted that Frontier made policy changes 3 stars hotel venice last week that leave a good number of seats open for selection in advance by those that book directly with Frontier, via FlyFrontier.com . I would, obviously, encourage families to book directly 3 stars hotel venice with us to enjoy the benefits of this policy change.
3 stars hotel venice I appreciate the response. My mom and stepdad have lived in the Denver area for nearly 20 years, and I have not, so I have flown Denver-based Frontier dozens of times and have had positive experiences. But I m not sure if I would fly Frontier again because the whole experience angers me on so many levels.
All images courtesy of myself and Ryan or Wikimedia Commons except for the barf bag photo; that came from the RedDirt Chronicles. Also, the photo at the top of the post is of Zoe crying at Denver International Airport after she heard that we might not sit together. No, I did not take the picture. Her 4-year-old 3 stars hotel venice brother Ryan, an i-Phone pro , took a series of Zoe-crying pictures while I was talking with the ticket agent.
Great article, I almost felt like that nervous passenger standing two peeps behind you in line as you made your case, praying to God you and/or your kids (or both/all) would be seated as far from me as possible no matter the outcome!
Same thing happened to me on United flying from Denver to Chicago. My kids were 2 and 4 at the time, and one of them gets violently motion sick. I had to walk around the plane to find people to trade seats with me. Ridiculous. There is absolutely NO customer service.
My 6 year old daughter and I flew to Canada from Texas this past summer with United. I might be disappointing people when I say we had a great experience with them. We were late getting to the airport, and the security line up was ridiculously long. The ticketing agent gave my daughter and I separate seats. But when we got on the plane I let the flight attendant know and he just had us wait at the back of the plane while he called the gate to ask them if there were any open seats. Lucky for us there were and we didn t have to inconvenience any other passengers.
Love the slide show. A person 3 stars hotel venice I know once had this happen a number of years ago, her son was 3. She had to ask people tp switch once on the plane and the businessman sitting in the seat next to the 3yo wouldn t move so she dumped the diaper bag and the whole lot in his lap and said, His name is xxx, he s still in diapers, good luck and don t wake me suddenly the businessman decided letting mom have the seat wasn t such a bad idea after all. The attendant really should have been the one asking people to switch though- not leaving it to a mom.
I have had this happen multiple times when flying with United. For some reason the agents in Denver were by far the worst. Everyone that I know from Denver is so friendly and accommodating. I am not sure where the airport imports their employees 3 stars hotel venice from.
Argh. That is awful. Last December I was flying from Indianapolis to Seattle with my 3 kids, ages 13, 10 and 5. Only had two seats together. 3 stars hotel venice My 13 yo son was fine sitting 6 rows behind us. I told my 10yo I had to sit with the 5yo she was just too young even though I know my 10yo is shy and was uncomfortable sitting with stranges two rows behind 3 stars hotel venice me. Fortunately (for them), 3 stars hotel venice a young couple was in her row and they said they would switch with me and my 5yo. Well thank God they did because my 10yo spent the entire 3 stars hotel venice flight puking into an airsick bag. Wouldn t that have been fun for that couple to deal with?
That is the funniest slide show I ve ever seen. I m peeing in my pants reading it cause it would all be so true. But what s not funny is the fact that you have to pay to sit next to your kids that the gate attendant gave you so much crap about changing seats. All your reasons why a parent should sit next to their children are spot on. And what about if something were to happen. Like trouble with the aircraft, from severe turbulence (which isn t uncommon) to terrorist or the plane having trouble. Can you imagine 3 stars hotel venice not sitting by children 3 stars hotel venice in these frightening circumstances? Most adults would be scared but a child would need their parents. This is the biggest crap of bull that I ve ever heard of. But thanks for the slideshow. It made me lol.
Same thing happened to us except on Southwest, the flight attendant was very rude and unhelpful. At the time my daughter was 4 yrs old and she has type 1 diabetes.I had to cry in front of a plane full of people while my poor little girl though sh