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It is a pretty awful time to be an airline right now, and an even worse time to be an airline passenger. The Schear family were traveling from Maui to their home in Southern California and had purchased a seat for their 2-year-old infant.
They claim that Delta kicked them off the flight after they refused to yield the seat that they purchased for the 2-year-old, and the family also claims that airline employees told them the wife would go to jail and the cops would take their kids. If the latter is true and a Delta employee hurled those threats at a family then Delta has a MASSIVE shit storm on their hands. And this comes only ONE week after Delta kicked a man off his flight for taking an ‘emergency pee‘.
What’s interesting, is Delta has violated their own policy by forcing this family to give up the seat they purchased for their 2-year-old. Here’s what Delta’s policy states on their website: “want you and your children to have the safest, most comfortable flight possible. For kids under the age of two, we recommend you purchase a seat on the aircraft and use an approved child safety seat.” ….Uhhh? Sounds like some bullshit to me, Delta.
You can see an some of the altercation here, with this footage of the family being removed from the flight going viral:
Conversely, the FAA rules state that the infant has to be ‘infant-in-arms’, meaning that the child must be held, but Delta says otherwise on their own website. Given that Delta directly addresses this issue on their policy page, I think this family has a serious case against them.
As for the alleged threats hurled against the family by Delta employees, here’s what the family told ABC 7:
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.
The family eventually caved and said they’d agree to hold their 2-year-old for the flight from Maui to Southern California, but the damage had been done and Delta removed the entire family from the plane. This all took place around midnight local time, and the family then had to shell out $2,000 to BOOK SEATS ON A UNITED FLIGHT the next day, as well as pay for a last minute hotel room in Maui.
According to the Schear family, the 2-year-old flew in his own seat from SoCal to Maui. So when the Delta employee told them FAA regulations state the child must be held, not only was this in contradiction of the policy stated on Delta’s website but it also conflicts with how Delta previously allowed them to fly just days earlier.
Are there no good airlines left in America?
(h/t ABC7)