Posted on 05/04/2017 6:16:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A Southern California family says they were kicked off an overbooked Delta airplane because they refused to yield a seat held by their young son.
The Schear family of Huntington Beach says they were flying from Hawaii to Los Angeles last week when airline staff asked them to give up a seat occupied by their 2-year-old son and carry him on their laps for the duration of the flight.
They tried to refuse and argued with airline staff, but say they were threatened with being sent to jail.
"You have to give up the seat or you're going to jail, your wife is going to jail and they'll take your kids from you," Brian Schear recalled the airline staff telling him.
Despite feeling they were in the right, that threat was terrifying, said Brian's wife, Brittany Schear.
"As a mother, you have a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old - it doesn't matter whether that's true or false. It put fear in me," she said.
They filmed the encounter with airport staff and posted it on YouTube.
VIDEO AT LINK.....................
I would go with that but why did the attendant lie and misrepresent airline policy? The preferred way for infants to travel is in their car seat.
These are mostly drama queens making their claim to notoriety. I fly almost every week and I could make a new dramatic video every day if I so chose. Most airlines are simply the management company for the unions, aircraft makers, banks, and the government. The hold on as long as they can, declare bankruptcy, rinse repeat. Some of them try helping the flying public. Delta is one of the better ones.
How so?
Watched the video and it still didn’t address what happened to the seat/ticket the kid had on the flight to HI????
I don’t blame the father for being ticked off!! I don’t think he was trying to be difficult - he simply wanted a straight answer and not from someone who just had to look up the rules of how she should do her job!! Like I asked a week ago or so on another “airplane” thread - what do they pay these attendants? Minimum wage?
May be a problem with the seat originally for the 18-year old son. They did pay for it.
I think Delta might have assumed they could get the seat, then got their backs up when challenged.
I believe this is still delta’s fault. People arrive at the airport and check in. THEY GO THROUGH SECURITY WITH ID. Their older son was not there. So instead of Teen Q. Jones (over 18 with DL) they went through with Toddler Q. Jones (no ID). Hello?? TSA paying attention? They also appear to have told the gate about the switch. AIRLINES HAVE TO CLEAR DISCREPANCIES UP BEFORE LOADING PASSENGERS. There is no problem if they had turned this child away as not being on the manifest at the gate.
And havin flown with kids and toddlers, it is insane to expect people to fly with large tots on their laps. It is proven unsafe. And the family had paid for a seat. Once seated, they need to leave passengers alone unles their behavior is risky. This fam gets the cash too. How stupid are these airlines? I don’t want to trust them with my life any more.
I used to be friends with a woman who was a flight attendant, she said they were just glorified waitresses. (her words, not mine).
Regardless of what you think of the “fine print” it’s there for everyone to read prior to buying a ticket and it is also a notorious and well know policy. You know about it so when next you buy a ticket you cannot claim a fraud has occurred. Save the historonics for true fraud.
Huntington Beach family decides, in light of settlement with Dr. Dao, they will make a fuss too.
“Sir, you didn’t pay for that seat. You will need to move the child.”
“Make me.”
Meh. Why shouldn't someone be able to change a name on a ticket at the last minute without a hassle? Pay a small fee, even, to cover the re-assignment, but the ticket and seat are already paid for anyway, the airline doesn't lose.
They should have caught it before boarding, but the family was clearly pulling a fast one.
They went through airport security, then at the gate. If Delta doesn’t allow this switch, they should never have been allowed to board, therefore again it is the airline’s fault. Really stupid. Airlines need to get on the ball here.
How exactly was the airline supposed to know that the Dad was going to go against the rules put his kid in that seat?
HE DID PAY FOR THE SEAT...............
If there was a clause on page 234 of your mortgage or insurance policy that let them kill you and harvest your organs, that would be wrong, even if you should have read it before you signed.
Fraud is not getting what you were sold. You were sold a ticket for conveyance from one point to another. Failure to provide that should have consequences severe enough deter even a worldwide organization.
Screw the weasel words, anybody who would enforce them, those who write them; if we don't have the power of the law on our side then social media will have to suffice; it is a crude, inaccurate and unreliable weapon, but as long as we have jack boot lickers who think that it should under any circumstance be legal for someone who has been sold something to be forcefully deprived of it, it will have to suffice.
As with ventilating burglars, better an arbitrary and extreme deterrent than merely shrugging one’s shoulders and saying ‘not worth the fight’
Overbooking should be made illegal. Since it won't be due to the size, wealth and power of the airlines then I hope EVERY time someone is treated thusly it becomes a media event that costs them orders of magnitude more than they save from the entire process.
If that’s true the game is still afoot. You cannot simply use someelse’s tciket. I matter who paid or who’s was told. The ticket is for the named ticket holder only. Typically the older kid’s ticket would have been changed,, for a price, to the other flight and then the Dad woukd have bought the baby his own ticket for that flight. It seems they decide to play ticket roulette instead. My guess is that, if that Dad wasn’t just plain ignorant, he was hoping to avoid flying with the baby in his lap and didnt. want to pay the price for a last minute ticket.
Is there any confirmation that the Dad bought the older kid a new ticket?
But I don’t believe they can use a ticket that is in the name of someone not on the flight.
Kids should be in car seats,not on a lap
Mmmmmhmmmmmm.....right. If you say so. Hey, it might be time to take your Delta Apology Road Show over to this thread now:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3550143/posts
That mortgage clause may be wrong but that does not make it fraudulent. Yeah passing a law will help more government is always the answer. Especially when it imposes your desires and will on someone else. I support overbooking. It always for the airlines to make more money which means cheaper flights.
You have the power of the law on your side. It’s called “ contract law” and competent adults, in this case you and the airline, have a constitutional and common law rights to freely enter into a contract. If you don’t like the terms negotiate better ones or do not enter into the contract. The choice is yours.
The first time I referred to this I used the qualifier “apparently.” I do not mean to argue the facts of this situation.
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