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.
Late Thursday the Atlanta airline apologized for the family’s “unfortunate experience” and said it plans to refund their fares and “provide additional compensation.”
The video on Thursday quickly became the latest involving a passenger incident that captured public interest.
The passenger, identified in news reports as Brian Schear, was traveling with his wife and two children, ages 1 and 2, from Maui to Los Angeles April 23, according to the video he posted.
Schear had also bought a seat for his 18-year-old son, Mason, but then put him on an earlier flight so that the 2-year-old would have a seat, according to ABC 7 News in Los Angeles. Schear said in the video that it was difficult to fly with a lap child, “so we decided to get (Mason) a ticket on an earlier flight so we could use his seat” for the 2-year-old in a car seat.
“I paid for the seat,” he said.
But airlines typically cancel reservations if a passenger does not show within a few minutes of departure so that open seats can be assigned to standby fliers.
The video shows a lengthy conversation in which attendants ask Schear to move the child, warning the family would have to get off the flight if he did not comply.
An attendant eventually tells Schear that the couple could be charged with a “federal offense, then you and your wife will be in jail.”
According to Schear’s account, Delta “asked us to give up a seat we purchased for my older son that my younger son was sitting in…. The end result was we were all kicked off the flight.” He said his family had to get a hotel and buy new tickets the next day.
Delta in its updated statement late Thursday did not address the issue of who had rights to the seat but said: “Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize.”
Delta’s contract of carriage says: “Reservations and seat assignments are subject to cancellation if the passenger is not at the airport, has not completed the check-in process for his or her flight prior to the acceptable check-in deadlines, and is not at the gate and ready for boarding prior to the applicable boarding deadlines.”
About the Author
