Family allegedly booted off Delta flight over child’s seat
IN YET another incident that could prove a public relations nightmare for the US airline industry, a California couple is claiming they were kicked off an overbooked Delta flight for refusing to give up their child’s seat.
The incident unfolded last week as the Schear family of Huntington Beach were flying home from Hawaii to Los Angeles.
In a video of the April 23 confrontation filmed and posted by the couple on YouTube, a flight attendant is overheard asking that they give up a seat occupied by their 2-year-old son.
The father, Brian Schear, initially refuses on grounds the seat was paid for but finally relents. He is nonetheless booted off the flight with his wife and two toddlers.
“This is a federal offence and then you and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be in foster care,” a crew member is overheard telling Schear when he first refuses to disembark.
Delta airlines said in a statement to AFP on Thursday that the company was “sorry for the unfortunate experience” and had reached out to the family to refund their travel and offer compensation.
“Delta’s goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues,” the statement adds. “That did not happen in this case and we apologize.”
Brian Schear said the family had to scramble to find a hotel room after being kicked off the airplane and paid $2,000 the next day for another flight, this time on United Airlines.
“We never thought it was going to get to the point where they were actually getting us all off the flight,” he told the local CBS television station.
“As we were leaving the plane, there’s four or five passengers waiting for our seat. The bottom line is, they oversold the flight.”
The video of the California family’s mishap, which was being widely shared on social media Thursday, follows a number of other incidents that have prompted outrage and proven a public relations fiasco for some of the airlines involved.