United Airlines popcorn controversy: What sayeth the Dis?

[mom2rtk]

I'm hard pressed to side with either party in this one.

 

[BrianL]

I'm surprised that's legal (unless the restrooms worked when they pushed back).

It isn't. I was on a flight from Dallas to Hawaii, that started to have lavatory troubles. First one went out. Then one whole side did. Eventually there were none and they turned us around to LA halfway across the Pacific. Theoretically it would have taken just as long to get to Honolulu, but the maintenance couldn't be done there. Sadly, that was the second turnaround after a previous medical emergency had us go back to San Francisco. That was a terrible flight!

 

[bcla]

Looks like a 2x2 configuration in an Embraer 175 or 170. And United doesn't actually fly those. Those are United Express, and all their employees (even the the gate agents) work for a contractor like Republic or Skywest.

 

[Pink Partridge]

In this case, what happens if the oxygen masks drop? They always instruct you to put your own on before helping anyone else, how is she going to get both small children across the aisle?

Didn't even think about that. But I am sure she would expect a flight attendant to do it for her

More of a reason to downgrade to coach so you have a child on each side.

 

[BrianL]

I'm hard pressed to side with either party in this one.

Yeah, I think the real issue is attitude. If you're like, "Oh my, I'm so sorry, my kids made a mess. Is there anything I can do?" then I'd bet you'll do much better than if you just let your kids trash the place and feel entitled about having them clean it for you. I wasn't there, but I get the latter feeling from this story.

 

[Pink Partridge]

Hopefully this taught the mom (and dad) a valuable lesson. They will be under a microscope the next time they travel anywhere (they did that to themselves).

Hopefully they learned not to allow their children to make such a mess for others to clean up.

 

[RedAngie]

What's WHIP?

Damned if I know. But someone explained in a subsequent post.

There are WAY too many statistics in sports, especially baseball. A good percentage are essentially meaningless.

 

[mrodgers]

I guess that I am basing it off of being a mom and never in a million years would I let my 2 year old on a plane, in their own seat away from me. My kids were always right next to me. But maybe this is the one mom in a million that just doesn't give a crap about her kids.

I watched a 3 year old get underneath the fence at a McDonald's playground on the outside walk the edge of a dropoff down to a 4 lane road when when I got mom's attention, she just turned back to her conversation with her friend. There are a lot out there that don't give a crap about their own kids. This mom isn't one in a million.

 

[Wendy31]

As someone else mentioned, that no one else who was on the flight has come forward is a little suspect.

I highly doubt the flight attendant was standing over the supposedly visibly crying pregnant mom like a nun in a Catholic school yelling at her to clean up the popcorn or else.

And, if the flight attendant WAS, indeed, acting like a drill sergeant & no one in the vicinity of the crying, pregnant mom & her 2 small kids came forward to either assist the crying, pregnant mom & her 2 small kids OR to protest the flight attendant’s drill sergeant manner toward a crying, pregnant mom & her 2 small kids, then I suspect that either it didn’t exactly happen the way the crying, pregnant mom claimed it did OR the crying, pregnant mom maybe had a little bit of prima donna “Do you know who I am” kind of attitude & everyone in the vicinity was happy to watch her pick up the popcorn.

 

[sam_gordon]

In this case, what happens if the oxygen masks drop? They always instruct you to put your own on before helping anyone else, how is she going to get both small children across the aisle?

I'm guessing she thought the odds of the oxygen masks dropping were pretty low (I agree with that), she was thinking she can get her mask on then get over to help her kids, or she didn't think about it.

 

[ronandannette]

Super quiet crowd. Not sure you would normally hear a child scream over fans.

That video doesn't really do it justice. Scotiabank Arena was packed to the rafters and is never a quiet crowd. It certainly wasn't for that very high-stakes game. Watching the game on tv was weird; it was impossible to discern what the intermittent ear-piercing sound was. Nothing was on camera and the commentators weren't mentioning it, but man, it was loud and clear - at a certain point we kind of assumed there was something going wrong with the audio feed from our cable provider. I was pretty darned surprised the next day to see all the kerfuffle.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

They state later in the article that the airline provided the pop corn .

I’m sorry but to me it looks like a full size bag, not a snack size bag.
I wonder if the mom brought it on board.

 

[Boopuff]

I question the popcorn being given as an in-flight snack. I think the flight attendant handed mom the bag and probably asked her to assist her kids in the clean up. Also at 22 weeks, she's barely showing as pregnant, and I have great doubts that the FA "made her get on her hands and knees to clean up. " Methinks someone is fabricating....

 

[lovesmurfs]

Based on what? There are only two seats in the row in the picture. So, either she put the two kids side by side and she sat on the other side (I find that understandable). If the youngest one is two, she doesn't qualify as a lap child, so everyone needs their own seat.

Nope. As a parent, I would sit with the younger one, and have the older one across the aisle from me so that I was quasi-between the two.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I’m sorry but to me it looks like a full size bag, not a snack size bag.
I wonder if the mom brought it on board.

View attachment 754523

That's a picture taken after they got (home) (wherever they were headed). By mom....

Sydney shared a photo on Instagram Monday of daughter Blaire, 2, hugging a sealed bag of Skinny Pop popcorn and laughing.

"She's so cute," Sydney captioned the photo.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment...ster-shares-180458200.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

What's WHIP?

Walks plus hits per inning pitched.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Well the mom posting that picture on instagram of her child holding the bag of popcorn after all of this drama and nonsense just goes to show her character. Pretty clear now who has the entitled and bad attitude. She doubled down on acting like an entitled jerk.

 

[sam_gordon]

Nope. As a parent, I would sit with the younger one, and have the older one across the aisle from me so that I was quasi-between the two.

Good for you. I don't think putting the two kids next to each other is "bad" (depending on them getting along).

ETA: I'd rather be the one sitting next to a stranger than a 5yo (not saying that's bad, just my preference).

 

[fly girl]

Thanks for the comments fly girl. For the record….I don’t complain to anyone on a flight…ever. Only once when the man’s seat in front of me was broken and he was literally in my lap when he reclined. Even then…I had to send my husband to complain because I was trapped I’m just happy to be going somewhere…because when I’m on a flight, I’m going on vacation. Hawaii for our 25th Anniversary is up next, departing two weeks from tomorrow .

You have every right to speak up if things aren’t right. And definitely that broken seat was a doozy!

Enjoy Hawaii! Happy 25th

I know how to fix that quickly. Every flight attendant should call off work until they are paid for the time that they work. I give it 2 days of grounded flights. Absolutely pathetic not to pay flight attendants once the doors open.

I chuckled at that one, but 100% love the support. Great in theory, but like @sam_gordon said it was told to us before we started that is how the pay worked.

I get that going through with a shop vac probably isn't happening with a quick turnaround, but if there's no accounting for spills with something like a handheld vacuum, then that's something that should have been thought of before.

You have to remember airlines are not putting anything extra onboard that can:
a. Add more weight. Even as small and light as a Dustbuster or small broom and dustpan.
b. Has the potential to have maintenance issues and they need to constantly fix. $$$

Quite frankly, I would have flown coach and sat in the middle of my two young children.

I would have too. 100%

However, this could have been a regional jet which has a 2-2 configuration. Personally, I would have sat beside the 2 year old and have the 5 year old across the aisle. But that is just me.

If one of them had a kernel lodged in her throat, would they post on the "Kernel stuck in my throat" thread?

Admit it, I'm not the only who thought of that thread while reading this one!

Yes! You are not alone.

That said, United is kind of a hard one to judge. I've had a couple of awful flights on United, including a flight from LA to hawaii on a fully loaded chartered 747 in 1976 where none of the restrooms were operational...a 5 hour flight. I did fly them right after the Continental merger, and the flight had a Continental crew...it was awesome. then another flight with an original united crew, and again it was awful.

I'm surprised that's legal (unless the restrooms worked when they pushed back).

It isn't. I was on a flight from Dallas to Hawaii, that started to have lavatory troubles. First one went out. Then one whole side did. Eventually there were none and they turned us around to LA halfway across the Pacific. Theoretically it would have taken just as long to get to Honolulu, but the maintenance couldn't be done there. Sadly, that was the second turnaround after a previous medical emergency had us go back to San Francisco. That was a terrible flight!

You are both correct, @sam_gordon and @BrianL 100% a no go flight if you have all lavatories inoperable on large jets. You can go with some of them inop, but not all. With big boys going long haul, the typical rule of thumb is you can go with only half of them working. (but even 1 inoperable is a nightmare)

However, the small ones (with only 1 bathroom) can go with it inop. It is up to the carrier.

 

[fly girl]

In this case, what happens if the oxygen masks drop? They always instruct you to put your own on before helping anyone else, how is she going to get both small children across the aisle?

This is why I would sit next to the 2 year old and have the 5 year old across the aisle. She can get her mask on and then help both kids much easier than than being the solo one across the aisle.

Didn't even think about that. But I am sure she would expect a flight attendant to do it for her

More of a reason to downgrade to coach so you have a child on each side.

If we aren't right there, we aren't doing it. We have to don the masks too. We are screaming through them to tell you to put it on, but we are stuck where we are when the masks dropped. You have about 18 seconds of useful consciousness before hypoxia starts.