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This week, our social media feeds were full of videos claiming a couple was kicked off an Allegiant Air flight for having a crying baby. Naturally, there was more to the story than the initial clips speculated, but the incident made us wonder: Could having a crying baby ever get you kicked off a flight?
The short answer is: not really — which is good news for parents who already have enough stress to deal with when traveling with an infant. In fact, many parents told me crying babies are more likely to get them help and empathy on a flight than punishment.
But let’s start with the viral moment.
On March 27, a woman posted a video of a plump baby in the arms of a man at an airport baggage claim. As the man bounces the chubby-cheeked child, a voiceover says: “This is our baby that got us taken off of our flight … because they said she was feverish because her face was red from crying and she’s pale — like her dad. Thanks Allegiant!”
In a video from another passenger, we see the couple talking to what appears to be a flight crew member before deplaning, and the employee telling someone, “I can’t override MedLink,” referring to a medical advisory service that flight crews can call for guidance during onboard medical emergencies.
@Allegiant Air We were unable to fly back home to Indiana with Allegiant on Friday 3/27 at 9pm due to a baby being naturally pale and red in the face from crying on a plane. First they didn’t believe our babies birth certificate from Indiana at check in and they had several people look at it. We went through TSA just fine no issues. We boarded our flight like normal. Before boarding we took off babies shirt because she was hot on the flight from Indy to Florida we figured she’d probably be sweaty then too. She had also just ate baby food. Anybody with a child knows they are messy. They removed the gentleman in the aisle seat told him there was a seat up front away from kids. The whole two rows we were in were full of children and their parents. Someone in a vest came onto the plane and ask for our boarding pass again. I handed it over. They then asked me how old the baby was, her name, her birthdate and went back by the bathrooms and kept talking into the phone and walkie talkie. They called her an unidentified infant over the walkie. Then they told us a flight attendant reported us for a baby being feverish… said medical professionals wouldn’t clear her to tly and that we were going to have to get off. Nobody would come and see her. Nobody on the flight was required to have a temperature checked. Nobody would even come and take her temperature. They said well she looks red and it looks like a rash. Several other babies were on the flight and also crying. We were told to get off the flight or police would take us off of it even though we weren’t arguing or cussing. As we walked off we asked again why are we getting kicked off the plane and they stated we weren’t getting kicked off. I asked to speak to a supervisor. I told the lady I’m not mad at you I’m mad at the situation. Im not complaining about you specifically. A supervisor wouldn’t come and talk to us in person only on a phone. We got on the next flight they had which was 11am the next day. No accommodations, no car to get around, no place to stay other than to call family back to grab us from the airport again. We were so lucky we hadn’t been just in town by ourselves. We waited an hour for them to drive back and grab us. We have no luggage as they wouldn’t grab it off the plane. No car seat or stroller for the baby. They gave us an unclaimed car seat that has no padding and isn’t age appropriate. Car seat was way too big had to hold her head the whole ride back to Kyle’s grandparents house because it was too big. We missed work the next day, had to get our pet sitter to stay another day, didn’t get to pick up our two other kids that were at dads for spring break and missed our foster care class which was the only one that aligned with our schedule for the next two months. We got on our next flight no issues. When we checked in they did state usually you can’t tly tor 24 hours if there’s illness when I asked if there were notes in for the night previous for when I called customer care. However we were put on the next flight 12 hours later. They even tried to make it better putting us in priority boarding and extra leg room which we didn’t care about. We chose the back of the plane on purpose, less windows, it’s usually darker for the baby to nap, and usually other people with kids chose the back. There was such a difference in the second flight sitting up front. Everyone was so much nicer and friendlier. We called Allegiant and they just keep telling us we are not able to get any sort of compensation for our time or experience. They wouldn’t email or give me any policies on traveling with infants and they wouldn’t connect me to a supervisor of any kind. @Allegiant Air also if you’re just here to make comments about a baby being naked or there being more to the story get fucked
Allegiant has apologized to the couple for disrupting their travel plans, but the airline told The Washington Post that the flight crew had followed standard airline protocols.
Staff are trained to look for “observable symptoms [that] indicate a more serious condition or a risk during flight,” Allegiant spokesperson Sonya Padgett said in an email. Do they appear medically stable enough to safely complete the flight?
John Rose, chief risk officer for the travel agency Altour, told me Allegiant is not alone. Airlines are constantly monitoring whether passengers are “fit to fly.”
“And they have the right to tell anyone, ‘You’re not fit to fly,’” he said.
For adult passengers, red flags for the flight crew “may include stomach ailments, difficulty breathing, possible fever or visible signs of infection, confusion or other symptoms,” Padgett said. “For infants, the assessment is even more cautious, as they cannot communicate how they feel.”
Flight crew members monitor babies for symptoms like vomiting, lethargy, rapid or labored breathing, changes in skin color, signs of overheating, as well as inconsolable crying.
In this latest incident, Allegiant said the baby had multiple symptoms that raised concerns, so they called for a second opinion from medical experts on the ground, and “based on the information available at the time, MedLink advised that the child should not continue travel,” Padgett said.
The airline says the decision to remove the family was made with the safety of the baby, other passengers and crew members in mind.
The moral of the story: a crying baby alone won’t get you kicked off your flight, but additional symptoms could trigger a medical evaluation.
“I just don’t see that travelers would need to worry about this,” Rose said.
I reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration to see if there are any other crying baby rules on the books that parents should know about, and a spokesperson told me in an email that this would fall under “an airline customer service issue.”
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The post We asked: Can a crying baby get you kicked off a flight? appeared first on Washington Post.
