Some people's parents!

Bravo to AirTran Airways for sticking to their guns. This story reprinted from the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

AirTran Airways defends decision to remove family due to toddler's actions
AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused to take her seat before takeoff.
By JIM ELLIS, Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused to take her seat before takeoff.

AirTran officials said they followed Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seat belt upon takeoff.

"The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family,'' AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said.

Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly.

"We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything,'' Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied.

She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat'' during boarding, Graham-Weaver said.

The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day.

They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said.

The father said his family would never fly AirTran again.

Good! I hope they never fly any other airline again either! Not while I'm on it! Now, don't get me wrong, I know how toddlers can be. I'm the father of a very well-behaved little girl who we've flown with numerous times (well-behaved partly because we're lucky, but also partly because she's been raised with some discipline.) Nevertheless, when she was between one and four years old, we knew she was not even-tempered enough to be trusted on a plane. So, we did not fly with her during those years! And, when she acted up in any other environment, we removed her from that environment. (And a good bit more disciplinary action would have been taken if she'd ever physically hit her own parents.) It ticks me off when parents expect everyone else to coddle their misbehaving children, and won't voluntarily remove them from the restaurant, church sanctuary, grocery store, livestock auction, whatever, when they get out of hand (as even the best-behaved children will, at least once in a while). Then the airline actually gave these parents a full refund and offered additional free flights at another time, and they have the guts to complain about it! Sheesh!