I recently flew with Thomson and I was separated from my 3 year old child on the flight home. He was sitting a row behind and across the aisle from myself. I asked several times if we could be moved closer together but the air hostess was not interested. My question is how can a 3 year old be exp...
Welcome to travel.SE. Please clarify the following: 1. Protect them from what? 2. Have you asked anyone next to your son or next to you to switch seats? 3. Which country this question applies to?
With Thomson airways. From kos to England. Safety in regard of airline emergencies. Safety in regard to the protection of children from sexual predictors. I asked if anyone would change seats, they said no. I asked the air hostess 10 times and she asked a few people who said no. We were allocated those seats so couldn't just "get two together next time" and it seems like every post on here someone votes to close it. Not a very helpful site.
@Emma-louise, some people get trigger-happy with close votes. You have added the relevant info and I will retract my close vote :) Please use this link travel.stackexchange.com/posts/56649/edit to update your question.
@CGCampbell that's not always possible, and even if it is, it's not necessarily guaranteed to help. My sister-in-law traveled recently with her husband and 4-year-old son. They checked in online, receiving boarding passes for three adjacent seats. When they got to the airport, however, they found that their seats had been reassigned, and they were no longer sitting together.
There are many laws to protect children, both when flying and when on the ground. If laws could prevent bad things from happening, we'd be the safest generation that ever lived.
Sorry to hear that. We have often been assigned separate seats and have ALWAYS been able to sit together by asking a flight attendant on quite a few different airlines. Honestly, I would simply complain and avoid flying with them in the future.
I have to ask this - do you have evidence of one child, anywhere in the world, at any time, being sexually molested while sitting in their seat in an airliner?
Just to put things in perspective, statistically, most abused children are attacked by someone close, a relative, a teacher, or a friend. Attacks by strangers are much less common.
I'm amused by the OP's reasoning and some of the answers/comments. However the concern of a parent wanting to sit together with their child is perfectly legitimate and I would think being a parent is reason enough
@StrongBad So there was one incident for ~3 Billion(!) flight passengers per year? For compassion, the chances of winning the lottery are 1:14,000,000, and the odds of dying by falling down stairs 1:2,800 and the odds of dying in burning building are 1:1,300 ...
@iHaveacomputer I provided 1 example, I have no idea if there are more examples on the web or unreported examples. The comment only asked for an example. If you want to talk about stats, I would be more interested in the conditional probabilty that a child who is seated alone on an overnight flight will be molested than the probability that a child will be molested on a random flight.
@iHaveacomputer There are plenty more reported incidents, all you have to do is search. And it's likely that there are even more unreported incidents since a young child will not necessarily self-report. Since most airlines won't accept an unaccompanied minor under the age of 5, they shouldn't allow them to be seated away from their accompanying adult.
Officially entitled or not, I cannot understand how a 3 year old could possibly be seated away from the parent by the ground staff. I also have little sympathy for the fellow travelers who refused to change seats. (Some sympathy if they would have to exchange an aisle seat for a middle seat, admitted. But still.) It's so basic and deeply ingrained to help mothers with children that I have to wonder what the world has come to if several co-travelers just shrug and say "I don't care."
Discussion on question by Emma-louise…
Discussion on question by Emma-louise…