Weeks after United officials beat the hell out of a guy for their own screw-up, Delta decided they needed some bad publicity of their own.
This is a complicated situation, so let me spell it out for everyone:
Brian Schear, the man in the video, is attempting to travel from Hawaii to Los Angeles with his wife, Brittany, and their two children, two-year-old Grayson, and a one-year-old daughter. Initially, Schear purchased three tickets for the flight. One for himself, one for his wife, and one for their teenage son, Mason. The two infants would sit on their parent’s lap during the flight, thus, they didn’t need tickets. However, Mason took an earlier flight out of Hawaii. That left the Schear family with three seat tickets, but only two seats occupied.
Schear decided to use his third seat by putting a car seat in the space and letting his two-year-old sit in the car seat. Logical enough. The seat was not going to be occupied and it was his anyway. That’s when all hell breaks loose.
There’s talk of the flight being oversold. There’s also talk that it’s against policy for an infant to ride in a car seat on the plane even though Brian claims that it was allowed to happen on the flight to Hawaii. There’s also talk of the Schear family going to jail and their children being taken away from them.
In the end, the Schear family is given the option to exit the plane peacefully or be removed from the plane by force. They choose the peaceful option, but uh, why did this happen in the first place?
The guy agreed to hold both kids, leaving the extra seat open if the flight was oversold. He wasn’t threatening to anyone. He didn’t even do anything wrong. Schear says that his seats were given to other passengers who had tickets but no seats.
You can argue that Schear should have changed the name of Mason’s ticket to Grayson, and you’d be right, but the seat was still his. You can also argue that, because Mason didn’t check in, the seat was open. Again, you’d be right. It doesn’t change the fact that he offered to hold the child and was still kicked off or the fact that they oversold the flight.
I can relate to this. Not because I’ve ever been kicked off a flight, but because I too just flew Delta to and from Hawaii. My experience was pretty good. Delta is dope. They have a TV in front of you. I was able to watch Fences.
Did Delta not read my solution to overbooking flights? I don’t even get how overbooked flights is an issue. You know how many seats are available. You make that many tickets available. When there are no more tickets, you don’t continue to sell tickets. Why is this difficult?
Delta released the following stolen statement from United:
‘We are sorry for what this family experienced. Our team has reached out, and we will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution.’
I’m sure their resolution will be, “Enjoy some free flights courtesy of the airline that just pissed you off ensuring that you would never fly with us again.”