When the 18 year old didn't show, the airline checked and found the toddler not on the parents lap....but in the seat vacated by the 18 year old. They were NOT entitled to use the 18 year olds seat. I'm inclined to say....clever?? or fraud because I'm sure the 18year old used the money from the vacated seat for the earlier flight.
At some point, the parents should have actually mentioned it to the attendant before boarding that the 18 year old wasn't coming.
TSA and airline boarding agents should have caught that Grayson was going through security, NOT Mason. The photo ID of the 18 year old did not match the photo ID of the two year old (obviously). The family had to intentionally obfuscate the situation about the young passengers.
You are making this up out of whole cloth. The Dad specifically said he bought an extra seat for the 18 year old on an earlier flight so he could have the baby fly in the car seat & be safer & sleep, as child did on the way out.
There was no refund and no game being played.
Dad asked when he bought the son’s ticket for the earlier flight and got the OK. These attendants knew nothing about that when they got themselves where they felt they couldn’t back down.