I took the internet poll on the side of the page, and at least when I took it, the responses were three-to-one in favor of the airline’s response in this case.

The kid throws a tantrum and won’t be pacified, delaying the plane’s takeoff by 15 minutes, and the airline gets the family off the plane for the sake of the rest of the plane’s passengers. A reasonable person on the receiving end of that might be given pause by the situation, right? And it’s not like the airline didn’t make it worth their while, though, as a sort of consolation:

AirTran reimbursed the Kuleszas the cost of the tickets, $598.80 and offered the family three free roundtrip business class tickets to anywhere the airline flies for their trouble.

Okay, some inconvenience, but overall not too bad, especially considering that they had family in town. A bad day made right, right? Not exactly:

The Kuleszas did not accept the ticket offer and say they feel humiliated and they don’t appreciate the fact they were left stranded in Florida without their luggage, which had not been kicked off the flight and went to Boston without them.

“They also told us because we were removed from the plane we couldn’t fly for another 24 hours and meanwhile our luggage and her carseat were headed back to Boston and we’re stranded with nothing,” said Gerald Kulesza…

“…We’re humiliated, humiliated. Being asked to be removed from a plane because of a three-year-old. Humiliated,” said Julie Kulesza. Gerald Kulesza says the family will never fly AirTran again.

And with that we can see why their three-year-old daughter was having such an uncontrollable tantrum in the first place: she learned that it was acceptable from her parents.