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.....................
The easiest way to solve this?
A Fed government rule that airlines cannot legally book over 95% of their seats.
So you wish to develop ticket scalping for airplane tickets? I will buy up cheap tickets and then resell to you at higher prices. Just like concerts and sports. Great idea.
Delta says they did not ‘overbook’.
The on-site manager says they did.
Someone is lying.......................
Delta owes an apology for some incorrect statements and for being rude. But that does not mean that they were wrong about that status of that seat. The dad was wrong. If he had bought the baby a seat he would have had no problems.
Well, we’ll have to disagree.
The legitimate function of government is to prevent the use of force, threat or fraud in one party depriving another of life liberty or property.
Overbooking is fraud, and a fraudulent or otherwise illegal contract cannot be enforced; you can’t sue a hitman for not killing the subject of the contract even if you paid then not file a legal complaint against a meth dealer for selling talcum powder.
The on-site manager says they did.
Someone is lying.......................
Boy, your leaps of logic should get you an Olympic medal.
I said if someone wanted to pay a fee to change a name on a ticket they'd already purchased, not sell it to someone else. I.E., they'd have to be physically present at the gate. Hell, they used to do this years ago, it wasn't that hard. I've done it in the past, well before 9/11. The airlines were more than okay with it, as they already had their money.
Things went downhill with the airlines after 9/11. It’s as if they took their cues from TSA. They adopted a “zero tolerance” attitude which prevented the flight crews from using common sense, and didn’t allow them any leeway in making decisions based on the situation on hand.
The result? We have “Rulz Is Rulz” and lawyers getting involved, with their generous cut when passengers sue.
The pendulum will eventually swing back, I assume, and the skies will get more friendly - either that, or certain airlines won’t survive the litigation.
This family will probably get reimbursed and a zillion free miles.....................
That ticket is assigned to a particular seat, right? How many stories do we hear of a First Class passenger swapping seats with one of our military members? This shouldn't happen according to your logic, as no one but the person who paid for that seat, and is assigned to that seat, can use that seat.
The litigation attorneys are falling all over themselves to represent the family as we speak.
IYAS9YAS: "That ticket is assigned to a particular seat, right? How many stories do we hear of a First Class passenger swapping seats with one of our military members? This shouldn't happen according to your logic, as no one but the person who paid for that seat, and is assigned to that seat, can use that seat."
I will give you that the story was not long on facts, so I may not have all the true info. But it sounds to me like the Dad *did* buy the seat. Your gripe, and Delta’s (maybe the same? Do you work for Delta PR?) seems to be the name of the person *in* the seat.
Rude? They blew past “rude” at roughly the speed of a cruising 757 when they told a mom she would be jailed and her kids would be taken away. They can apologize until blue in the face and they won’t be able to back that truck back up to “rude”. Sorry.
LOL. One of these days, I'm going to have to re-visit that series. I tried watching the first two or three episodes, but it just didn't click.
That was my first take on this story. Unless they paid full last minute fare on the earlier flight.
Tickets are not for assigned seats, they are for a certain fare and class of service, a certain flight (date, origination and destination).
Seats are assigned on boarding passes.
I don't know if the vernacular makes any difference in this case.
Take it up with the airlines, that they give special exceptions to our dear military.
I’m ALL for giving our dear military special exceptions, when possible/necessary, btw.
Are you?
I don’t know about FAA rules on 2 year olds getting their own seats or if the seat has another’s name assigned to it but what if I buy the seat next to mine because I don’t want anyone sitting there? Does the airline get to overrule that and not give me my money back?
Maybe the federal folks who made the law look similar to the pic of your buddy, that you posted.
If you’re chartering a 737 I can see wanting to keep the manifest straight in case the thing bursts into flames and you need to attach a name/corpse to a seat number. In the case of this Delta pooch screw, they know full well this small family is occupying seats A through C.
“They’re all a-holes and I’ll never fly again. I’d rather drive for three days across the country or just stay home.”
Ditto!
I love flying though and cant afford to go rent a helicopter to keep my hours up like I used to, so the rare occasion I would fly commercial was enjoyable.
Then 9/11 and the TSA made it suck so I avoided flying unless necessary. Still, once I got to the plane, it was still fun. Now? Not a chance. I’ll rent a suburban and drive.
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