Tortured For Hours

July 1, 2009

in Baby & Kid Stories

I was flying back to the States from JoBurg, South Africa. The flight from hell was roughly 12 hours from JoBurg to London. Being a travel agent, I attempted to get a free upgrade with the gate agents to a sleeper bed/seat. No luck there. Once on-board, I attempted to sleep, only to be awoken about 1 hour into the flight by a crying baby. The back of the plane was relatively empty, and my traveling companion and I each had an entire row to stretch out. As excited as we were for this initially, the inability to upgrade would soon come back to haunt us.

The woman with the crying baby obviously had never flown with this baby (or any other baby) before. She didn’t know what to do to keep it quiet and it cried and cried and cried. So the solution she came up with was to put the baby in her arms and carry this crying creature from hell all the way up and down each aisle. Up one aisle, down the other side. For over an hour. So even though she wasn’t sitting that close to us, every 10 minutes I would be awoken by this baby. To make it worse, after speaking with the stewardesses, they would not let us move up to first class, even after begging for some peace and quiet.

Isn’t it the worst, knowing there are empty seats far away from a screaming baby, that fold out into a bed?!?! And yet we were stuck being tortured for hours. I can tell you that I slept like a log from London to JFK on the second leg, thankfully, baby-free.

Signed, ppaz

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

SAW July 1, 2009 at 4:33 am

Oh you poor thing… stuck in coach with the rabble… must be so torturous for you. Get a grip, and welcome to the real world with everyone else.

Sometimes, you just can't get a baby to stop crying, no matter how hard you try. To infer that "she didn't know what to do to keep it quiet" clearly shows a lack of understanding – do YOU know exactly what to do to stop a baby from crying?

You're lucky you had 3 empty seats to stretch out in – most of the time, you're stuck upright.

Get a grip. You don't know HELL.

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Joan June 20, 2016 at 7:45 pm

You must be the mother or father from HELL — and the reason I don't fly.

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aaron July 1, 2009 at 10:05 am

Another vote for infant/toddler sections on large overseas flights/planes.

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Jess July 1, 2009 at 10:15 am

If First Class was open and it was that important to you, you should have paid for it. If you are a travel agent, you should have known to bring ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones.

You also show your lack of class by calling the flight attendants “stewardesses”.

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GottaLoveIt July 1, 2009 at 10:38 am

For a travel agent, you're pretty clueless about traveling, aren't you?

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SAW July 1, 2009 at 11:04 am

And the story complains about ONE hour in a 12 hour flight… whine whine whine…

I doubt this is even true. I've never met a travel agent so retarded.

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Anonymous July 1, 2009 at 11:14 am

It must be hard to be you.

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MJ July 2, 2009 at 5:05 am

Not to mention…walking around with a crying baby IS one of the ways to get the kid to calm down.

Crying is annoying, we get it, but seriously? You should have known better, as an adult, and as a travel agent.

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Sarah July 3, 2009 at 8:23 pm

I believe the previous posters do not understand the purpose of this site. This site allows travelers to share their uncomfortable experiences with other travelers who underwent similar torture and are able to relate to them.

Basically, for all the baby mommas and poppas furiously defending their obnoxious, disturbing offspring, stop trolling the site. Your rebuttal posts are downright laughable at best. Enough with the "can't control them, they're supposed to behave like little monsters" excuse. You're parents, you should know how to discipline your child. If you can't discipline your first child, you have no business having more. Giving a child an admonishing spank on the bottom is not abuse. Beating your child within an inch of death is. So really what people are saying is that if they're going to spank their child, they're going to pretty much murder their kid. Get a clue already.

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GottaLoveIt July 3, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Sounds like that baby was being a baby, not a "little monster." Do you think you never cried when you were a baby, Sarah? Don't be an idiot. This isn't a story about a child being a brat and a parent not bothering to control them. Learn the difference.

Never have kids. Not just because you'd be a terrible parent, but also because the world will be at least a little bit better off if there's never another you wandering around in it.

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Gil Thorp July 3, 2009 at 10:15 pm

Sarah, how exactly would spanking that baby have made them stop crying? What the hell goes on in that head of yours? There's obviously something wrong with you.

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SAW July 4, 2009 at 5:59 am

Sarah… there's a difference between a "toddler", and a "baby". If you can't tell the difference, you need professional help. Babies cry – especially on planes and especially at time of decent. Those of us who travel a lot simply get used to that.

One thing I NEVER complain about, is a crying infant. They can't help it, and I (and other readers here) have no real idea about what the circumstances are for the parent or what lead up to the flight. It's often a situation that the mom & baby don't WANT to take that flight, but need to for either personal or family reasons – who are we to judge without knowing their situation.

I agree – there's problems with bad parenting, and it's a growing issue. But the mother of the baby here demonstrated proper behavior. The author of the story demonstrated that she is a jackass.

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Hugh July 6, 2009 at 8:35 am

It sounds to me liek the poster was bitching more about not getting a free upgrade than about a crying infant. Sarah, I hope we can all assume that you have no kids? I pray you never do, please get your tubes tied to prevent that ever happening. You just might be one of the stupidest posters ever. Let me guess, you rode the small bus to school????

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Laura July 6, 2009 at 10:19 pm

Look at all these righteous baby-advocates! Woo woo, never reproduce, boo hoo hoo!

Crying babies are infuriating on planes because you can't make them stop and they more or less echo what all the other passengers are feeling.

I have rage episodes when I'm around screaming kids so I feel the OP's pain. When I was younger, like 10, I would shout about why abortion is great, but now I've calmed down and just turn up the music.

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SAW July 7, 2009 at 2:28 am

I think we all are in agreement that constant crying babies are annoying – and they can make a flight absolutely hellish.

I've flown a LOT – and had more than my share of flights where there was never a tiny moment of silence amid a plethora of screaming babies.

What I have found, is that in MOST cases, the parents do their very best to calm, and care for their infants. What upsets me is when I see parents doing NOTHING, or doing something STUPID. I also see a clear distinction between an infant, and a toddler.

A poorly behaving toddler needs "disciplinary attention". There's not much you can do for a crying baby on the plane except care for it, rock it, feed it, walk it about, and accept the fact that the plane itself is likely the cause for the discomfort.

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Hugh July 7, 2009 at 10:44 am

SAW, I agree 100%.

Laura…

=======() Here's a spoon, eat my ass!

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Elisa July 9, 2009 at 4:51 am

SAW is so right.

On another note, the poster had every right to be annoyed. Not at the child, but at the fact there were empty first-class seats.

The airline does themself no favours leaving these empty. Upgrading someone (anyone! not necessarily a travel agent) does a great deal for their own PR. Those passengers have the time of their lives in first class and tell the world how lovely the staff at ABCXYZ airlines were, to upgrade them free.

Instead, they now have a post here from someone who is seething with hate for the airline. Smart?

Empty first class seats is just stupidity.

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SAW July 10, 2009 at 2:17 am

I've managed to snag an empty 1st class seat without status on an airline many times – and without paying the upgrade fee. How? I was very NICE to the gate agent, and offered a very good reason (exhaustion, knee problem – but always the truth) in a polite way.

When reading this person's post, it would be my guess that they were whiny to the gate agent, or otherwise annoying or confrontational about the issue – and a gate agent isn't going to do squat for people that aren't nice to them, or that act as if they're "entitled". All that happens, is they choose to fly with those seats empty, just to irritate that passenger further – trust me – I seen that happen.

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Laura Cardwell July 15, 2009 at 1:46 am

Hugh,

Can I eat through the ass so that your rectum and lower intestine also comprise my lunch? I’m hungry.

What about my comment made you want to feed me your anus? Was it the sarcastic mocking of baby-advocates or of people who think no children should ever be allowed to fly? I mocked equally.

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Leao April 5, 2010 at 7:37 pm

You must be the worst travel agent ever!

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