Family Booted Off JetBlue Flight

JetBlue Flight
image: Yahoo Parenting from Mona Doshi

A family claims to have been unfairly kicked off of a JetBlue flight earlier this week according to an article from Yahoo Parenting (which Kim sent my way).

According to what was written, it appears that the reason the family got the boot was due to questioning the flight attendants and also responding in an irritated manner.

Overall, based on what I read in the article, these things wouldn’t seem to be an appropriate reason to turn a plane back to the gate and kick a family off of a flight.

Here are some more details of what took place.

The Doshi family was supposed to fly with their 2-year-old son and three-year old daughter from Boston to Baltimore.

The family claims that they were “accused of refusing to comply with flight attendants’ instructions to put their 2-year-old in his seat” according to Yahoo but he actually was seated and buckled in.

Although a ticket was bought for their 2-year-old son Milin, on the flight to Boston, a flight attendant allowed the mom, Doshi to fly with him sitting on her lap since he was being “squirmy“.

On the way back, when Doshi put Milin on her lap she was immediately approached by a flight attendant and told the boy needed to be in his own seat. She was supposedly fine with the instructions but asked some questions since the first flight went differently.

The flight attendant got defensive and a minute or so later a second FA came by and gave the same instructions.

Here is what happened next according to Yahoo, “I was a bit irritated and I said, ‘OK, I got it. I got the lecture and I’m putting him in his seat,’” Doshi explains. “She said, ‘First of all, it wasn’t a lecture, and I can turn this plane around.’ I explained that I got the message, and I was focusing on settling my son down, who was now in his seat, but crying.

For the next 5 minutes Doshi was calming Milin down while her husband noticed that the plane was heading back to the gate. The pilot then came on the speaker and said they were going back due to some noncompliant passengers. Soon after he ordered them off of the plane.

Other passengers said that the family did nothing wrong and the incident was due to flight attendants powertripping (or something along those lines).

What I’d like to know is if it is a crime to question a flight attendant? If the family complied to the rules to have the 2-year-old in his seat, why didn’t the situation end? My guess is that when mom responded to the second flight attendant with what sounds like attitude, she didn’t like it, but was it justified to waste time in sending the plane back to the gate to kick them off? Based on the family’s story, no it doesn’t but I’d also like to hear more details from the other party involved.

Find out more about the story here.

P.S.- I know it isn’t fair to generalize but I could see JetBlue FAs not being the nicest crew out there. I’ve never had an issue on a flight until last year. While flying home from the DR, I had some words with a FA that was pulling bags out of the overhead and then shoving them back in. I also felt that JetBlue FAs weren’t the friendliest or most polite on our flight to/ from Charleston.

8 thoughts on “Family Booted Off JetBlue Flight

  1. Christian- I completely agree. This story could go either way.

    John- Well yes, we hope the law is the law. However, the family claims they followed the FAs instructions but asked questions while doing so.

    ATX- And what do you suggest we do with the adults that can not sit still and make no noise? Your comment is ridiculous.

  2. They are too young to fly unless they can sit still and make no noise. Yes, they should be booted off.

  3. If true, you have a perfect example of rampant and capricious abuse of power, and is obviously inexcusable. This may very well be the case. That said, I’d very much like to hear the other side of the story. Knowing only one side gives you a wildly skewed version. Remember the woman who claimed to be discriminated against on her flight, accusing the flight attendant of calling her a terrorist, then additional facts started to trickle in that wiped out a lot of the credibility of her story? I’d like some independent verification before I buy this at face value.

    1. What planet are you from? The law is the law, its not up for negotiation or your personal interpretation. Love me, love my kids bs only goes so far. The law trumps all.

  4. Mark- I’m sorry that it came off as if I was taking sides, I wasnt. I had clearly stated that I’d like to hear the FA’s version of the situation.

    As for this mom, why is it hard to believe that she didn’t know the rules? If she was allowed to hold her son on the previous flight, why would she think it would be any different on this one. Now don’t get me wrong, I would expect a parent to do a little reading into flying with kids if it really is their first time.

    The point of my experience with JetBlue FAs is that I haven’t found them to be the nicest to deal with. In the 100+ flights that we’ve flown with our son (he’s 3.5 years old) when it comes to him, we just about always dealt with very nice FAs, especially when flying Southwest.

    Oh and BTW- besides the fact that flying with a lap child over 2 years old is not allowed, are you saying anyoe flying with a lap child is stupid & ignorant? If so, that would just be…. stupid & ignorant.

  5. Seriously, has it gotten to the point where parents question the actual laws of physics? She says she kept the kid in her lap during the previous take off, so why was this evil flight attendant daring to protect her kid from mom’s stupidity and ignorance? She says she had no idea she couldn’t hold a child in her lap. Does she drive with a child in her lap? We only get one side of these arguments, and it always makes it sound as if the parent was the complete victim of a dictatorial evil flight attendant. As proof we are told some complete anecdotal evidence as to how a flight attendance wasn’t friendly to the author once, as if that somehow collaborates this story. Really? That’s logic to you?

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