In video, Delta boots family of 4 from flight
Delta Air Lines is DALLAS — offering refunds and compensation to a California family that says they were forced off a plane and threatened with jail after refusing to give up one of their seats on a crowded flight.
A video of the April 23 incident was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday and added to the list of recent encounters on airlines that have gone viral, including the dragging of a bloodied passenger off a United Express plane.
Brian and Brittany Schear of Huntington Beach, California, told KABC-TV in Los Angeles that they were returning from Hawaii with their two toddlers. They wanted to put one of the children in a seat they had bought for their 18-year-old son, who instead flew home on an earlier flight.
Delta says on its website that tickets cannot be transferred and name changes are not allowed. Federal regulations do not bar changing the name on a ticket as long as the new passenger’s name can be run through a data base before the flight, according to a Transportation Security Administration spokesman.
By late Thursday afternoon, Delta still had not explained why the Schears were removed from the plane. A spokesman said the flight was not overbooked.
On the video, Brian Schear can be heard talking with a person off-camera — it is not clear whether that person is a Delta employee, a security officer, or somebody else.
After Schear says that he won’t leave — the airline will have to remove him — the person off-camera replies, “You and your wife will be in jail ... it’s a federal offense if you don’t abide” by an airline crew’s order.
“I bought that seat,” Schear protests.
Schear then suggests that his wife could hold one of the toddlers during takeoff and then put the youngster in the car seat. Another person, who appears to be a Delta supervisor, tells him that federal rules require that children under 2 must stay in a parent’s lap throughout the flight.
That is false. The Federal Aviation Administration “strongly urges” that infants be in a car seat, although it permits those under 2 to be held in a parent’s lap. On its website, Delta recommends that parents buy a seat for children under 2 and put them in an approved child-safety seat.
The Atlanta-based airline issued an updated statement late Thursday afternoon.
“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,” the statement read. Delta said its goal is to work with customers to resolve travel issues, “that did not happen in this case and we apologize.”
A spokesman said Delta would not disclose the amount of the refund or compensation. fees and began offering fouryear projections for housing and meal plan costs.
The tuition plan has also increased graduation rates among this spring’s senior class by 8 percentage points from last year. UD’s previous record graduation rate was set by the class of 2013 at 62 percent and the new record will be 67 percent.
“These are numbers that are going to make people’s jaws hit the table,” UD president Eric Spina told this newspaper.
The tuition plan also reduced seniors’ cumulative loan debt by nearly $6 million, according to the university.
UD officials see the debt decline as a victory in making college more affordable, especially since 2015 UD students graduated with an average debt of $35,740, around $5,000 more than the state average, according to a report from the Institute for College Access and Success.
The guarantee is thought to have saved a graduating seniors around $5,000 more than a student who graduated a year ago, Reinoehl estimated.
Brendan Sweetman, who will receive a political science degree on Sunday, said the tuition guarantee helped him
BY THE NUMBERS
The University of Dayton will award a record number of undergraduate degrees at commencement this Sunday. The record is accompanied by a record fouryear graduation rate and a decline in student loan debt, which school officials say is thanks to its tuition guarantee that began in 2013. undergrad degrees to be awarded Sunday previous undergrad record set in May 2016 graduation rate this spring sets a record was the previous record rate set in 2013 amount cummulative debt declined by amount borrowed per senior estimated to have declined by
COMMENCEMENT SCHEDULE
Each of the University of Dayton’s commencement ceremonies are set to take place in UD Arena this weekend. 9:45 a.m. Sunday 9 a.m. Saturday 12:45 p.m. Saturday borrow less and was a factor in his decision to attend UD.
“It was cool seeing UD not trying to hide anything,” Sweetman said of the tuition program. “I knew how much it was going to be. It definitely shows that the school cares. It shows they understand that families have other costs to worry about.”
UD’s yearly tuition of $41,750 is on par with other private, Catholic universities, officials said.
The success of UD’s tuition guarantee, as measured by its first graduating class, makes it “crystal clear to families” that there will be no financial surprises that stand in their way, Spina said.
UD’s tuition guarantee is expected to improve graduation rates the longer it’s in place, officials said. The sixyear mark will give an even better indication because it is the measure reported to the federal government, Reinoehl said.
UD’s six-year rate has typically been around 80 percent and the tuition promise should eventually bump it above 85 percent, Reinoehl said. Reinoehl said officials are celebrating the success of UD’s tuition program and expect it will eventually put the school in the top 50 in the U.S. for graduation rate.