This was all over the internet this morning: A mother and toddler were removed from an American Eagle flight about to take off from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

The 2 year old boy, who is autistic, was clearly not happy; at one point, in his mother’s own words, the child had a meltdown and “was on the floor, rolling around.” The mother, who told the flight crew about the boy’s autism said they made the situation worse by yelling at the child and yanking his seatbelt.

We contacted American spokesman Tim Wagner who gave us some answers — keep reading.

Saw this video report on CNN: it seems Skywest somehow lost track of a youngster under their supervision who was flying alone from Yuma, AZ to Salt Lake City and beyond; the boy was left alone in the Salt Lake airport to find his next connection.

His parents, of course, had paid the obligatory $100 charge so this wouldn’t happen.

I’m not dumping on Skywest particularly; these snafus are rare and seem to occur with a number of airlines.

The point is, should this be occurring at all?

Was just checking out the informative “Ask the Pilot” column on Salon.com, and found an amusing nugget.

Pilot/author Patrick Smith, with tongue-in-cheek, was writing about airline marketing ideas, and proposed this one:

“Here’s a challenge to any airline daring enough: a rule that requires the medicating, muzzling or sequestering of all children under 4 years old — below deck would be nice, or out on the wing.”

No doubt he was simply stirring things up, to get a lively reaction (and to judge by the comments, that’s exactly what he’s getting!) — but what do YOU think?

DO we need a “kids-only” section on airplanes?

Did you know that, according to government statistics, there were more than 17-million people enrolled in college in 2006?

And, a lot of them will soon be graduating!

Now sitting through graduation speeches is not a lot of peoples’ idea of fun, but if you’re invited to the ceremony, we can at least ease the pain of expensive airfare…if you use My Trips.

Let me explain.

Put me down as a fan of this idea: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has got two “experiments” going to try and ease long security lines.

And cut down on air travel frustration.

The TSA is trying something akin to the way ski trails are marked (makes sense: the experiments are being conducted in Salt Lake and Denver).

It’s a simple idea: 3-different security lanes, for 3-different kinds of travelers.

Keep reading, I think you’ll like this.

Starting tomorrow, Southwest dumps its policy of allowing families with young children to board before other passengers. Sorry families: now there are NO major domestic airlines with an “early family boarding policy.”

For the past couple of weeks, Southwest has been making a number of moves to attract more business travelers (please see my post, Southwest Goes International…Kind Of).

So how are parents taking this latest change? According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, not well:

“‘It’s inappropriate and disrespectful,” said one man,who added “It wouldn’t be any different than telling elderly passengers they can’t go first.”

What do YOU think?

A FINAL NOTE FOR FAMILY TRAVELERS: It never hurts to ASK if you can pre-board.