The airline industry, which somehow survives despite treating its customers worse than garbage, is in the news yet again today as a family says they were kicked off a Delta flight after refusing to give up their child’s seat.
The Schear family of Huntington Beach told ABC 7 that after they boarded their flight from Hawaii to LAX, airline staff asked them to carry their 2-year-old son so they could fill the seat with someone else (a seat they paid for). They refused and, according to the family, the flight crew lost their shit.
“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.
Eventually, the Schear’s relented and agreed to give up the seat, but it was too late. The airline decided instead to kick them all off the plane.
The airline crew claimed that 2-year-old’s are not supposed to have their own seat – yet Delta’s own website says otherwise. “We want you and your children to have the safest, most comfortable flight possible,” Delta’s website advises parents. “For kids under the age of two, we recommend you purchase a seat on the aircraft and use an approved child safety seat.”
The family recorded the incident:
“We never thought it was going to get to the point where they were actually getting us all off the flight,” Schear told CBS Los Angeles. “As we were leaving the plane, there’s four or five passengers waiting for our seat. The bottom line is, they oversold the flight.”
Delta released a statement:
“We’re sorry for what this family experienced. Our team has reached out and will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution.”
