“When I booked the tickets, business class was full, so the agency told me to book three business tickets and one economy ticket, and that I could move to business class if they had an empty seat,” she said.

On the return flight back to HCMC on Saturday, a business class seat opened up and Lien asked her child to sit with the family, but 20 minutes later a stewardess asked her husband, Le Toan, to move to the economy class instead, she said.

Toan then begged the stewardess to let him stay, saying that his children – three and five years old – were too young to be seated away from their father, Lien said.

According to Toan, at first the attendant gave Lien a seat belt for the child, but then continued demanding that the father move to economy class, so he had to do as requested.

On the flight to Singapore, friendly attendants let the family sit together in business class with no problems, he said.

“Many of the business class passengers were our partners. Vietnam Airlines’ flight attendants treated us disrespectfully and made us lose face in public,” Lien said.

Although Lien’s quarrel with the attendant didn’t go any further than loud voices, she and her two children were escorted to the border gate police station without explanation when they arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport, said the mother.

At a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Toan said the family had sent complaints to the airlines’ director general, demanding the firm apologize them publicly.

If the carrier fails to deal with the case properly, Lien’s family will sue, Lien’s lawyer said.

On the other hand, the carrier’s spokesman Le Hoang Dung said on the same day that Vietnam Airlines’ flight attendants had done nothing wrong in handling the family’s situation.

He also said they had collected eyewitness reports from attendants aboard the flight, VN740 from Singapore to HCMC, as well as passengers who saw the incident.

Nguyen Thi Hong Vien, who was in chief attendant on the flight, said before they took off stewardess Tran Huong Giang found Lien’s four-person family taking up three seats while only three of them had business class tickets.

“The woman was holding a 3- year-old child in her lap, while regulations require a 3-year-old child to its own seat,” said Vien.

Giang then reminded Lien of the regulations for many times, but she didn’t cooperate and instead insulted the attendant, Vien said in her report to the national carrier.

When Vien came to explain the regulations, Lien continued the insults, the chief attendant said, noting that even after Toan moved to economy class, Lien still went on shouting derogatory remarks.

“As the passenger expressed a threatening attitude towards attendants, which was related to flight safety personnel, I informed the captain.”

Pham Thi Phuong Hai, head of Vietnam Airlines’ flight attendant division, noted: “In practice, passengers have to sit in accordance with their ticket class. And, two people are not allowed to share one seat, which is to guarantee flight safety.”

Source: Thanh Nien, Agencies