New York – A disturbing experience involving the positioning of an infant car seat on an airplane has been amicably resolved, with the Crown Heights family at the center of the dispute receiving both an apology and compensation for their troubles.
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As previously reported on VIN News, Yosef and Sarah Shidler were traveling on June 11, from Florida to New York when a flight attendant insisted that they face their 10 month old daughter’s FAA approved car seat towards the front of the aircraft when they boarded a connecting flight in Atlanta. While the Shidlers informed the flight crew that the child restraint system clearly stated that based on the child’s weight she should fly facing rearward, they were told to either turn the car seat around or get off the plane.
According to a statement released today by Southwest senior advisor of communications, Melissa Ford, a new Listening Center, which allows customer service personnel to monitor social media channels, played a large part in the quick resolution of this incident.
The Shidlers received an apology, Southwest points and a full refund of the points used to purchase their original tickets, within 48 hours of the incident. Most importantly to the Shidlers, the customer service representative they spoke with furnished them with her phone number and urged them to contact her in the future should any issues ever arise.
“In addition to everything they gave us, I am most happy that they took this seriously and that they realized that this was a serious situation,” Yosef Shidler told VIN News. “What is most honorable is that someone took personal responsibility for this incident.”
“We were grateful for the opportunity to connect with the Shidlers to apologize and ensure that the appropriate internal follow up will occur,” added Ford. “We were able to discuss the situation with them at length and found an acceptable resolution for the family.”
Ford outlined Southwest policy for those who fly with a child restraint system, saying that parents have the right to decide if the child safety seat should face the front or the rear of the plane, noting that children who weigh less than 20 pounds should face rearward, while those who weigh between 20 and 40 pounds should be seated in the forward facing direction. Should a child restraint system not fit in a particular aircraft seat, the flight crew should move the seat to another seat on the airplane.
Ford also noted that child safety seats may not be place in any exit seat, in the row before or after the emergency exit row of seats, or in any aisle seat and that a child restraint system can only be placed in a window seat or in a middle seat if it does not impede the exit of the passenger in the window seat.
What a hartziga picture of the Shidler family. What an enjoyable piece of non-news to read. I’ve got a great story to publish about how my luggage was lost and my seat ws changed last minute for no reason.
with all the respect to the shindlers you are wrong , you have to follow the airline rules , you should not make any issue for your personnel interest to make noise or so , we ” klal yisroel ” are not noise makers , trouble makers , criticizers , we are upper class , humble, peace seeker citizens ,,, we are the “am-hanichar ” we have to act / show respect to every one, private/ bus/ institution
Yosef is such a cool jew!
To #3- You are wrong, as this couple was only trying to adhere to the policy which was mandated by the FAA, and which Southwest apparently ignored. The latter policy mandated a rear facing child seat, for a child under 20 lbs. These commercial airlines try to use every trick in the book, in an effort to bypass the rules of the Federal Aviation Administration. This time, they got caught with their finger in the cookie jar! As I’ve mentioned before, back in the 1960’s, and most of the 1970’s, airline passengers were treated very nicely by the crew. Today, the animals in the cargo compartment are treated more humanely. At one time, flight attendants were well educated, and had to adhere to certain weight limits, and be presentable (pertaining to their uniforms) on the job. Today, they hire personnel with excessive weight, who do not dress very professionally, and who treat passengers, with disdain and contempt. If anybody can afford it, they should fly by private jet, and stay away from the commercial airlines.
They are a nice young couple, Sara is friends with my daughter. I personally wouldn’t have taken it further, I don’t have the stomach for fighting with bureacracy, but I get how airlines have such power of fare-paying passengers. We rarely win against them, but I’m glad that sometimes taking a stand makes a difference.
They got their “compensation” which is what was really important to them.
thank you # 6 #7 #8 after all said and done , faa ruling could be with couple , but still we are the  220;am- hanivchar  221; was/is/will always be , the none noise makers
let the lefties / .liberals / uneducated be the noise makers , this is a real  221; chilul-hashem  221; i agree you should ask any-any old timer ruv/ rebbe/ gudel to see if this is the iyddeshe way ???/
“this is a real ” chilul-hashem ”
Are you a posek and know all the halachos of “chillul HASHEM”? If not keep quiet!!