Just weeks after United Airlines came in for major criticism for dragging a man from a flight he had paid for, a video of a family being kicked off of a Delta Airlines plane has gone viral.
Brian and Brittany Schear, from California, were left outraged when they – along with their one-year-old and two-year-old children – were asked to disembark from their flight to LAX on April 23. They had paid for each of the four seats they were occupying at the time.
The issue stemmed from the fact that the family bought one of the seats for an older child, who ended up flying home on an earlier flight. According to the information on Delta’s website, tickets cannot be transferred and name changes are also prohibited.
Staff then argued the point that the two-year-old was sitting in a safety seat, which they claimed is banned under Federal Aviation Administration regulations. They said that the child should be sitting in one of the parents’ laps; however, when Brian suggested for his wife to hold the child in her lap during take-off and then place him back in his seat, staff were equally dissatisfied.
The family managed to record the exchange with the flight attendant, and Brian uploaded it to YouTube, where it went completely viral. In just two days, the video has garnered over three million views.
“They oversold the flight and asked us to give up a seat we purchased for my older son that my younger son was sitting in,” explained Brian.
Brian was even threatened with jail while he tried to argue his point; confirming over and over again that he paid for the seats in question, and that there had been no problem with the same arrangement on the previous flight.
“You will hear them lie to me numerous times to get my son out of the seat. The end result was we were all kicked off the flight. They then filled out four seats with four customers that had tickets but no seats,” he added.
“They oversold the flight. When will this all stop? It was midnight in Maui, and we had to get a hotel and purchase new tickets the following day.”
Since the video reached viral status, there has been outrage for the family, and Delta has issued a statement.
“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,” said a spokesperson.
“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 apologise.”
