Right: Yosef, Sarah and Tiferes Shidler.

Airline Makes Amends to Crown Heights Couple

A disturbing experience involving the positioning of an infant car seat on an airplane has been amicably resolved with Southwest Airlines. Yosef and Sarah Shidler, the Crown Heights couple at the center of the dispute, received both an apology and compensation for their troubles.

From VIN News by Sandy Eller:

The incident took place as the family was 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.