Southwest Airlines said that they will be giving a refund to the family it considered too “threatening” to make their connection to Seattle. KPHO says Wendy Slaughter will receive a full refund for their six one-way tickets from Detroit to Seattle via Phoenix.
Southwest did not issue the “public apology” the family was hoping for. Do you think this is a fair compromise? Do the chronically unruly deserve refunds if they’re kicked off the flight?
Family Booted From Flight Gets Refund [KPHO](Thanks, Lucas!)
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@Bladefist: I agree. If they refuse to provide the service, they have no right to keep the money. And it isn’t like the mother is walking away after being made better than whole… she’s still out plenty from the new tickets and such…
The refund is F*ckOff money. It’s what our manager/Customer Service people do to @ssholes to get rid of them. In the old days, when businesses were owned by people, they would hand you back your bighuge purchase of $2.50 and tell you to F*ckOff. You weren’t worth the grief. What little business you and your friend could bring would not equal the loss your stoopid brought.
Sorry folks, I teach retarded kids and even the most unruly have decent behaviors. Your have to be the adult and act accordingly.
This family smells of Professional Victim. The Welfare office is more than aware of these critters as is the Jail and the churches. They never have enough money, can’t clothe their kids, always need something.
Now that the TSA has removed Nelson Mandela from their no-fly list, it seems there’s a vacancy…
Absolutely Southwest should apolgize. Before I get flamed, here’s how it should read:
Dear Ms. Slaughter:
Regardling last Friday’s incident where we kicked your family off a Southwest flight, we would like to apologize:
- That you and your family are incapable of acting like human beings in public.
- That you insult people who bravely deal with their disabilities on a daily basis (and who refuse to use it as an excuse).
- To the 120 other passengers you subjected to your bad parenting on a four-hour flight from Detroit to Las Vegas. To call it parenting is probably an insult to parents in general.
- That we didn’t open the emergency exit over Kansas City and throw your family off the plane. That would have depressurized the cabin, and probably ruined the beverage service.
- That we didn’t have an air marshal on board to either Taser or handcuff your monsters.
- That some passengers didn’t take the law into their own hands and restrain your children with lapbelts and Xanax.
- That we sold you a flight on our airline in the first place. We’ll make sure that never happens again.
We will refund your PHX-SEA segment, not that we feel we mistreated you, but that it wouldn’t be right to take money for services not rendered. We at Southwest Airlines hope and pray you take this money and instead of spending it on cigarettes and junk food, invest it instead in a good charm school.
Sincerely,
Southwest Airlines
Regardling isn’t a word, either.
@PHX602:
Perfect. And SW has put out some press releases in the past that are pretty funny. Not quite like this though
Well, who needs the hassle of trying to redeem their miles for travel anymore? This looks like a much better and fun way to score free flights. Just jack your kids up on as much sugar cereal as they can consume, have ‘em wash it down with some soda pop, let ‘em loose on a plane and watch from the comfort of your seat as they wreak havoc on everyone else’s peace and safety on the flight. Refuse to do anything about it until you are kicked off the flight. Moan and groan to the media about how unfairly you’ve been treated and collect your refund. It worked for the Slaughters, it worked for the Kulesza’s with AirTran and it will work for you!!!!
I am not going to slam Southwest for having to do damage control but personally, I don’t see that they should have done anything more for these people than either book them onto another flight after they’d proven they had some control over their kids or refund the portion for the leg they missed. If a parent is going to travel with a child, autistic or not, the parent is responsible for managing them and complying with flight crew instructions. If your child has a mental or physical handicap, then it is the parent’s responsibility for notifying the airline before the flight and taking what steps are needed to ensure a safe trip.
I think Southwest was right by removing these folks but if they are going to backpedal and give the Slaughters their money back, the other passengers who had to put up with them should get something for their trouble, too.
@bobbleheadr: It’s just that from what i.hate.trustafarians said I thought the guy was on the plane too.
Obviously wasn’t. But one thing is sure, if he’s a good father I hope he’ll teach his wife a thing or two about raising children.
@rellog: Yeah, but Southwest DID provide the service for most of the trip. The regulations say they only have to refund the “unused portion”. Southwest is going beyond that and refunding the whole ticket – something that’s both admirable and disturbing at the same time.
Kick them off the plane, refund the ticket. Sounds fair to me.
@LittleBit12:
Nice Work!
It looks like southwest took the extra step of refunding the whole price rather than the unused portion. I think that was a good choice.
$2000 for replacement tickets? It’s a long drive (1600 miles), but a rental and gas would have run half that – at most.
They dont they have a little “Cage” or Special needs Section on the larger/longer flights? Could it really take up that much more room?
Also after seeing the article linked from jenl1625 I’d have to say that SW did the right thing on both counts.
They removed a disruptive family from their flight, and refunded the tickets.
It sounds like the children in question are not incapable of behaving (given that they took a different airline the next day). Indeed it sounds more and more like a case of incompetent parental supervision.
I think we need to look at the financial risk that would have been assumed by SW for not kicking the kids off; if a safety incident had occured and SW had to turn around or make an emergency landing it would have cost the airline thousands and thousands of dollars in man-hours, delays, confusion, and perhaps maintenance– so it makes the most fiscal sense to get them off the plane and refund either a portion of their fare for the second leg of the trip or even the whole thing.
Still, this family seems to have been incredibly irresponsible and I have little sympathy for them. My brother-in-law is severely autistic, and my wife’s family knows better than to try and take him on a long plane ride. Sorry for not having more compassion, but I’m still with SW on this one.
The Contract of Carriage requires that Southwest give a refund to the family. I, too, as a gate agent at 1 legacy carrier and 1 low-cost carrier, would have denied passage to the family as well. Customer service agents are able to cancel the tickets and initiate the refund process, which is what they should have done when the event occurred.
Great, now we’ll all be treated to another three pages of “Learn to control you kids” posts.
For being a security threat, the refund is the farthest I would go. The kids were unruly and should have been taught how to behave on the plane. If the kids had a medical issue that prevented that, then they should have considered Amtrak, which would of been much more enjoyable to them and to the passengers.
@CRNewsom: You should have seen the dental work on the TV news. To paraphrase Dave Attell, “When you’ve only got ONE tooth, don’t you think you’d take better care of it?”
The most SW should have done was refund the unused leg of the trip. Service not rendered involves a refund. Other than that SW doesn’t owe these people a thing. Flying has an expectation that you are capable of staying in a seat during the required times, following flight attendant instructions and not making a disturbance. If you can’t comply with those expectations don’t fly.
You see people like this woman in restaurants all the time. Their kids are running all over, tripping wait staff, being loud and approaching other customers to bother them. All the while the parent(s) shrug and go back to chain smoking and gossiping. In a restaurant is is obnoxious and they need to be kicked out. In a plane it is dangerous, people get kicked off flights for less all the time.
I’m totally with SW on this one.
I guess I have to say it…I think Southwest made money on this…saving gas.
What sickens me about this situation is that if the children somehow hurt themselves on this flight, you know darn sure they would be the first one filing a lawsuit for damages. Perhaps the airlines should file suit against them for anguish?
Okay kids, now start running around punching people. Maybe throw in an I have a bomb or two.
Weak! Southwest caved in. Southwest could have sold those seats to people who are capable of air travel. It’s probably the ‘nice’ thing to do, but still weak.
Kids running all over during a flight is unsafe. The fact that these kids had disabilities is irrelevant.
Remember, the laws of physics apply equally well to able-bodied kids and disabled kids. They do not discriminate.
Therefore, if any kids refuse to sit in their seats with seatbelts fastened, and parents refuse to control their kids, the airline is well within its rights to refuse service.
Keep disabilities out of the equation, keep “kids bothering the other passengers” out of it. Stick to the facts of physics and safety. Southwest owes them nothing.
Hmm. So far I count only one “mullet” and one “white trash” in the responses, along with something about a “moo moo” which I think was meant to be “muumuu.” Good job staying on topic, commenters!
Count me on SW’s side, BTW.
I see absolutely no reason of any sort for Southwest to issue refunds in this situation.
Customer purchased service vouchers (plane tickets). Customer’s behavior disrupted and jeopardized the service provider’s ability to provide services that other customers paid for. Thus, offending customer is both adversely affecting the service provider and de-valuating service other customers paid for.
It is not service provider’s right, but their obligation towards other customers to prevent offending customer from proceeding with the course of action that results in the above consequences.
Compare it, if you will, with someone causing a disturbance in a movie theater or opera, or throwing a wild midnight party in a quiet mountain retreat resort. The fact they paid doesn’t mean they have free reign of the venue and situation, nor does the service voucher give them carte blanche to disrupt other people partaking of the same services.
At the -very least-, Southwest had every right to kick her and her spawn off the plane. I personally believe Southwest should’ve also been able to demand reparations to be paid for damages caused to Southwest’s reputation and ability to provide services.
indeed the service was not provided, so they are owed a refund. the airline indeed do the right thing in the wrong way.
I’m not entirely sure whether they deserve the refund, but I’m sure that Southwest did it mainly as an attempt to reduce any possible liability. As for an apology, I would say that it is completely unnecessary as far as Southwest goes, but that the woman should be apologizing to at minimum the passengers of the flight they disturbed and preferably also to the flight attendants who had to deal with them. Like that’s really going to happen though, the only reason the story ever hit the press is because they are trying to make a stink about it, even when it is not justified.
This whole story makes me want to fly Southwest, too bad they don’t service any of the airports near my location.
@consumersaur: Forget the mom – the dad should take Wesley Willis’s advice:
“Cut the muuuullet! Cut the muuuuulet! Tell your barber you do not want to look like an asshole any more.”
I think they should not recieve the full refund of the flight, but rather a portion of it. They need to stand firm to what they believe in and why they did what they did.
Southwest should have had the police arrest the entire brood for interfering with a flight crew. Except for the contract of carriage, it’s hard to believe anyone would feel these people are entitled to a credit when their actions resulted in arrest. It would also solve the ‘no money & no place to spend the night” problem.
they should have charged that lard ass for 2 seats to begin with. I’m not surprised to see the mullet either.
Oh great. This will only encourage people with poor (none?) parenting skills to let their children run amok and then cry foul when they get kicked off. If they even get kicked off.
One more reason to rarely fly.
Southwest refunded the money as a public relations exercise. The minute the mass media picked up on this story they had to. Now, I hope they had a camera crew for “Airline” on board so that we can all enjoy the show.
And Mullet-mom, if you’re reading this: Be glad I was not on that flight. I would have told you straight up: “control your spawn or I’ll control them for you.” And I would have done so, with prejudice. There was a time when anyone witnessing an unruly child would have taken action to control the situation. It seems we’ve all gotten a bit timid on that front.
@Paladin_11: Exactly. When I was growing up, if a kid was misbehaving an adult, related or not stranger or not, could at least scold them. When the parent noticed they’d scold them as well and mete out punishment. Now no one wants to get involved and if they do the parent scolds the other adult rather than their misbehaving child.
Sorry, still no sympathy for the family. As previous posters have mentioned, they violated FAA regs by not controlling their children. I’ve been on enough flights with screaming little brats, the whole family can DIAF.
Frankly, I’d like to see airlines do this more often. I’m disapointed that WN caved in. It’s not like WN is NOT gonna get sued anyway.
@poxpopulus:
Just look at her. She’s far from meek.
I cannot shake the feeling that if one of those precious darlins had been hurt ‘bein’ kids” that Mummykins would have on the phone to a lawyer before she picked up her bags.
Stay classy Consumerists!
I don’t think the family should’ve been refunded. I mean really, they were obnoxious and this might have been the only time that the readers were actually siding with the company. I saw the video on CNN and thought about how annoying it would’ve been to sit next to these kids. I don’t think they should’ve been kicked off, but given a warning or something.
@Bladefist: I actually agree, this seems like the best action to take because I can also see both sides, the kids were unruly, but they didn’t make it to their destination so yea, this works. The airline should not apologize though. I hate to say it, as a mom myself, but you have to take some responsibility for the kids, even in spite of the handicaps….life isn’t always fair.
Refund fine, apology for her kids being a-holes? Totally over the top. I’m sorry; I see these people every day at the local library and they need to be banned from public, not because of any fault of the children; but because of terrible parenting.
@11hawkinst: The article says they were warned twice. It’s just that the mother didn’t think they would actually back up their warning with any action.
I think a refund is appropriate–they paid for a service that wasn’t provided–but I also don’t think the family deserves an apology. From the story it seems the parents didn’t try very hard to keep their kids behaved.
“The children were a little bit out of control on the flight. They were restless and excited and worked up, and they’re kids.”
They’re kids so everyone on a flight has to tolerate their bad behavior? If you don’t want to keep your kids under control then you don’t deserve to fly. Flying is degrading enough without adding poorly behaved children into the mix.
First of all, Autistic people are not “retarded or retards”, for those of you how use that word are ignorant and need to get an education.
Karma is a “you know what” and you will get yours.
On a more positive note: My child has autism and has very bad behaviors. She is on Med’s and is getting treatment for her behaviors. It is very difficult to controls behaviors sometimes in public. It is very stressful for the parents and heartbreaking when episodes arise. Knowing my daughters behaviors, I would “NOT”, put her on a plane knowing that her behaviors could strick and distrupt everyone and not to mention the stress that would cause my daughter and myself. I have considered taking a train with a private room but that is costly.
I do not fault Southwest for not wanting the family on the plane, however they should have helped the parent find other transportation and given hotel accomidations. The parent should have advised the airline ahead of time and explained what behaviors may occur so they could have been prevented or eliminated.
Parachutes. Matching family parachutes would have been one way to deal with this in flight menace. The last thing this family would have heard was the thunderous applause of the entire cabin as they hurtle earthward. Let em use mom’s colorful moo moo as shelter until they were able to make their way to the nearest welfare office and git themselves some motel vouchers.
the fact that people in Phoenix willingly chipped in to get the family a hotel room also seems to indicate that people do sympathize with them. T
People sympathize with them because they lack values. How about sympathizing with the passengers who had to fly across the country with them?
When I was 8, I was convinced I could fly (I mean, by flapping my arms), but the idea that I would ever be loud or unruly in a public place, or kick the back of somebody’s seat in the movies or elsewhere, did not exist in my mind in what was possible in the known universe.
Of course, I had parents, not “parents.”
@CRNewsom: Yeah I’m glad that she wasn’t bumped like the woman for having a short skirt and tank top.
This woman should not get a public apology, the refund was a nice gesture like other people say, but she shouldn’t get an apology. There are plenty of people who fly with autistic children and don’t have the same issue. The fact is she fails as a parent and can’t keep her kids under control. The problem with her, is she is most likely too lazy to actually teach her children to behave. I can understand her having some difficulties with the child with autism, but a child with CP? That’s stretching that line REAL thin.
There are some pockets of the population that don’t belong on an airplane. Greyhound is for that “special” population. VIVA the free marketplace.