According to NBC News, a California couple claims that the above video shows an incident in which they were asked to give up a seat for their two-year-old son despite having paid for it, or have their entire family kicked off the flight.
On video, you can hear what sounds like a woman’s voice speaking to Brian Schear as he sits on the flight before takeoff.
Schear refused and an employee tells him refusing to get off the plane was a federal offense and he could be jailed. They arranged for the teen to go home on a separate flight so their 2-year-old son could have a seat of his own and sleep through the overnight flight. “It’s a red-eye”, Shear can be heard saying in the video.
If you closely at the fine print when you pay for your airline tickets, you’ll see switching seats is not allowed. “This is what’s ridiculous”. But he ended up getting his teen another ticket for an earlier flight so his toddler could have a seat. They then filled our 4 seats with 4 customers that had tickets but no seats.
A new person who gives her name as Jenna, apparently an airline employee, approaches. She says it’s an Federal Aviation Administration regulation.
A Delta Air Lines passenger posted a video of his family being booted off a flight over a dispute regarding the use of a seat.
Delta’s website also states that children under the age of two have their own seat. “I got two infants and my wife, I’ve got no where to stay, there’s no more flights”.
Not only does this statement contradict all FAA policy, but Delta’s own website encourages customers to buy separate seats for young children and to use child-safety restraint systems, auto seats included.
Delta recommends that parents buy a seat for children under two and put them in an approved child-safety seat in advice on its website.
In the argument, an airline employee told Mr Schear “the plane is not going to move. we can all sit here all night if that’s what you guys want to do”.
Another US airline is facing a backlash after a family claimed they were told to leave a flight for refusing to give up their child’s seat, and were then told they could go to jail.
Brian Schear of Huntington Beach says his family was kicked off the flight.
Delta announced that it was sorry for an unfortunate experience and would be compensating the family. Our team has reached out and will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution.
Following the United incident, Southwest Airlines Co LUV.N said it would stop overbooking its flights. Delta said its goal is to work with customers to resolve travel issues, “that did not happen in this case and we apologize“.
