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'Entitled parent' says airline moved their toddler's seat right before flight tok off

This wasn't your typical 'entitled parent' story.

Image via Canva

A child sits alone in a plane seat

I took a long Amtrak train trip from Atlanta to Baltimore with my 9-year-old daughter this summer. As far as I could tell, there was no way to reserve specific seats in coach on our particular train ahead of time. But we arrived as early as we could and, to our delight, were treated to a near empty train. We sat together in a two-person row and had a really nice trip up to Baltimore.

On the way back? We boarded at Union Station and the train, having arrived from New York, was already packed. The conductor told me he would try his best to seat us together but couldn't guarantee it. You should have seen the terror in my daughter's eyes. It would be a 14-hour overnight train ride. Sitting her next to some stranger that whole time? Absolutely not. No way.

They eventually found us seats across an aisle from each other, which kind of worked, but wasn't ideal. Luckily, the guy I was supposed to sit next on the other side flew into a rage that he wouldn't have a row to himself and stormed off to sit elsewhere, freeing up the row for us.

Delta, flying, Delta airlines, kids on planes, children's seating on planes, Reddit A mother sits with her two children on a planeImage via Canva

But for a few horrible minutes, I had become "that dad" desperately asking anyone in the area if they'd be willing to move so we could sit together.

I had become the dreaded entitled parent from all the viral travel stories.

Stories of "entitled parents" desperately trying to get other passengers to switch seats go viral all the time. But a recent thread on Reddit shows why we don't always get the full story.

Delta, children on flights, plane flights, flight etiquette, Reddit A parents reveals how they were separated from their toddler on a flight Image via Reddit

User u/takeme2themtns recently shared a nightmare travel story in the r/Delta subreddit:

"In typical Delta fashion, they just switched up our seats and placed my toddler in a row away from us," they wrote. "Booked three seats ... in comfort plus months ago. Now, several hours before the flight we get notifications that our seats have changed. They put wife and me in exit row seats and the toddler in a window seat a row away."

With no way to fix the seating snafu digitally, the OP would have to rely on the Gate Attendant or even Flight Attendant to make a last-minute change — which would force someone else on the plane to move.

"I’m confident the GA (gate attendant) will take care of it," they wrote, "but it’s still so frustrating that we have to worry about it. I know we see posts like this all the time, but that’s because it happens all the time to people. Delta needs to fix this trashy system."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Another user in the comments wrote to share a similar story:

"I had this happen to me. The check-in person said to talk to the gate.

The gate said to talk to the flight attendant.

The flight attendant told me to ask people to trade seats.

I asked people. People said no. Other passengers started berating me for not planning ahead and saying my lack of planning isn’t their responsibility.

I defended myself by saying I reserved seats months ago and Delta moved me at the last minute. Then passengers started yelling at each other about my situation.

The FA had someone move and I got to sit with my daughter."

The user noted that the situation was chaotic and traumatizing.

These stories are far from rare.


Delta, Delta airlines, children on flights, separated children, Reddit woman carrying baby while sitting on gray seatPhoto by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

I found another story just like this from a few months ago on the r/United subreddit. The user's family booked seats together only for the system to separate them right before the flight, leaving an 8-year-old to fly seated alone. The flight crew's only solution was to ask other passengers to switch, causing the OP's family to get lots of dirty looks for the duration of the flight.

Having a young child or toddler seated away from you while traveling is just a complete No-Go, for many reasons. But as a dad, leaving a kid of nearly any age to sit alone — even if they're 8 or 10 or 14 — is not acceptable.

It's not just about convenience, it's a huge safety issue. There are plenty of horrifying news stories that support why a parent would do absolutely anything to avoid it.

When we hear these stories, they're almost always framed as the parents being unprepared, lazy, and entitled. But maybe we're missing the point.

Delta, Delta airlines, children on planes, flying, switched seats, Reddit boy sitting on plane seat while viewing windowPhoto by Hanson Lu on Unsplash

A story from January of this year praises a passenger who refused to switch seats with an "entitled dad" as a "hero."

People are fed up with parents asking them to switch out of airline or train seats that they paid good money for. And I don't blame them!

But we need to stop beating each other up and start holding the airlines and other travel companies accountability for putting parents and non-parents into this mess in the first place.

There needs to be a better system for families booking plane and train tickets. When you buy tickets, you have to enter in the ages of the children you're traveling with — so it stands to reason that these mix-ups flat out shouldn't happen!

Families shouldn't have to panic at the gate or on board about this! Other paying passengers shouldn't have to give up their seats!

The good news is that the Department of Transportation has recently gotten involved with a dashboard of which airlines guarantee family seating at no additional cost.

The DOT is looking to even make it illegal to for airlines to charge parents and children fees to sit together. Parents and children under 13 would be required to be seated side by side or immediately adjacent, and if not, they'd get a full refund or free rebooking — it's known as the Families Fly Together Act.

Traveling in 2025 is stressful enough, from seat changes to unruly passengers to high numbers of cancelled flights.

Seating kids and parents together seems like one small problem we should be able to solve.

This article originally appeared last year.

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Remember the viral video of someone with a Delta flight to themselves? There’s more to the story.

Twitter / Vincent Peone

When it comes to social media, things aren't always as they seem. Every now and then, we're reminded that sometimes an incredible viral video is just the result of movie magic.

Writer and director Vincent Peone posted a video on Twitter documenting his experience on a "private jet." Peone was the only passenger on a Delta flight from Aspen, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah. In the video, Perone is greeted by name, meets the pilots, and gets to sit wherever he wants on a completely empty plane. It seems like a pretty sweet experience, especially because flying commercial can be such a nightmare. When the video ends, it's presumably because the flight was taking off. The video went viral, getting millions of views on Twitter.

RELATED: 9 women describe the frustration, shame, and heartbreak of being a fat person on a plane

Delta even responded to Peone's initial Tweet, which seemed confirm the flight actually happened. "That looks like an awesome experience! Thank you for the shoutout, and we truly appreciate you for choosing Delta!" said the airline.

Peone ended the viral video with, "Up, Up and Away," but in reality, the flight stayed, stayed where it was. Delta admitted that Peone did get on the empty plane, but the flight never took off. "Delta Connection Flight 3652 last week pushed back but shortly returned to the gate due to a maintenance issue. The aircraft departed a short time later without any customers onboard," Delta spokesperson Anthony Black told The Washington Post.

RELATED: A 2016 take on a century-old map shows changes in travel over time

Peone himself confirmed that this was true. "My video was 100% true...and then I stopped filming. After the private jet broke down again with mechanical problems, I took a normal one the following morning," the filmmaker wrote on Twitter. "The story took off fast, but the plane didn't."

"It reminded me of an experience you'd have flying in the '50s or something. It was very positive, and [the flight crew] thought it was funny. But I was like: Why would they even do this? Why even fly the plane? Delay me or cancel or something!" Peone said in an interview with the Post.

It turns out, it's actually not weird for a flight to fly without passengers. Instead of cancelling an empty flight, the airplane will still travel to the next destination if it's needed to operate later flights.

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Disney and Marvel plan to boycott Georgia if it passes its terrible anti-gay law.

Opponents of a new anti-gay law in Georgia might actually be able to stop it now that they have actual superheroes on their side.

HB 757 is the latest in a line of state "religious freedom" bills that provide faith-adjacent organizations more latitude to discriminate against LGBT Americans.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

According to a report in the Daily Beast, the proposed Georgia law "gives faith-based organizations the right to hire and fire people who violate their 'sincerely held religious beliefs,' as well as the right to refuse to rent facilities for events they find 'objectionable.'"

The bill has passed the state legislature and is awaiting Gov. Nathan Deal's signature — or veto.

But Disney and Marvel, which are shooting "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" in the state, have announced they plan to boycott Georgia should the law go into effect.

Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images.

"Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law," a Disney spokesman said on Wednesday, according to Variety.

They're not the only ones.

Georgia-based Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines have also issued strong statements against the pending law. The NFL has said the state could lose out on future Super Bowls should the bill become law.

When Indiana tried to pass a similar law last year, a hugely diverse array of people rallied to defeat it.

A broad coalition of influential Americans and organizations, including governors of three states, mayors of five cities, activists, businesses, universities, sports conferences, and even church groups were instrumental in raising the specter of a mass boycott that ultimately helped persuade Gov. Mike Pence and legislators to narrow the scope of the law.

The reaction didn't come out of nowhere. Local and national LGBT rights groups painstakingly made the case against the bill to businesses for months so that when the time came to throw down, corporate America had their backs.

This time around, the response from big business was even bigger — and clearer. That's awesome progress.

A group takes a photo at Disney World's "Gay Days" in 2003. Photo by Chris Livingston/Getty Images.

Their message: Discrimination hurts our employees and our bottom line.

For that, companies like Disney and Marvel — and the activists who worked tirelessly to get them to pay attention — deserve a big round of applause.

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See how a father and son brought life-changing medical care to low-income families.

'No one can change the world in one day. The idea is to start with small steps.'

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Delta

Watch scenes from Ricardo's life-changing trip back to Mexico, then scroll down to see how Delta made it possible.

Ricardo comes from a long line of healers.

His grandfather was a shaman, someone who exercises healing practices without a medical degree, in Portuguesa, Venezuela. His father, Alí, is a physician and works in his hometown in Venezuela, devoting his life to his patients and their families.

Alí helping patients. Image via Delta/YouTube.

So, it's no surprise Ricardo followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and became a health care professional. He's currently living in Atlanta, where he's studying for the United States Medical Licensing Exam so he can practice in the U.S.

And it's that generosity of spirit that lead him to enter Delta's My Next Trip Back Contest.

"Initially I was looking for an airline ticket and suddenly clicked ... to the Delta homepage," Ricardo said.

That's where he saw an announcement for the contest.

"I entered and made a video explaining that in my next trip to Latin America I would want to reunite with my dad and bring free medical consultations to the community," he said.

And just a few weeks later, Ricardo was shocked to learn he'd won!

All GIFs via Delta/YouTube.

He had another surprise waiting for him in Mexico.

Ricardo traveled to the Cristo Rey community in Solidaridad, Mexico.

At first, Delta told Ricardo his father would not be able to join him on this adventure, but it was all an elaborate ruse to surprise him!

Once father and son reunited, they were joined by a local physician and medical student from Mexico. This small but mighty team traveled in a mobile home throughout the city's lower-income neighborhoods to distribute care. They visited nearly 200 people in need over the course of a week.

The mobile clinic rolls on. Image via Delta/YouTube.

Many of the ailments and illnesses they saw were due to the conditions of the remote, rural community.

According to Ricardo, the most prevalent diseases they saw were things like urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, skin dermatitis, and parasitic diseases that cause diarrhea in children, which can lead to malnutrition.

The tragic part? A lot of them are completely preventable with the right access to information.

Ricardo treats a patient. Photo courtesy of Ricardo, used with permission.

That's why Ricardo is so passionate about education and outreach.

"I think that if the public were informed through educational talks and better health education, some recurring illnesses could be prevented and thus reduce the level of incidence of [these] diseases." he said.

Image via Delta/YouTube.

Everywhere they went, Ricardo and the team shared joy, kindness, and their medical expertise.

With help from Delta, Ricardo was able to donate blankets, toys, first aid kits, and medicine to the people and facilities that needed it the most. He even made time to visit two elementary schools, where they donated first aid kits and gave talks on how to prevent parasites and other diseases.

Image via Delta/YouTube.

And while parasites may not be the most enjoyable talk for kids, Ricardo is confident his visit made a lasting impression. "Even if not everyone we visited paid us much attention, we know we made a spiritual impact on everyone," he said. "We changed realities."

And they made time for some fun stuff too.


Selfie time! Photo courtesy of Ricardo, used with permission.

Now back home in Atlanta, Ricardo continues to be a force for good.

"If you have received help in your life, help! Your help has the power to change others' realities," Ricardo said.

Winning the Delta contest has inspired him to encourage others to get involved in their communities. He even offered some advice to others looking to get started.

"No one can change the world in one day," he said. "The idea is to start with small steps."

Photo courtesy of Ricardo, used with permission.

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