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United Airlines Gives 2-Year-Old's Seat Away to Standby Passenger
United Airlines requires children over the age of 2 to have their own tickets and occupy their own seats, but that didn’t stop the airline from allowing a 27-month-old child from sitting in his mother’s lap after they accidentally oversold his spot. (www-foxnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org) More...
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"...explaining that Taizo’s ticket was incorrectly scanned at the gate." How do you incorrectly scan a ticket?
Big BS if I may say. Incorrectly scanned, yeah right. Tell me how they didn't get the alert or aware or even suspicious to noticed, a mother and a minor travelling together (HIGH chance they're under 1 confirmation#), mom showed up and the kid's not? What???? Investigation needs to be done (and maybe to check who's this standby pax, was he related to the agent, etc).
The tickets were probably stacked and only the top was scanned, I've seen that happen before.
NOT an excuse. Couldn't the gate agent see that there were TWO people? A two-year old toddler generally does not look like a lap infant.
[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]
My guess: computer glitch due to the boarding pass being creased/wrinkled/stained coupled with the gate agent not noticing the different "error' beep when it didn't read correctly.
an agent or f/a running the bp scanner would,(especially with a child in a stroller as this little person was per the video on the news),ask the mother for the childs age and a second boarding pass because of the childs size,and also because a stroller has to be checked at the gate anyway..they do not fit in the overhead and on a full flight they are not accepted to hang in the front coat closet either..this had nothing to do with a wrinkled or stained bp as the story says the child was not even checked in.. as a paid passenger the mother would have been immediately directed to the agent at the gate desk to fix the problem, before standby passengers were called..(the mother had already boarded when the standby came on to take the seat...)definitely and error but it was not the bp reader,it was the agent or f/a running it who should have taken care of the problem immediately...
Mary: Thanks for your comments.
I strongly believe both mother and child were checked in. I come to this conclusion for two reasons. First, they both boarded their HNL-IAH flight, which would have required check-in. Second, the mother has stated in interviews that the gate agent "zapped" (to use her term) two boarding passes. In order to have two boarding passes, two must have been checked in.
(See her comments in https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/07/06/mom-has-carry-boy-flight-after-united-takes-his-seat-and-resells/454585001/)
I personally have had a boarding pass that the bar-code reader rejected (the reader gives a different tone), but if the agent is distracted or not paying attention, they may not have stopped the mother when her son's boarding pass was mis-read by the computer.
Additionally, because they traveled HNL-IAH first, there would have been a gate check tag already issued for the stroller for that flight. The agent could have seen that and not had to affix a new one.
The computer would then, later, when clearing standbys, have reported the child's boarding pass as not having been boarded (semantics between that and checked-in, perhaps not captured reliably by the news media) allowing it to be freed for the standby passenger.
I strongly believe both mother and child were checked in. I come to this conclusion for two reasons. First, they both boarded their HNL-IAH flight, which would have required check-in. Second, the mother has stated in interviews that the gate agent "zapped" (to use her term) two boarding passes. In order to have two boarding passes, two must have been checked in.
(See her comments in https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/07/06/mom-has-carry-boy-flight-after-united-takes-his-seat-and-resells/454585001/)
I personally have had a boarding pass that the bar-code reader rejected (the reader gives a different tone), but if the agent is distracted or not paying attention, they may not have stopped the mother when her son's boarding pass was mis-read by the computer.
Additionally, because they traveled HNL-IAH first, there would have been a gate check tag already issued for the stroller for that flight. The agent could have seen that and not had to affix a new one.
The computer would then, later, when clearing standbys, have reported the child's boarding pass as not having been boarded (semantics between that and checked-in, perhaps not captured reliably by the news media) allowing it to be freed for the standby passenger.
