An Australian mother says she suffered a "traumatising experience" after being forced to carry her newborn baby on a Qantas flight for 15 hours.
Elizabeth Pucius requested a seat with a bassinet for her four-week- old daughter on her flight from New York to Melbourne.
Qantas told her the bassinets were allocated to the passengers with the youngest child.
They then gave the bassinet to an older child.
"The bassinet had been allocated to a much older infant that could in fact sit up and stand in the bassinet, clearly in contradiction of QANTAS' supposed 'needs based' policy," she wrote on Facebook.
Ms Pucius was then forced to hold her infant.
"I was forced to nurse my four-week old daughter for more than 15 hours from Los Angeles to Melbourne. This was a traumatising experience. This arrangement put my daughter at significant risk, according to the Australian safe sleeping guidelines," she says.
"I fought against exhaustion, constantly frightened that I would drop my daughter. This brought me to tears. My husband did what he could to help, but was busy providing care for our two-year-old for virtually the entire flight."
A Qantas spokesperson has apologised to Ms Pucius, saying: "We're sorry for the let down on this occasion and can assure you that your feedback has been noted."
However Ms Pucius says this isn't acceptable.
"We are not asking for any special treatment. What we do want is written clarification of the QANTAS bassinet policy, an apology for how we were treated, and most importantly an appropriate solution for our return journey to NYC on March 28," she writes.
Newshub.
