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Here we go again: "Delta worker to dad: Give up the seat you bought, or go to jail!" (1 Viewer)

gianmarco

gianmarco

Footballguy
Delta is the new United?

A family from California was threatened with jail time and then booted off an oversold Delta flight last week for refusing to give up a seat they paid for, according to a report.

The latest debacle for the airline was caught in an eight-minute YouTube video that shows employees telling Brian Schear that they’ll be tossed behind bars if they didn’t get off the Los Angeles International Airport-bound flight from Maui on April 23.

A female employee can be heard telling him in the video, “Then that’s going to be a federal offense and you and your wife will be in jail and your kids.”

“We’re going to be in jail? And my kids are going to be in what?” Schear, of Huntington Beach, asks in disbelief.

“It’s a federal offense if you don’t abide by it,” she explains, to which the dad responds, “I bought that seat!”

Delta employees wanted to give the extra seat Schear originally purchased for his son – who caught an earlier flight home – to a standby passenger.

But the Schears wanted to keep the seat and fill it with one of their two toddlers, who’d be placed in a car seat.

But the female worker was insistent that the family’s plans were against Federal Aviation Administration rules, and because of that, the child had to sit on one of his parents’ laps instead.

“He can’t occupy a seat because he’s two years or younger. That’s FAA regulations. This plane will not go anywhere until you guys choose to go. I’m just trying to help you,” she said.

“Trying to help us would’ve been not overselling the flight and not trying to force us to get him out of that seat that I paid for and holding this whole plane up,” Schear answered. “So what are we supposed to do? I’ve got two infants, nowhere to stay, there’s no more flights. What am we supposed to do? Sleep in the airport?”

The dad of three and his family eventually got off the plane and booked another flight home for the next day.

“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.”

Schear said he didn’t want his money back — just an apology from Delta.

“We are sorry for what this family experienced,” the airline said in a statement to CBS. “Our team has reached out and we will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution.”
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A federal offense for putting a two year old in his own seat might make sense if it's a safety issue. 

But not as described here. 

 
Tell you what, though -- the flight attendant need to save the "that's a federal offense" talk for people waving weapons around, even if she very strictly correct. They've got to have better people skills than that, especially when the camera phones are on (as they always are).

 
Don't know about nowadays, but on a round trip I took with my then-one-year-old daughter in 2004 ... she had her own seat (nestled in a car seat) on the way there, and sat on my lap (car seat checked) on the way home.

 
Steve Tasker said:
This the new thing now - trying to get gotcha footage of airline employees?
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Not only airline employees. Really, any public-facing employee -- police and security guards, famously, have been getting smart-phoned for a while now.

 
Doug B said:
Tell you what, though -- the flight attendant need to save the "that's a federal offense" talk for people waving weapons around, even if she very strictly correct. They've got to have better people skills than that, especially when the camera phones are on (as they always are).
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"...you and your wife will be in jail and your kids (muffled) will be in foster care."

:doh:    GTFO with that nonsense.

 
Airlines should be fined for overbooking flights.

Can you imagine going to a concert or sporting event that you have had tickets months in advance for.  When you get there they say "Sorry but we oversold the concert and your seats are no longer available"

 
I don't have the time to read the details - just tell me if I should be outraged at Delta or not.  Got my #boycottdelta facebook post ready to go. 

 
-OZ- said:
A federal offense for putting a two year old in his own seat might make sense if it's a safety issue. 

But not as described here. 
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I believe the offense was not getting off the plane when told to do so. Nothing to do with the child. 

 
Da Guru said:
Airlines should be fined for overbooking flights.

Can you imagine going to a concert or sporting event that you have had tickets months in advance for.  When you get there they say "Sorry but we oversold the concert and your seats are no longer available"
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As a passenger, I love to see the "flight is overbooked" when I check in. Good chance to make some money. 

 
With a child under 2 you have the option of holding them in your lap or purchasing a seat for them and putting them in an "approved restraining device".  I think where the family may have been stuck is if the ticket was non-transferable, purchased in the name of their older child.  I assume that is the out the airline has to give the seat to someone on standby.   

 
Waingro said:
"...you and your wife will be in jail and your kids (muffled) will be in foster care."

:doh:    GTFO with that nonsense.
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Flight attendants aren't law enforcement. I happen to believe that invoking "federal offense" was about the worst way the dad could have been dealt with. Note: the part about the plane not leaving until he deplaned was fine.

Haven't seen the video yet ... does the dad at least receive an explanation that seat cannot be purchased for a two-year-old, and that the seat that the dad bought for his older son was used on the previous flight?

...

I'm learning something from all these situations, though -- next time I fly, I'm going to be super-meticulous about anything that appears to be even a little bit exceptional. And I've learned that you don't ever really buy an airline "seat" ... ever. Didn't realize that until Dao (rarely fly and never since 2004, can't pick this up from personal experience).

 
Doug B said:
Tell you what, though -- the flight attendant need to save the "that's a federal offense" talk for people waving weapons around, even if she very strictly correct. They've got to have better people skills than that, especially when the camera phones are on (as they always are).
Click to expand...
I interpret her saying that as staying on a script and repeating something memorized, like IT support asking "did you restart your PC?" I'm not a lawyer or a legal expert, and I'm comfortable taking the leap that this stewardess screaming at a family in plain view of an entire plane full of people threatening jail time for not relinquishing a purchased seat is not either.

 
The problem here is that he purchased the seat using the name of his other son, who he ended up putting on a different flight. Since the seat has to be used by the name it was purchased under (argue what you want about that rule) and his son was on a different flight, essentially no one showed for that seat and it was given to a standby passenger. Handled terribly by the flight attendant but the guy was in the wrong here if you go by the book.

 
Da Guru said:
Airlines should be fined for overbooking flights.

Can you imagine going to a concert or sporting event that you have had tickets months in advance for.  When you get there they say "Sorry but we oversold the concert and your seats are no longer available"
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They may not have overbooked the flight.  Having passengers on standby doesn't neccesarily mean overbooking.

 
Da Guru said:
Cjw_55106 said:
As a passenger, I love to see the "flight is overbooked" when I check in. Good chance to make some money. 
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Not if you an event to be at or it is cutting into your vacation
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This is actually a good point: in 2017, with overbooking and frequent deplanings (and yes, it is "frequent" if it is making news ... one in a million is too many if it's getting noticed) ... how DO people who must be somewhere at a set time get there? Private charter only? Fly out two days early in case of a bunch of overbooking snafus? Flying commercial can't be seen as reliable enough now, can it?

 
Da Guru said:
Airlines should be fined for overbooking flights.

Can you imagine going to a concert or sporting event that you have had tickets months in advance for.  When you get there they say "Sorry but we oversold the concert and your seats are no longer available"
Click to expand...
Except they didn't overbook. The kid no showed so the seat went to someone on standby. 

 
The problem is this guy thought he was being slick by essentially getting three seats for the price of two, when you include the seat for the earlier flight that the son went out on (assuming he just paid a change fee instead of another full fare for the earlier flight).  Once the son went out he longer "paid for" the seat next to him.

airlines suck and the flight attendant certainly could have handled it way better, but this guy was being a ####

eta - now if the son bought a completely separate ticket, it's a little more of a gray area, but the article isn't clear on that

 
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Yeah the dad doesn't really have much to go on here, since it's pretty common knowledge that seats are tied to the people they were booked for so once the first kid was no longer using the seat it wasn't theirs any more.

And yea, sounds like the dad was trying to double dip here to boot.  I doubt the son bought a whole new ticket for the earlier flight so he was likely trying to get two seats for the price of one.

Flight attendant was wrong too with the "it's illegal for an infant to have a seat" mumbo jumbo since they had a car seat.

 
Ted Lange as your Bartender said:
The problem is this guy thought he was being slick by essentially getting three seats for the price of two, when you include the seat for the earlier flight that the son went out on (assuming he just paid a change fee instead of another full fare for the earlier flight).  Once the son went out he longer "paid for" the seat next to him.

airlines suck and the flight attendant certainly could have handled it way better, but this guy was being a ####

eta - now if the son bought a completely separate ticket, it's a little more of a gray area, but the article isn't clear on that
Click to expand...
I don't think he just did a change fee because then he wouldn't still have the seat on the current flight.  He made it seem as if he just bought another ticket so that his 2 year old would have the seat on the later flight using a car seat.

But I agree that his mistake is assuming that he would be fine without changing the name on the current seat to match the 2 year old.

 
Flight attendants are obsolete. Staff each flight with a doctor and a security guard and move on with our lives.

 
Doug B said:
 how DO people who must be somewhere at a set time get there? Private charter only? Fly out two days early in case of a bunch of overbooking snafus? Flying commercial can't be seen as reliable enough now, can it?
Click to expand...
With weather and mechanical issues, flying has never been reliable if you need to be somewhere that day. Odds today that you will be fine are probably just as likely as they were 5 years ago. 

 
EYLive said:
Flight attendants are obsolete. Staff each flight with a doctor and a security guard and move on with our lives.
Click to expand...
Google tells me doctors make at least $600 a day. I think you'd have to at least double that to get doctors to even entertain the idea of flying around all day. Getting hundreds of doctors to agree to that is probably near impossible. I do agree that attendants arent really necessary. 

 
-OZ- said:
A federal offense for putting a two year old in his own seat might make sense if it's a safety issue. 

But not as described here. 
Click to expand...
Looking a little closer at this

https://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly_children/

Did you know that the safest place for your child on an airplane is in a government-approved child safety restraint system (CRS) or device, not on your lap? Your arms aren't capable of holding your child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strongly urges you to secure your child in a CRS or device for the duration of your flight. It's the smart and right thing to do so that everyone in your family arrives safely at your destination.
Click to expand...


So yeah, it was just that the family thought "they" owned the ticket, when it's really the specific person that didn't show.  

Clearly bad judgment by the employee.

 
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Dad comes across as a tool.  Had a picture in my mind what he looked like and then clicked on the link and. . . yep. 

 
Sweet J said:
Dad comes across as a tool.  Had a picture in my mind what he looked like and then clicked on the link and. . . yep. 
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Completely disagree.  Dad was pretty calm, and traveling with two young children on a red eye, not sure how anyone could be expected to respond any better when being told they need to get off the plane.

What makes him a tool?

 
gianmarco said:
Completely disagree.  Dad was pretty calm, and traveling with two young children on a red eye, not sure how anyone could be expected to respond any better when being told they need to get off the plane.

What makes him a tool?
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Not giving up a seat that wasn't his.

 
Everyone clear on what happened here yet?

Dude buys three seats, but gives one of them up after his son takes an earlier flight.  Dude then tries to show up as though he still bought those three seats by obscuring the issue through amorphous infant seating regulations. 

Delta flight attendant is a total doosh about it by threatening jail.

Dad is wrong.  Delta flight attendant is wrong.  Delta is right. 

No comparison to United incident.  Flight wasn't even overbooked. 

 
jonrolly said:
With a child under 2 you have the option of holding them in your lap or purchasing a seat for them and putting them in an "approved restraining device".  I think where the family may have been stuck is if the ticket was non-transferable, purchased in the name of their older child.  I assume that is the out the airline has to give the seat to someone on standby.   
Click to expand...
I am sure this is what happened.  Now i don't understand why they had to leave the plane???

 
So why couldn't they just say "ok, kid goes in lap and 1 standby gets seat"

Why did the whole family have to leave?

 
Aerial Assault said:
Dude buys three seats, but gives one of them up after his son takes an earlier flight.  Dude then tries to show up as though he still bought those three seats by obscuring the issue through amorphous infant seating regulations. 
Click to expand...
If they changed the younger son's ticket, paid the change fees, etc. then the father is being a #### here.  He no longer had that seat.  The kid is a "babe in arms" and should have been in the lap for the flight.  

Rove! said:
So why couldn't they just say "ok, kid goes in lap and 1 standby gets seat"

Why did the whole family have to leave?
Click to expand...
The father was being obstructionist and disruptive, likely (can't watch videos at work, so haven't seen this).

 
sbonomo said:
I am sure this is what happened.  Now i don't understand why they had to leave the plane???
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They didn't.  The father - in the unfilmed part of the event - refused to give up the seat, for which he had not paid.  All he had to do was hold his kid in his lap.  THEN the camera starts filming.  Had the flight attendant not been lured into a game of one-upsmanship by the dad's assuredly doosh-like behavior (no doubt designed to provoke the flight crew and get him a Dao-esque settlement), this would not be news. 

 
Aerial Assault said:
Everyone clear on what happened here yet?

Dude buys three seats, but gives one of them up after his son takes an earlier flight.
Click to expand...
I'm not clear on that, no. I'm missing the part where the father gave up one of the seats.

 
I'm still confused here... Did they pay for the older kid's seat 2x or just change it to an earlier flight?  I can understand the frustration of the dad if he paid for the older son twice and didn't understand that the ticket had to be for the person on the ticket (that would make him a moron, but I can still see it happening).  If they just changed the older son to an earlier flight and then though that seat would still be empty then he is an ubermoron rather than just a moron.

 
Aerial Assault said:
Everyone clear on what happened here yet?

Dude buys three seats, but gives one of them up after his son takes an earlier flight.
Click to expand...
I'm not clear on that, no. I'm missing the part where the father gave up one of the seats.

 
fatness said:
I'm not clear on that, no. I'm missing the part where the father gave up one of the seats.
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He didn't buy four seats in total.  He bought three.  The earlier ticket was non-transferable. 

 
Aerial Assault said:
They didn't.  The father - in the unfilmed part of the event - refused to give up the seat, for which he had not paid.  All he had to do was hold his kid in his lap.  THEN the camera starts filming.  Had the flight attendant not been lured into a game of one-upsmanship by the dad's assuredly doosh-like behavior (no doubt designed to provoke the flight crew and get him a Dao-esque settlement), this would not be news. 
Click to expand...
well i guess you get what you pay for with flight attendants.  What a complete DB if this is in fact what happened.    

 
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