A family was kicked off a Delta plane after refusing to give up their toddler son's seat. According to The Wrap, the Schear family's flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles was overbooked when an airline employee asked them to have their son sit on their lap for the flight instead of in the seat, he was occupying in his car seat.
The Schears were threatened to be removed from the plane after they refused to move the toddler saying that they had paid for the seat for their child. One of the agents replied, “So, then, it’s going to be a federal offense…and you and your wife will be in jail…it’s a federal offense if you don’t abide by it.”
Brain Schears said, “I bought the seat…it’s a red-eye. He won’t sleep unless he’s in his car seat. So, otherwise, he’d be sitting in my wife’s lap, crawling all over the place, and it’s not safe.”
Despite Schear's decision to remove his son from the plane seat and hold him on his lap for the rest of the trip, it was too late. The family had already been told they needed to disembark, resulting in a costly new airline ticket and a night stay in a hotel.
According to FAA guidelines, an airline agent told Schear that 2-year-old children are not supposed to have their own seats, said. However, Schear said that his son flew to Hawaii from California in his own seat, inside of his car seat.
But Delta’s website states, “We 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.”
In a statement to The Wrap, a Delta representative said, “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.”
