Brian Williams reported that the 2014 Airplane Etiquette Study found that seat kickers and inattentive parents were the worst offenders (NBC National News, (Dec. 2014) I can confirm the study's conclusions, since my husband and I were tortured by kicking children on our fourteen hour flight from Seoul to Washington last Dec. 2013.
Two young children repeatedly kicked the back of our three seats despite numerous requests by my husband and me to the cabin crew and the mother to control the children. The communication consisted of both the cabin crew and my husband and myself asking the woman who accompanied these children to control them. The control didn't happen because the kicking and bumping would only stop briefly while the attendant was around and then resume. In fact, it is *not* the case that, as claimed by Jiyoung Moon, Vice President of Customer Relations, "the children's parent was cooperative." After being asked a second time by the flight attendant to stop her children from kicking, the mother complained that she could not be expected to keep her eye constantly on her children despite their seats being next to her. At that point, we realized the fruitlessness of notifying the flight attendant every time a kick to the back of the seat was felt. If the attendants claim that they didn't notice any further disturbing actions, it is because they weren't checking with us.
We didn't realize until the flight was almost over that the father of the children was sitting across the aisle from the mother and the two children. Since the male child was a worse offender than the female child, the flight attendant could have moved the father to sit behind us. The fact that we had purchased an additional seat ($1330) to give us comfort for our long flight did not make it tolerable.
When I emailed Korean Air customer service, Jiyoung Moon, Vice President, Customer Relations insisted that the kicking had stopped and my complaint was due to my "state of mind." There was neither a legitimate apology nor an offer to refund the cost of the additional seat ($1330).
In January, 2014 I sent copies of the insulting emails between Jiyoung Moon and myself to Yang-Ho Cho, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd., 260 Haneul-Gil, Gangseo-Gu, Seoul, Seoul, 157240 South Korea USPS International mail. No response.
In April, 2014, I emailed Chairman Cho's daughter, Heather Cho, then Vice President for Cabin Service and Catering, Korean Air through LinkedIn. No response.
Heather Cho has resigned her position as Vice President on Dec. 10, 2014 (Korean Air's Cho Quits After Outburst Prompts Criticism, Kyunghee Park, Bloomberg). Was she asserting her authority to address the lack of airplane etiquette that was most offensive and annoying like seat kickers and inattentive parents? No, she deplaned an attendant for not asking her if she wanted macadamia nuts before giving them to her.
Korean Air passengers deserve the right to be protected against passengers who are annoying and offensive inflight. When obvious exceptions to airplane etiquette are brought to the attention of KAI customer service, managers should be instructed to provide customer service instead of insulting the customer. It's time for the KAI family of owners who are managers to rethink their expectations for airplane etiquette and communicate those expectations to their employees. For now, my husband and I will be flying on other airlines. read more