The sound of a baby crying isn’t always the most pleasant of noises, but there are times that you just have to grin and bear it. Well, unless you’re an airline apparently.
A mum of an eight-month-old baby has taken to Facebook to voice her anger over the way she was treated by airline staff while on a flight from Sydney to San Francisco.
The woman, Krupa Patel Bala, was travelling business class with her husband on a United Airlines flight when her baby started crying. She wrote: “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.”
Sounds feasible, right? Apparently not.
Krupa said after about five minutes of the baby crying a flight attendant came over and yelled at her husband, calling it “absolutely unacceptable” for the baby to cry.
The couple picked up the baby from the bassinet they had reserved for the flight and tried to get him to calm down.
When the flight attendant returned, Krupa tried to explain her frustration with the situation.
“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.”
According to the mum-of-one, the attendant told her that they could only discuss the matter in economy and not in her business class seat.
That was when things got really awkward.
The mum was infuriated by the situation. Image: Facebook
Krupa wrote that after walking to economy to chat to the attendant, she “dropped some knowledge” on her, telling the mum that she should have parented her baby differently.
She said the attendant told her: “I should have given the baby his bottle back (he’d finished it but that doesn’t seem to be an important detail in [the flight attendants] book).”
She also added: “I shouldn’t have tried to put him to sleep because the lights weren’t down and he’s ‘obviously’ too excited. (Ok [flight attendant], whatever you say.)”
To make matters worse, Krupa said the attendant added: “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.)”
Woah.
The woman was told some airlines don’t allow babies to fly in business class.
Then, the clanger. According to Krupa, the attendant then told her that babies were not allowed to cry for more than five minutes because it really stressed the crew out.
Krupa said she then asked to see the rule book explaining the aforementioned requirement, however she was “laughed at”.
The mum elaborated on how she felt following the encounter.
“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.”
She vowed to never fly with United again following this.
WATCH: Sam Wood’s hilarious parenting fail:
Story continues below
But it didn’t end there according to Krupa’s Facebook post.
Sharing an update, she said the captain had later come over with the flight attendant to apologise, however the attendant refused to admit she lied about the crew complaining.
“She refused to admit she lied about passengers complaining (she said she saw someone roll their eyes but couldn’t tell us who)”, she wrote.
“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 also apologised to Krupa, but it wasn’t enough for the infuriated mum.
“While I appreciate that, it’s not his apology I’m interested in,” she said.
The airline apologised to Krupa for the situation.
The Facebook post has evoked a huge response from users online, with 1,500 reactions and more than 370 comments.
One person wrote: “Absolutely ridiculous. I’m so sick of societal expectations of babies.”
Another said: “That is absolutely disgusting. Can’t even imagine the stress you all felt.”
When the couple landed in San Fransisco, it is understood they were greeted by United representatives who offered them a refund.
Krupa shared another update following this saying: “From what I understand, United is handling the situation and ensuring that no one else ever has an experience like ours where a flight attendant makes up her own rules.”
In a statement to broadcaster KTVU, United said the flight attendant was being “held out of service”.
“Young families are welcome on our flights, including in business class,” the statement read.
“We are continuing to review the incident internally and the flight attendant is being held out of service pending the investigation.”
