An Indian mom who was flying on United Airlines got an apology and a refund after a flight attendant told her it was absolutely unacceptable for her baby to be crying for more than five minutes on the plane.
She posted her experience while on board. But many of the Facebook comments under the post were not supportive of her.
Krupa Patel Bala, her husband and their 8-month-old son were flying business class from Sydney to San Francisco on September 25, when the incident happened.
Read her post
Good news: The captain just came over with Linda so she could apologize to us.
Bad news: She refused to admit she lied about the crew complaining (she said service was disturbed and apparently that’s the same thing - ok Linda, whatever you say), she refused to admit she lied about passengers complaining (she said she saw someone roll their eyes but couldn’t tell us who - ok Linda, whatever you say), and she failed to admit she lied about the rule book and being able to access it in the air (she said it was in the book ages ago). The pilot apologized for her and while I appreciate that, it’s not his apology I’m interested in.
So, in short, here’s what we know: Linda lied. She knows we know she lied. She still won’t apologize. She continues to humiliate us on this airplane.
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I’m currently in business class on UA 870 from Sydney to San Francisco and I’m beyond infuriated at the inflight experience I’m having with our head flight attendant as she just told me it’s “ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE†for my baby to cry on the plane.
I’m traveling with my husband and 8-month old son and we purchased business class seats with a bassinet for the baby. Now, I don’t really know what’s wrong with my baby, but he tends to cry from time to time. I hear that’s common with newborns but this is my only child, so I could be mistaken. After about 5 minutes of the baby crying in the bassinet, Linda (the flight attendant manager who is also our server and the purser) came over and *yelled* at my husband it was “absolutely unacceptable†for the baby to cry.
Right. It’s “unacceptable†for an 8-month old to cry.
We picked him up, per her request, and tried to get him to calm down.
When Linda returned, I kindly tried to explain to her that her request really stressed me out as he’s AN EIGHT MONTH OLD and we have 13 hours ahead of us on this flight - he’s going to cry again and I don’t have any control over that. She told me we could discuss it in economy and not at my assigned seat. So, I walked back to economy with her and she dropped some knowledge on me, including these bits:
- I should have given the baby his bottle back (he’d finished it but that doesn’t seem to be an important detail in Linda’s book).
- I shouldn’t have tried to put him to sleep because the lights weren’t down and he’s “obviously†too excited. (Ok Linda, whatever you say.)
- Some airlines don’t even allow babies in business class. (When I asked if United was one of those airlines, she said clearly it wasn’t but that the baby needed to be quiet. So, I guess silent babies are allowed to fly in business class.)
- Babies are not allowed to cry for more than five minutes and (this part was yelled) it REALLY STRESSED THE CREW OUT. (Funny; it also really stresses me out when the baby cries - I don’t actually enjoy it, go figure. Oh, and we asked a few other crew members if we disturbed them and they had zero idea what we were talking about.)
I was told it’s part of the rule book that the babies are not allowed to cry for more than 5 minutes. When I asked to see the rule book, I was laughed at and told I could see it when we landed because there’s no internet. Yet. Here I am. Posting this in-flight via WiFi that I specifically purchased to post this for $28.99.
More than anything, I tried to explain to her that I understand that people might get frustrated if the baby cries but there is a more constructive way for her to ask us to manage the situation. She could have asked us to walk the baby around, tactfully shared that it was starting to disturb passengers, or really ANYTHING with a smile that acknowledged that we weren’t out to make everyone (including us) suffer. Her response to that was to tell me that it didn’t matter because it was just unacceptable for the baby to cry and as the parent, I need to control him.
We will never fly United again.
Parents of newborns have it hard enough already traveling with a baby and we certainly don’t need CREW MANAGERS piling on when we are doing our best to ensure we’re containing our children and their cries.
It’s absolutely shocking to me that this type of behavior was exhibited by a manager and speaks volumes about your leadership. I’ll gladly take my business to an airline where babies are allowed to cry for more than 5 minutes and it doesn’t stress out the crew.
