Anne Rogers wrote:
Hear hear! I was hassled once on an airplane but was too much of a
newbie to respond well, although I did just go about my business once
the flight attendent walked away. USAir's corporate offices could have
cared less when I complained formally.

what did she expect you to do? definitely worth asking in that situation,
she could not have asked you to go to the bathroom in this circumstance,
with the limited number an air hostess is not going to want to make things
more difficult for her (queues in the aisles), it's also plain impossible
given the size of airplane loos. So resumably she expects you to feed the
baby something else, which of course you wouldn't have, so you could ask, do
you carry bottles? Often in circumstances like this it can be that the
airhostess (or waitress or whatever employee) as been asked by another
customer and they themselves have no experience and just do what they are
told. This is rather different from the story above though, where it has
been reinforced by various people.



Actually, I posted about it at the time. It was Xmas and DD was just
under three months, and we were about to take off for a 4 hr flight. I
was planning on feeding DD during take-off, then she'd typically fall
asleep and I'd strap her into her seat. ((we'd purchased her own seat)
The flight attendant came up unasked and told us the flight would
probably be turbulent and that we'd need to leave her strapped in the
entire time rather than on our laps. I thanked her, thinking at first
she was just talking about safety, and explained that I'd strap her in
once we'd taken off and I'd nursed her. She told me I needed to go to
the restroom quickly and feed her now, since I would not be allowed to
feed her during the flight. Freaked, I tried to comply, and DD was
having none of it. So once we hit the runway, I took her out of her
seat and fed her, since I'll be d#@#d if I'm going to let my baby cry.
I don't know if she noticed. Later she came by and whispered that the
real reason was because it was the holidays and there were a lot of
families aboard who weren't ready for "their kids to see that" FWIW,
the only person who could possibly have seen anything was an L and D
nurse who overheard and was emphatically on my side.

Next time I'll just look her in the eye and give her a good squirt,
since I can get some serious distance!

USAir corporate just sent me a form letter apologizing for a "bad
experience with a flight attendant."

FYI, if you do ever fly USAir, don't buy your baby their own seat. I
had another flight attendent insist that I strap my hysterical one year
old into her own seat for a landing, despite the fact that she was
young enough to qualify as a lap baby, and there was a lap baby right
in front of me. She said if I did not, that the pilot would circle
the airport til I did since all ticketed passengers must be seated. DD
got so mad she threw up, and I was furious.

Argh, I'm getting myself mad all over again.

JJ