[MIKE RUTANO]

Background
This letter has been dictated the day after this incident occurred.
On the above noted date I was traveling to my vacation home in Hallandale, Florida. In the past with Air Canada, we have had difficulty getting a flight suitable to our schedule as we have young children.
One of our subsidiary companies (ATS) travels’ extensively with Air Canada. Many of our bookings are completed through HRG International and you will find that ATS does an exorbitant amount of flight business with Air Canada. I have over 65 employees internationally in this company and mobile repair on Regional Jets. I am only mentioning this, because I need you to understand the level of business conducted with your company and the amount of flight hours that are booked so you do not misinterpret this letter of complaint as malicious or frivolous. Due to the long flight hours many times my employees fly business class, I never do.
As I am sure you are aware the flight in this case is approximately 3 hours. We arrived at the airport early since we wanted to book seats for our children. Upon arrival we used the electronic kiosk to book the seats which to our surprise had already booked us in Row 12. (Unbeknownst to my wife and I, these seats were short lived due to a security feature with your plane). With the money that was spent setting up these kiosks I am sure your engineers could have foreseen such anomalies occurring. But then again such logic would offer ample explanation to the events that occurred subsequently.
After waiting almost 2 hours and the flight being late, we had the great misfortune to come into contact with your supervising Flight Attendant Karen Sheehan. Her demeanor was not one I had ever experienced before on the many hundreds of flights I have traveled with your company. Generally, most of your staff has always had a ring of sincerity to genuinely want to help the passengers. Ms. Sheehan did not manifest this sincerity. As soon as I handed her the boarding passes she told me in passing without explanation we would have to move. This of course did not impress me, but knowing the heavy burden of regulations placed on the industry, I waited until she would approached me prior to takeoff. Just prior to flight, she said we had to move my daughter who is 2 years of age and my son who is six years of age. Unless someone is a parent and has small children, they could not comprehend and understand the frustration one endures when trying to explain to a two year old child that she now cannot sit in the seat that she has become accustomed to. Children at that age become immediately attached and to a location and of course this sets off other displaced rage when the child is tired.
Point being, it’s a problem that could have easily been averted by your company, had it been better organized or more importantly have people in positions that can handle such controversy when it arises.
Complaint
During the flight, we experienced turbulence and air pressure fluctuation causing my ears to pop, although uncomfortable for adults, this situation is magnified exponentially for young children like my daughter, Ms. Sheehan in that position5822 should be cognizant of this very simple fact and should know how to handle children who become uncomfortable and manifest their frustration by crying. The issue became more pervasive at the last 30 minutes of the trip when my daughter became more uncomfortable and my wife was trying her level best to handle her frustration. On several occasions Sheehan ostensibly appeared sincere and was talking to my daughter asking her to sit in her seat and calling her “sweetie”. It became more and more annoying as my wife was trying to calm down my daughter and each time my daughters screaming began to dwindle, Ms. Sheehan would exacerbate the situation by telling my wife that “she really needs to calm down.”
My wife tried to explain in few words that she is tired and frustrated and just needs some time to calm down. Sheehan insisted several times over and always ostensibly being polite but with an underlying tone, of complete insincerity. “Control your child or I will “attitude. My wife is not controversial or confrontation and since my family had been moved and was sitting behind me instead of beside me as we originally had booked the seats in isle 12, I did not become completely aware of Sheehan’s effect on her and the continual exacerbating of my daughters situations. Instead of helping the situation she continually made it worse, forcing cookies and drink and telling Sofia (my 2 year old daughter) that she had to be quiet and she has to calm down and my daughter of course being abstinent and acting as many tired and hurting 2 year olds act. After several attempts of hearing Sheehan’s contact, I though she would get the message and allow my wife to calm down our daughter, instead she continued to badger and embarrass not only my wife and herself bring undo attention to a situation that could have easily been quelled had it been handled in a more appropriate way. I looked back after listening to this and saw that my wife was in tears and my daughter yet continued to wail and scream and would do so at a higher decibel level each time she would see Sheehan approach her.. I finally got up and told her to leave my daughter and wife alone, and unless she had some sort of child psychology degrees that professes her as an expert, she had best not tell a 2 year old she needs to be quiet.

I told Ms. Sheehan had she never been on a flight where a child is screaming? The child is upset and you are making the situation worse instead of better. Do not think we want her to be quiet, now go and watch over the other passengers instead of centering out my family that you so plainly did without any regard at the beginning of the flight and yet again at the end of the night.
Needless to say, she attempted to say something else even after I explicitly explained to her , her conduct was inappropriate and unwarranted. An attendant has an obligation to treat ALL passengers the same, we were treated differently and poorly. I am so disgusted with this attendant that I plan on taking this complaint to authorities at the Canadian Transportation Agency in Ottawa who can properly handle such complaints. This flight completely ruined our trip and although we travel to the states to our second home here several times a year, this experience left us very unimpressed with your company. By the time you receive this letter if I do not receive a phone call or an acknowledgment of what you plan to do to remedy this, I will be instructing my staff to boycott all Air Canada airlines. I am hoping you people in public relations have better sense then Ms. Sheehan.
On the return we had the misfortune to have the same supervisor , the only difference was that you had two other flight attendants one whose name was Janice who was not only helpful but Truly Sincere with her intentions to assist my wife in keeping my daughter quiet.