Showdown At The Gate: Watching AA’s JFK Gate Agents Go On A Power Trip Against Flight Attendants And A Mom Over A Doona; Here’s What You Should Do In That Situation

can you post wht trips you took and miles you burned I am interested to know where you went thanks

Good tip on ripping off the tag while on the jetbridge! Also, I hope your brother is ok at Columbia? Poor thing! Reason enough for an article just on that topic.

Dan, can you post a trip report on your trip to Alaska? I was there roughly the same time as you and would love to see what you did

Would you recommend the store where the BM got his hat in Crown Heights and is so, please identify it.

This summer I approached a United gate agent in SFO to ask about the possibility of an empty seat for the baby (I didn’t specifically mention the Doona). Without skipping a beat, the agent said yes there is someone in the seat, hold on, let me move him, now you have an extra seat. And then proceeded to call the passenger on the mic to issue them their new seat.
That was unbelievable and much appreciated!

Yes this happened to me in August on a JetBlue flight from JFK. Flight attendants let me have an empty seat to put my child in the Doona. The gate agent came on the flight and flipped out, yelling at me to pay for the seat. I told her it’s an extra empty seat. She ended up calling security to take away my Doona to be gate checked. I repeatedly asked her why it would be better to have an empty seat next to me than have my baby sitting safely in a Doona. She was too busy yelling to listen. She made such a scene that the flight attendants were mortified. Said they’ve never had a problem before. JFK has become increasingly antisemitic and are refusing to allow any leniencies when it come to religious Jews.

During COVID when they weren’t selling the middle seats, (3-3 configuration ) I flew with my wife and one year old. I didn’t purchase a seat for the 1 year old but brought on a car seat to put in the open unsold seat in between us. EWR to LAX ( on United ) the agents were nasty and forced us to remove the car seat , even though they had no way of stopping us from using the empty seat between us for our child.

The way back LAX – EWR they didn’t care.

Very long story, just a few weeks ago flying JetBlue jfk-bur, after deplaning and switching planes again and then again to out third and final plane (an a320 instead of the original a220), I skipped the gate agent and went straight to the flight attendant letting her know/requesting that I would use our doona in one of the many open seats on the larger plane. She smiled and allowed us on only to have the gate agent march onto the plane demanding that we can’t have the doona in a seat we didn’t pay for. The flight attendant graceful calmed the gate agent and reassured her that we in fact did pay for a seat for the baby (we didn’t) and our (now red eye) flight was enjoyed safely 🙂

If there are more lap infants than available seats, how would the airline decide who gets the free seat for their kid?Should the policy be that there must be ebough empty seats for ALL lap children? Should it be a perk with status?

What if the empty seat is located as a single seat or not adjacent to the parent. Should the airline move pax to enable the lap child to get a seat?

In my limited experience, mostly with American Airlines, American Eagle, United Airlines and United Express. AA always refuses to allow on car seats even if there is empty space. UA always allows car seats if there’s extra space. While this might not be policy and only anecdotal, IIRC, this has been my experience in 100% of cases. Additionally, UA gate agents and specifically flight attendants are much more pleasant to deal with when traveling with young children than their AA counterparts.

I never had any issues with United. I always checked with the gate agents before boarding to ensure there was an empty seat next to me, and they were always very helpful. However, I only did this on long flights; I’ve never tried it on shorter ones

I dealt with this in June. Delta was not our friend.
Very similar to the above where the gate agent tagged the car seat.
However I thought of workaround (it worked better on the return flight with Alaska). The car seat can be used for infant or child and we had our 5 year old with us.
Once on board the FA was waiting for me to catch our seat (seems like gate agent radioed down that we’re trying to “smuggle” the seat onboard) and demanded we check it even though it is suitable for our 5 yr old. I would have had the child sit for take off and landing and then take have baby go in to sleep while in flight. But no go. They made up something that we had to notify airline and in the system needs to say that that 5yo in car seat
In any event, on return I said it’s for 5 yo and worked no prob.

It might just be that the AA gate agents are just awful given my experience there too!

I flew with my then 1 year old son from JFK to CVG on a round-trip AA ticket. On the outbound to CVG, the JFK gate agents were disgusting and just downright rude. I was in the boarding area and was called up by name and told that I must check my car seat. I politely said that there are about 15 passengers who cleared standby, and there were additional unselected seats available. The agent said I am welcome to not board then. What choice did I have?

On the flight, the FA asked why I didn’t bring a car seat with me? I explained that I tried. She was sympathetic, but was unable to retrieve the car seat for me at that time.

On the return ticket, the gate agents at CVG were superb. They proactively offered me a better economy seat in Main Extra which had an empty seat adjacent. They said that it must be so hard to travel alone with a child and they want to help as much as possible. Boy, what a difference!

I told them of my inbound experience and they were appalled that any of their fellow coworkers would do that. They apologized while truly caring about my poor experience.

Recently flew Cancun to JFK with a stopover in Dallas on AA. AA gate agents in Cancun were friendly and reseated us as we were about to board so that we would have an extra empty seat near us to put our baby in the doona. Was very pleased. in DFW, gate agents were not as accommodating and said there were no empty seats near our threesome (which was probably true), made us check the doona under, and had to hold the baby.

Bottom line, you win some you lose some.

Dan – you are the man.

AC is also notorious when it comes to carry-on bags.
Especially on their Air Canada Express flights.

I once ripped my tag off while walking down the jet bridge, not realizing that it would be a problem since it was a proper check-in tag with a barcode (and not a gate check tag).

Once the whole plane was boarded they called me to the front of the plane and asked me where my bag was since the barcode was issued but was never scanned.

It got awkward from there.

“if the gate agent asks about it, say you plan to use it in an empty seat.”

Why would they let you bring it on plane of they’re so difficult about it?

“Our team should approach every situation GROUNDED in respect, and it’s clear we missed the mark.”

Very punny.

I fly Southwest a lot. I always tell people that the only place where southwest agents are nasty is in NYC. This has been my experience again and again. Seems from your story and the comments that this holds true for other airlines too…

I’ve taken a baby in a doona on planes both when it was a paid seat and when I was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me. My experience with European airlines is that they require you to take your baby out of the car seat for takeoff and landing. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me. (Especially when the baby had just fallen asleep and I had to wake them for takeoff!) Is this the current policy?

Southwest with their open boarding is the king of this, I always ask how many empty seats (as there is no seat map) and then ask about taking a carseat. Never had any problems, its sad that this may change when they switch to assigned seating.
Though I have had issues getting into fights with flight attendants thinking that the doona is a stroller. To avoid this fold it before getting to the end of the bridge.

where is the video?
i was sure there would be a video of the screaming etc
@dan you have always encouraged video/pic etc
when the last debAAcle happened with the yeshiva students being kicked off the flight and needing to rent a car and drive, you spilled a lot of ink on the matter of lack of video. especially when compared to the LH matter where there was video

Our list of Doona experiences is too long. Should have compiled in a thread.

Can you share your alaska trip details? I have hopes of going with the wife and kids next summer.

anyone tried it in spirits new “go comfy” with a guaranteed blocked out middle seat?

I have flown Virgin Atlantic from LHR and FA spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out if the seat was acceptable but in the end let us on, no luck on the JFK-LHR Flight although I can’t remember why…

@dansdeals while removing the tag in the jet bridge seems like a great idea, i was flying on air canada and they held up the entire flight because they realized 2 or 3 people put luggage in the overhead that they gate checked even though there was plenty of overhead space.. The airline can keep track of this as it is evident in the app when your bag(s) are scanned …even the gate checked ones….

Had a situation just last week at JFK with a Delta gate agent. I was wearing visible items in support of the hostages so who knows if that had an effect. She wanted to check my carryon even though it was early in the boarding process. It didn’t make sense to me since the guy in line behind me – his carryon was the exact same size as mine. She also didn’t like that I also had a small purse and a knapsack (I had forgotten to put my purse in my knapsack). As I walked to the plane she was yelling that my bag was not getting on the plane. When I got to the plane, the flight attendant said it was fine and I didn’t have to check it. She ripped off the tag for me (I was afraid to do it myself). The gate agent chased me on to the plane, came to my seat in the middle of the plane, and wanted to take the carryon even though it was safely fitting in the overhead. I de-escalated and apologized for the purse and she let it go. It was pretty frightening how crazy she got.

Have had a lot of agents be very nasty about the Doona as they think it’s a stroller. Even if you show them how it works. Was forced to carry it and the luggage instead of wheeling and collapsing when I got to my seat. Made no sense and i elbowed way more people that way

Flew Frontier recently w wife and baby. Obviously frontier splits us up although we’re on 1 reservation. I purchased a seat for infant. But now its wife and infant seated here and myself elsewhere. I asked gate agent in ATL if she can assist with rearranging the seating. On first try Gate agent was uninterested and said it’s impossible for her to change seats(outright lie) . I did understand though why she wasnt helpful as was quite hectic by gate as flight had been delayed and incoming flight was deplaning and the place was a mess. Although not sure why she had to lie. I then asked the next gate agent who was eager to help and said she would do anything to make traveling with an infant easier. She went ahead and swapped my seat to the one next to my wife and infant. Once we boarded and settled in the girlfriend/boyfriend who were supposed to sit a row apart were not to thrilled to realize that they were now seated 20 rows apart. Ended up working fine as passenger next to boyfriend was happy to swap and move to front of plane to an aisle seat. BTW seems like frontier will always split up your party in an attempt to have you purchase seats. It’s pretty tough on the FA as they have to be busy with everyones request on swapping seats and settling in takes much longer

I was allowed twice with spirt but denied twice with united and allowed once

Bonito 47 TL;DR ?

@Dan, can you make a master post of tips and recommendations when it comes to flying with kids?

When flying to Brazil With a baby, United Airlines always let us change Our seats to the rows with more legroom, to accommodate their bassinets, At no charge.
American does not offer that, and even if the row is available upon boarding, they make you pay For that seat if you want it.
We Generally have more pleasant experience Flying united for that trip.

Is there any way of knowing beforehand whether or not there will be empty seats for the carseat?

At the point that the gate agent already issued the gate-check tag, they obviously won’t admit there there is room for it on board.

Southwest consistently allows car seats on board as long as there are more empty seats than infants. On other airlines my experience is they usually will only allow it on if the empty seat happens to be next to you. One of the reasons I’m mad about Southwest changing its seating policy

Flew Emirates From DXB-JFK W an infant in a doona. The flight attendants held up the flight for a half hour to try to work out an extra seat for the long flight. Bh even though it was full they moved people around for us. I wish other airlines would learn from them!

JFK is really declining, and it’s not just the gate agents—it’s the overall staff as well.

I’ve personally experienced and witnessed many stories there.

As a side note and PSA, when flying Delta, keep in mind that due to the construction, Delta is now operating out of Terminal 4. The security lines for international flights are very long, and Delta is using the last gates, which means a solid 15-minute walk. You can no longer treat it like a domestic flight in terms of when to arrive at the airport.

THIS happened to me, with my infant also, in the DOONA on a JetBlue flight leaving from Newark.

Had my infant in her Doona- we even boarded the plane! 2 gate agents (one claiming she’s a supervisor) followed me on the plane after we were sitting and said we have to get the DOONA off the plane because we didn’t pay for the empty seat next to me.

I emailed JetBlue about the scenario but they just said it’s policy, and I can’t put a car seat in an empty seat if I didn’t pay for it.

The lack of compassion of the gate agents, and the airlines is disappointing.

I’d think twice before paying for a seat for the Doona after this story. I was the first to board the plane (after a UM) with my entire family including my six month old and his doona. We initially did not book him a seat but then decided that it was worth another $2000.00 for him to sit in his doona so that we have a pleasant flight and free hands for our other children. 5 minutes before takeoff, the cabin manager came over to me saying she doesn’t have time to discuss this but we cannot take the car seat on the plane. I argued saying that I’ve taken the doona on the plane but she angrily told me that if we continue discussing this, takeoff will be massively delayed and it’ll be my fault.
she wasn’t even giving me the time to be able to show her the sticker on the Doona. Of course, when I got upset she told me “this isn’t about discrimination.” Yeah right. I didn’t see her giving the other baby car seats any trouble. Additionally, we were on the plane for 45 minutes by then. She could’ve discussed this with me before and I could’ve easily worked it out. Instead, she waited until the very last second and didn’t even give me a chance to have my baby’s seat on board. They took the car seat, leaving me with an empty PAID seat. I reached out to Austrian to request a refund. Still no response.

“ and kosher breakfast for Globalists”.

I’ve stayed at this hotel so many times as a Globalist, it’s truly a great hotel, but where exactly do they offer a kosher breakfast for Globalists?

This happened to me on an American flight as well. I was flying business alone with my child who was 2 (and holding a business class ticket as well). The gate agent decided I can’t take the car seat on even though it was approved for use on an airplane and my son had his own business class seat. She screamed at me in a way that no one should be treated especially a business class customer. I was so shaken and embarrassed! I have not flown AA since and I don’t know if I ever would again.

Wow I had to my first her of times that AA didn’t allow a car seat on board in an extra seat, my “best” experience with them was jfk-lax, in F. After going back and forth with the flight attendants and the gate agent about whether I could bring my Etihad tote on board, the gate agent ended up saying that because I was in first class and the seat in front of me didn’t have storage under it I could put things in, I could bring less cabin bags than someone in coach. I asked if we can ask the purser about that, knowing full well that I had an entire overhead been all to myself. The person ended up telling the gate agent exactly what I said, even got the captain to agree, and the gate agent ended up fuming off the plane extremely mad. The person even went so far as to say that I have an entire overhead bin to put the bag in, it wasn’t taking up any room that they didn’t have. Got to love chilled, California pursers though.

The crazy things as mentioned is that WE bailed out the airlines, and got nothing for it. Obviously should’ve included conditions like this.

Interesting, I flew AA PHL-PBI with lap infant and in both cases asked the gate agents before if there’s an empty seat for my Doona and both times the agents were exceptionally nice and worked out a whole puzzle to give me an empty seat. Was actually impressed as this is NOT my usual exprerience and I fly farely often. Could be agents’ behavior depends more on the city than the airline?

Unfortunately I had this happen to me with a Doona. Crazy part is, it’s a safety issue, and there’s really no reason to say no, other than a power trip.
Thanks for speaking up.

I was on a United flight about a year ago and I was a bit early. I asked the gate agent if there is room on the flight, and if I can bring my doona on, and he graciously told me that the flight has plenty of room, and I may do so. When it came time for boarding, a different agent was there and she vehemently insisted that I must get check my doona and said it is against the airlines policy to use a seat I did not pay for.
When I got to the plane, I explained to the flight attendant that I was given permission by one agent that was denied by the other, so I will do whatever the flight attendant will tell me to do. She was happy to let me on with the doona. After buckling in the Doona, and settling down, the gate agent came storming down into the plane and made a big scene of forcing me to go gate-check my doona.
Talk about egotistical power trips.

I flew in August with Norse Alantic from JFK to London Gatwick. They were extremely nice and helpful @ check-in, gate, and flight. They accommodated extra seat for my baby in Doona. Just said that it has to be in Window seat. Flight attendant even carried it for me to my seat and strapped it in. Was Pleasure! Return flight they told me nicely that flight completely full so no extra seat and it was true! Booked again Norse!

I had a positive experience with AA in PHL where my wife approached the check in counter before boarding and they allowed us to bring our doona on the half empty flight to LAX. I always have my wife ask them, hoping they’ll have pity on the mom…

Only jet blue let us do it. Other airlines always challenged it

What kosher breakfast is at Hyatt JFK? I have stayed there like four times and I didn’t know that.

Agreed on free night being one of best values of cat 1-4

Double agreed on lack of shuttle being the only thing holding it back

Reading your various articles, I would be hesitant to push for government intervention with airline policies. I’m all for reaching out to airlines directly with concerns or suggestions, but government regulations can do more harm than good. What is one good thing that Pete Buttigieg or the DOT did that has helped air travel recently?

Love this. Dan the man with a platform and a plan.

if my memory serves me right, i once ripped of the tag on the jetbridge, but they went on the P.A. and announced that they have a bag that wasn’t registered as checked in but had a ticket printed out for it…do you know if they are able to see that in their system?

When taking a doona on a flight with a paid seat, especially on cheap airlines like Frontier and Spirit. Locate the little red airplane on the bottom (which signifies it is FAA approved) before, so when the not-so-smart gate agent and flight attendant who doesn’t know what a doona is says that it’s not approved to fly you can quickly show them. You will need to take your baby out and turn it over but it’s not so easy to find so if you know where it is it cuts down on the time and stress with everyone waiting behind you to board.

I had this lest week I flew United ewr to Yul I asked the lady by the get is she can change me seats near an empty seat she did that but she also taged my dunna than she came on to the plan and saw me with the dunna she said I can’t have it I asked her why she said it’s enough I gave this seat.

in 2013, thanks to Dan i was able to fly my family of 6, including my 6 month old twins to Israel for about $2k. We flew united ord to paris, and then paris to tlv on elal. United made me check my double stroller with my luggage as they said it was too large. So i had to shlep my twins in car seats with my wife watching the other two kids under the age of 5. While on the plane i was dealing with one of my twins and the stewardess bumped into me as she was doing service and really told me off for being in her way. Hated United for years. Elal on the other hand, when we got into israel, a gate agent saw me struggling with both carseats with kids in them and told me to give them to her and she carried them all to the way to luggage where we picked up our stroller. Love elal (hate their pricing)

AA and JB give special classes to their gate agents on how to be nasty and a pack of liars. Had 17 seats was taking all my nyc kids and grandchildren for a grandsons bar mitzvah in NMB. After delay after delay Jet Bull cancelled said bad weather in Fl. Asked why did the flight to PR that just left not have bad weather? Same area of bad weather. The gate liar agent just laughed and walked away. Will never ever fly that airline again.