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American Airlines gate agents confront mother over baby’s car seat

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American Airlines gate agents confront mother over baby’s car seat
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Dan Eleff witnessed a confrontation on Monday between an American Airlines gate agent and a flight attendant at New York JFK. He was flying from New York to Cleveland on American flight 4366, a regional flight operated by Republic Airways.

The incident began when the gate agent forced a woman to gate-check her car seat. However, the flight attendant noticed that the car seat was approved for use on board and since the flight was half empty, she "stopped it from being gate-checked and brought the car seat back to the mother for the infant to use on the flight."

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recommends that all children have their own seats for safety reasons, with car seats being one option for small children. While requiring this could be more expensive and might encourage people to drive rather than fly, in this case, there seemed no reason not to allow it.

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Subsequently, the gate agents boarded the plane and saw the car seat in use. They "lost their temper, screaming at the mother and the flight attendants." Having already instructed that the car seat had to be gate-checked, they were adamant about not having their authority undermined.

"If we let them do it once, they’re always going to expect it," one of them remarked.

A tweet by DansDeals highlighted the incident: "Hey @AmericanAir@FAANews@USDOT, let's talk about something that happened on AA4366 operated by @RepublicAirways from JFK to CLE yesterday. I was just a bystander, but the gate agents' actions against the flight attendants and a passenger were appalling."

The agents demanded that the woman remove her baby from the car seat so it could be taken out of the passenger cabin. The flight attendants were "shocked and embarrassed." One crewmember attempted to negotiate with the gate agents to store the car seat in another part of the aircraft which had ample space available so that the woman wouldn’t have to wait upon arrival in Cleveland.

DansDeals also noted past experiences with similar situations involving stroller enforcement at New York JFK: "These stroller enforcers at New York JFK remind me of Matt in San Diego, who demanded I check a stroller because all strollers must be checked even after he challenged me to show him that it fit in the bag sizer."

Eleff wondered whether this same agent had previously disregarded Department of Transportation (DOT) rules when removing passengers from flights without offering compensation.

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