Breastfeeding Houston mom says she was kicked off Spirit Airlines flig

[Greg.D.]

Breastfeeding Houston mom says she was kicked off Spirit Airlines flight

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/12/11/breast-feeding-houston-mom-says-she-was-kicked-off-spirit-airline/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

 

 

Mei Rui, an acclaimed concert pianist and a cancer researcher, was supposed to catch a Spirit Airlines flight from her home in Houston to Newark on Friday. The trip was for a recording connected with a clinical cancer study in New York City. The plans were made months ago. Rui’s elderly mother and father were along for the ride, as was her 2-year-old son.

 

But the 6:30 a.m. flight was repeatedly delayed due to weather, stranding passengers in the cabin, she said, a fact confirmed by flight data. When it finally seemed like the jet was ready to go, she began breast-feeding her son, hoping it would put him to sleep — and keep him from crying — on the three-hour ride.

“Every parent with a young child can image, you don’t want to be that parent on the plane,” she told The Washington Post. “It would be very embarrassing. I was just trying to avoid that.”

According to Rui, while the plane’s door was still open and people were moving about the cabin, a few flight attendants walked by without saying anything. Then one approached Rui and said her baby had to be in his seat for takeoff.

 

“I asked for just a couple more minutes to finish because if he woke up at that point he would have made a lot of noise,” Rui said. “I said, ‘I promise I’ll finish before you close the plane’s door.’”

 

The flight attendants conferred at the front of the plane. Rui stopped feeding her son, and as she predicted, the baby began crying. That was when the crew instructed Rui she needed to get off the plane, she told The Post. With her cellphone camera rolling, Rui asked why she was being asked to leave if the baby was strapped in.

“It’s not like I was resistant, I put him in the seat,” she said. “If they had shown a little compassion, it wouldn’t have happened, they didn’t have to let it escalate.”

 

According to Rui, her mother and father, Chinese natives who lived through the traumatic experience of the country’s Cultural Revolution, were already terrified from the run-in with plane authorities.

 

But the day got worse, she says. The family waited for an hour for their luggage, but the items were never returned. Then, after riding back home, Rui’s father, who suffers from heart ailments, collapsed and had to be rushed to the emergency room.

 

Rui never made it to New York. The run-in with Spirit was another blow in an already tough year, Rui said. Her family lost their house and possessions (including her piano) in Hurricane Harvey, she said, and they are still living in temporary housing.

Rui, a Yale graduate, holds degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and music. She’s been performing classical piano since the age of 10 and received a Grammy nomination in 2015, according to her biography.

“They treated us like we were criminals,” she told The Post. “A baby crying is not a crime.”

[Dennis143]

I'd like to hear the airline's side of the story.

[amberjack1234]

Me to Dennis. I always like to have all the facts from both sides. I have in the past made the one sided decision to many times and was wrong.

[Randy W]

Exactly - her story sounds like she was kicked off the plane because her child was crying. Hard to believe, but I'll keep an open mind. The term "breastfeeding" seems to be there only for the headline.

[Randy W]

http://people.com/bodies/mom-kicked-off-spirit-airlines-flight-breastfeeding-son-before-takeoff/

 

“The reports from the crew indicate the door was closed at the time of the incident,” the Spirit spokesperson says. “The passenger failed to comply with crew instructions by not being safely buckled and secured for takeoff after being asked repeatedly to do so.”

 

[Dennis143]

hmmm... https://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/18306969/poll-finds-spirit-airlines-has-the-rudest-flight-attendants/

 

Poll Finds Spirit Airlines Has the Rudest Flight Attendants

The results are in! Airfarewatchdog surveyed almost 3,400 fliers and asked which U.S. airline has the rudest flight attendants. Spirit was chosen as the winner with over 25% of the votes.

Here are the results:

Spirit - 26%
Air Canada - 14%
Frontier - 11%
Virgin America - 9%
Allegiant - 8%
United - 7%
US Airways - 7%
American - 5%
AirTran - 3%
Delta - 3%
Hawaiian - 3%
JetBlue - 3%
Alaska - 1%
Southwest - 1%

[Randy W]

This doesn't seem to add anything to the story, except for some reactions from China netizens - from the Shanghaiist

 

Chinese-American mom says she was kicked off Spirit Airlines flight for breastfeeding

 

Netizens had never heard of Spirit, but will be sure to boycott

[dnoblett]

She was booted from the plane for not putting her 2-year-old in his seat as the plane was leaving the gate. It had little to do with the fact she was breastfeeding. There was a lot of time before and in another 20 minutes could have resumed once the plane was in the air.

 

Spirit Airlines said the passenger 'refused to comply with crew instructions during active taxi several times' and that they issued a full refund to her as a courtesy.

 

Again, there are two sides to every story.

[amberjack1234]

I haven't seen the article and haven't been looking to be honest but sounds about right to me from reading the original story.