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Delta Apologizes To Family That Was Kicked Off A Plane Over A 's Seat Delta is the latest airline to face fallout from an on-plane dispute, after a family that was forced off an overnight flight from Maui to California posted video that saw the crew say agents would put the parents in jail and place their in foster care. The airline is offering compensation and an apology to Brian Schear and his family after Schear posted the eight-minute video on YouTube Wednesday. In it, Schear and crew members argue over whether the seat he bought for his 18-year-old could instead be used by his 2-year-old. The airline wanted to put another passenger in the seat. "I'm not trying to cause a problem," Schear is heard saying on the plane as it sat on the tarmac in late April. "I believe in standing up for what's right, and I paid for the seat." The video was posted days after United Airlines reached a settlement with a man who was dragged off an overbooked plane in April, an incident that prompted outrage and congressional hearings. In its statement about the incident, Delta says: "We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we've reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation. 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." Early in the Maui video, Schear is seen being told that if he doesn't abide by the crew's order to give up a seat occupied by his (in a car seat), he and his family would be kicked off the plane. With armed security personnel standing in the aisle of the plane, Schear says the airline would need to remove them. "Then it's going to be a federal offense," a crew member tells him. "I mean, you and your wife will be in jail and your will be put in foster care. "Wait," Schear says. "So we're gonna be in jail, and my are gonna be what?" "It's a federal offense if you don't abide ..." the crew member answers — as Schear cuts her off to say, "I bought that seat." In his posting of the video that was filmed by his wife, Brittany, Schear wrote, "The end result was we were all kicked off the flight. They then filled our four seats with four customers that had tickets but no seats. They oversold the flight. When will this all stop?" The incident has brought up several questions about aviation rules, from Delta's widely shared airline policy that who are at least 2 years old must have their own paid seats to the Federal Aviation Administration's recommendation of car seats for who weigh between 22 and 44 pounds — a range that includes most 2-year-olds. It also touched on the requirement that a person occupying a seat on a plane must be named on the ticket for it. But clarity was hard to find on the tarmac where Flight 2222 sat in Maui late on the night of April 23, and the two sides could not find a compromise. "According to the rules we're pulling up right now, he technically cannot be in a car seat," a crew member says of the 2-year-old, apparently referring to the having an "infant in arms" ticket. "It's out of my hands now," the airline employee later tells Schear. "I'm just letting you know from this point on, this plane will not go anywhere until you guys choose to go. Now, you can just sit here, and we can all just chill here. I'm just trying to help you, this is all I can do." "Trying to help us," Schear answers, "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." He then describes how he and his family had gotten onto the plane after passing through multiple checkpoints in the airport and at the gate, where the airline could have stopped them before they took their seats and set up their two toddlers in car seats. Later in the recording, Schear offers to hold the in his lap for the flight, and is rejected. Instead, he's told, the only options that remain are for either the family to get off the plane or have everyone on the flight leave the plane. "What are we supposed to do when we get off this plane?" Schear asks in the video. "That's not up to me," replies a crew member, who later adds, "At this point, you guys are on your own." In the end, the family stayed in a hotel for the night, and got on another flight the next day. "Unbelievable. You guys are unbelievable," Schear says near the end of the video. "Great customer service. Awesome. Great job." After flashing a thumbs-up, Schear then rises, saying, "We need someone to help with our car seats, to carry them off." "How'd you guys get on the aircraft?" the crew member asks, in a question that speaks volumes.  Honesty is the best policy. |
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There are so many incidents lately regarding airline companies mistreated their passengers. I am a tourist and like to travel. If I paid for the seat and they drag me off the plane, it will be so very embarrassed. Don't they know how to treat their customers right??? Honesty is the best policy.
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1. Can you really be sent to jail for not listening to a flight attendant? Possibly, says Gregory Winton, an attorney for the Aviation Law Firm in Annapolis. According to U.S. law, airline passengers who interfere with the duties of a flight crew member or flight attendant by “assaulting or intimidating” them can be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years. (If a “dangerous weapon” is involved, the passenger can be imprisoned for life.) But the reality is a bit more complicated, Winton says: “Does having a heated conversation count as interfering with a crew member’s job? I suppose it could be construed that way, but the airline doesn’t have any authority to make those decisions.” Making that call, he said, is up to the Justice Department, which handles criminal matters. (The Federal Aviation Administration, meanwhile, doles out fines and other civil penalties.) “When you have someone who is a threat to crew members — which isn’t really the case in this Delta situation — flight attendants could call in local law enforcement,” said Winton, who has worked at both the FAA and Justice Department. “If local law enforcement feels like there’s enough of a crime being committed, they could detain the passenger.” But from there, he said, it would be up to the Justice Department to file criminal charges, and “that’s something they’re not generally interested in doing in cases like these.” [A man wouldn’t leave an overbooked United flight. So he was dragged off, battered and limp.] 2. Where is a child safer during a flight: on a lap or in a car seat? Although this is up for debate on the video — an agent can be heard saying the FAA requires the 2-year-old to sit on an adult’s lap during the flight, while the father maintains “it’s not safe” — experts say there is absolutely no question that children are much safer in a car seat than on an adult’s lap. The FAA does not recommend that children of any age sit on an adult’s lap during a flight. According to its website, “the safest place for your child on an airplane is in a government-approved child safety restraint system or device, not on your lap.” But while the FAA “strongly urges” parents to secure their children in car seats during flights, it is not legally required as it is in cars. “The law may exempt you from taking a car seat on a plane, but physics does not,” said Alisa Baer, a pediatrician and co-founder of the Car Seat Lady, an organization that advocates for child safety. “It’s important that the child is always restrained in something that’s strong enough to hold them.” A car seat, she said, is much safer for a young child in the event of turbulence or a collision, because its seat belts distribute forces from a crash on the child’s chest and pelvis, and limit forward head movement. An airplane’s lap belt, by comparison, would force much of the impact on the child’s abdomen. “Our recommendation is: Use the car seat on a plane just like you would in a car,” she said. 3. Are you allowed to transfer tickets from one passenger to the other? Simply stated, no. With a few exceptions for full-fare tickets, experts say this has been standard airline policy for decades. Delta’s website, for example, states that “all tickets are nontransferable per the fare rules. Name changes are not permitted.” (It is noteworthy, however, that this is simply company policy. Federal agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration and the FAA, have no such rules in place.) In the video, the toddler’s father says he originally paid for a seat for his 18-year-old son. Since the teenager took an earlier flight, the family decided to use his seat for their 2-year-old. That, lawyers and industry groups say, is not allowed for security reasons. “A nontransferable policy serves as a security measure,” Kathy Grannis Allen, a spokeswoman for the industry trade group Airlines for America, said in an email. She added that it is important for airlines and authorities to know exactly who is boarding a flight. It also helps ensure “that the ticketed passenger is receiving the right information at all times before, during and after the flight,” she said. 4. Are instances like these new, or have customers always been treated this badly? “This happens all the time,” said Mary Schiavo, a former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General and current aviation attorney at the law firm Motley Rice. “Literally every day, we’re getting calls from passengers who have been in similar situations.” [‘I tried to hold it’: A Delta passenger said he was kicked off a plane for using the restroom] Winton agrees, but adds that recent situations — such as the one on Delta, as well as an earlier incident in which a United Airlines passenger was dragged off a plane to make room for an employee — have been exacerbated in recent months because flights are fuller than usual. “Planes are packed, which means airlines have less leeway to put high-priority passengers or employees in at the last minute,” he said. “That definitely adds to the tension.” So if you — or a fellow passenger — are in a similar situation, what’s your best recourse? Schiavo says to pull out your phone and record as much as you can (which, contrary to what airline staff might tell you, is completely legal, she says.) “The best offense and defense is cellphone video,” she said. “It is a must.” Honesty is the best policy.
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When can this dispute for oversold flight tickets be ended? Airline companies shouldn't overbook the flight tickets in the first place but instead they threatened the passengers to get off the plane. This has no ending in sight. When my first trip to Hawaii, my son was a little over 2 years old. I paid a seat for him but we didn't carry a car seat. We just put a pillow on my son's abdomen so that he could buckle-up. It was Okay in 1992. No dispute happened. Now we have so many incidents happened on different airline companies that kick-off passengers. What kind of customer services??? They shouldn't overbook the flight ticket, these incidents won't happen. Airline companies should be aware of this overbook flight problem, otherwise, these type of dispute and lawsuits will keep going on and ultimately the airline will raise the prices on all of us. Do NOT overbook flight tickets!! How many lessons they have to realize that overbook is their fault, not passenger's fault. Honesty is the best policy.
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Another airline, Delta, mistreated their customers of a family in four. How can they say "You and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be put in foster care". This is outrageous!! Mr. and Mrs. Schear should sue Delta for kick-off four of them out of the plane at midnight hours with a infant and a toddler. They had originally purchased a seat for their teenage son who left on another flight before them. Delta Airline shouldn't oversold tickets in the first place but they threaten their passengers that the couple will be in jail and two kids will be put in foster care. What kind of service is that??? I am a tourist and a parent too, how can Delta have this harsh treatment on their customers??? This thing should resolve before they board the plane. They already sat on the plane and bought tickets for those seats. How can Delta kick them off the plane? I feel this is even worse than dragging off Dr. Dao from United Airline flight because it involved two very young children. Honesty is the best policy.
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