A few years ago, I was traveling back from a quick trip to Denver. I don’t normally do flight review posts for random flights on ULCCs like Frontier, since ya know, what is there really to say about flying on Frontier? But occasionally something interesting happens that I think might merit a post.
Setting the Scene …
I actually had something interesting happen on my outbound CVG-DEN flight as well, but you’ll have to wait for that story. :-). On my flight back from Denver to Cincinnati our flight left a little after 4 p.m. At the time, I was an elite 100K member with Frontier, so I had picked a “stretch” seat and was sitting in Seat 2D.
(SEE ALSO: Why Frontier Airlines Elite Status Is the Only Airline Status I Have)
There was someone in the window seat (2F) and nobody in between us. Pretty much the entire plane had boarded and I was getting hopeful that I’d have an empty middle seat (always a bonus). But late in the boarding process, a family came onboard. The husband and wife and their lap child sat in Row 3B and 3C (someone else was in 3A) and they directed their son (around 7 years old) to the middle seat next to me (2E).
What to Do When Someone Else’s Kid Is Next to You on an Airplane
I think most families try to sit together when possible, but this becomes a bit more of a problem on low-cost carriers where you have to pay for pretty much any seat assignment. While waiting until the last minute to check in can be a great strategy to get a good seat on Frontier without paying, it only really works if you’re traveling by yourself. What I suspect happened here is that this family didn’t check in until they got to the airport and by that time, there weren’t really any seats available together. So that’s why they were split up. I am generally not a fan of asking passengers to move to worse seats to accommodate other passengers (even families), but I would move to a comparable or better seat. In this case, nobody asked me to move.
Of course I am a father of six, so I’m not going to leave this kid to suffer on his own, and I have plenty of experience dealing with kids. He was having trouble figuring out how to buckle the seatbelt, so I and the lady on the other side of him showed him how to do that. At first, I was not 100% sure he spoke English, as his family was speaking another language when they were boarding. But he ended up speaking English just fine. He asked me to help him lower his tray table, so I had to explain to him that he couldn’t lower it while we were taking off.
After that, I just tried my best to help him feel comfortable and explain what was going on. We talked a little bit about where he was from and where he was going. I showed him a bit about the plane and what was going on and then helped him lower his tray table and set up the snacks that his dad had given him (Chips Ahoy and Mountain Dew). I was working on some Kakuro puzzles offline and I had him “help” me with my addition and subtraction. :-). But about an hour into the flight, the flight attendants had apparently relocated the passenger in 3A, so he moved over to sit with his family. I was actually a little bummed. 🙂
Flashing Back to a Similar Flight
My mind kept flashing back to a similar situation, also on Frontier, but where MY family was on the other side of things. This was in July 2011 and we were flying from Indianapolis to Denver to visit family. This was before I got into miles and points and before I really knew much about airplane travel, and we “only” had 5 kids (with the oldest 10 years old). Similarly, our family was split up and the gate agents weren’t really able to help put us together. The best that they could do was put my wife and two of the kids together in the back of the plane, while I was up in the front somewhat near the other three kids. I think it was something like I was next to one, across the aisle from another, and the third was a row up. I still remember this grandma-style lady sitting next to my 9-year-old and being so super sweet, including buying him a cookie off the Frontier menu. Even to this day, I can’t think of that experience without it getting a little dusty if you know what I mean. 🙂
Bottom Line: Be a Good Person
Yes, it is not always an ideal situation when families are split up or when someone else’s kid is sitting next to you on an airplane. My best advice is to just do your best to be a good person and stay sympathetic as possible. Snacks and screen time are big winners too, of course! I was glad that I was able to help out this family and reduce their overall stress of flying with kids that day.
Have you ever had someone else’s child sitting next to you on an airplane? How did you handle it? Leave your experience in the comments.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I have to wonder why the father or mother didn’t take your row’s middle seat & seat the child with the other parent & lap child
I didn’t think of that but that would have made a lot of sense. My only guess is that as (by appearances) infrequent travelers, they got the boarding passes that assigned certain people to specific seats and thought they were required to sit there
If you’re male, traveling along and the child is under 6 or 7, just move. Its honestly not worth the accusation and side eye you’ll get as a single guy next to a child.
I can hear the comments now about how thats not true and sexist but its really just a societal norm that is prevalent in a lot of childcare situations. As a former teacher, i remember us all having to choose which age level to take and honestly if you aren’t the most charismatic of guys, don’t try for elementary school. I won’t go into it too deep here, but in a nutshell there is a stigma associated with male teachers in younger levels which makes it very hard for males to teach at that level.
Father of 8 here. Our best experience with a helpful neighbor was on a Southwest open seating flight. We were hoping for an extra seat to be open next to our littlest so he could have room to move about. We figured, who would choose to sit next to a toddler? An older woman makes a bee-line for the seat next to him. She smiled at our 3-year-old, said: “I saw you from the front of the plane, and I thought you may have a little extra seat to share with me.” So from Newark to Orlando he happily played with her bracelets, showed her his toys and they had a snack together. A happy memory!
Had this experience way back in 1998! But I still cringe a little thinking of it.
It was about a four hour flight from Minneapolis to San Diego. I had an aisle seat about two-thirds of the way to the back, and a flight attendant was asking if anyone was willing to trade with someone who was not comfortable sitting with two children. Turned out that the two parents had a baby on the lap, and were seated about half-way up the plane.
So I traded with a guy who was in the last row at the back, seated next to two little girls who were about four and six years. Darling little girls, but somewhat hyperactive! Dropped their toys every few minutes, spilled milk, wanted to get up and run in the aisle. My job seemed to be to persuade them to stay in their seats and try not to disturb other passengers too much.
The father came only one time during the flight to check on them! I also wondered why the parents did not split up so one was with each daughter. I think they probably needed a rest from the girls!
At the end, the flight attendants thanked me for my patience and said they were very grateful that I had been willing to trade.
I don’t like when people do that. I think when people book tickets with kids they should place kids next to themselves.