delta airlines : involuntary passenger removal

originally posted by: TinySickTears
cool.
i still like you

I'm glad to hear we didn't break up.

Now go have a beer on me, it's Friday.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: TinySickTears
cool.
i still like you

I'm glad to hear we didn't break up.

Now go have a beer on me, it's Friday.

i cant quit you.

Stories like this is why I hate social media and insta-news. No one ever gets the facts and then these story go viral with all the faux outrage. I'd hate having to work in corporate PR nowadays.

The issue is that airline tickets are NON-TRANSFERABLE. The ticket in question was for their 18 year old son who had took a different flight, so the seat was forfeited. Each ticket has to match to the person flying. It doesn't matter if the child is 6 mos old or 45 years old. The parents were essentially trying to use a seat that had already been forfeited.

In other words, if you have a ticket for Jane Doe and she can't fly for whatever reason, you just can't give the ticket to John Doe instead. This is primarily a security issue. In addition, once a person does not check in, that seat is forfeited and the airlines use it for other passengers who may have paid or standby.

I agree with earlier poster(s).

1. The man paid for the seat for his child.

2. The man invested in a safety seat as recommended by the airline(s).

3. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.

Incidentally, I do not see the logic in seating a child on a parent's lap. That is distinctly UNSAFE.

No shortage of irony in the airline industry.

Again, previous poster(s) are right about the other passengers being pussies. If they had any class they'd have gotten off in solidarity.

I think we are so fortunate to have an ethical businessman as president now. Rest assured Pres. Trump will put an end to this abuse of the American consumer.

originally posted by: Edumakated

This is primarily a security issue. In addition, once a person does not check in, that seat is forfeited and the airlines use it for other passengers who may have paid or standby.

should be gray area.
each situation is unique and this particular issue had nothing to do with security.
each situation should be evaluated before making judgement

this family did not deserve to be booted out to sleep in an airport. they did not need to be threatened with jail and their kids being taken away.
they did not need to be told by an employee to put the kid on their lap when it is a rule/recommendation from the faa that kids sit in a car seat

a reply to: ignorant_ape

It's incidents like this that make you wonder about citizen's rights in this country. It's not just airlines, but many retailers, telecommunications companies, cell phone providers, and other service industries who are overcharging, disrespecting, presenting false claims about their products, using bait and switch, charging fees to credit cards without clear authorization from the buyer, falsifying markdowns, and intruding on our rights and privacy.

While all this is going on, our government representatives turn a blind-eye to all of it. E-mailing your representative does nothing. Our representatives who are supposed to protect consumer rights are worthless.

The man bought a seat for his older child. They then decided since it was a red-eye, the smart thing to do was send the older child on a separate flight (which they paid for). The 2 year old only sleeps in the car seat. So, use the 18 year old's ticket for the baby, who can use the car seat to sleep.

The attendant insisted the child could go on a lap (against FAA rules). I understand that the person on the ticket is supposed to be the one in the seat.

BUT. We were flying in January and on one leg of the flight, my husband's boarding pass was misspelled by one letter. It was a situation where flights were rerouted at the last second and we were being pushed to different flight times/planes. Thank goodness we had small carryons, because we were hustling all over airports. So, the ticket agent threw passes at us and one had one letter off. There was quite the hubbub, though husband has AMPLE i.d. And, the person who made the mistake got on board and told the captain they screwed up. It was a nightmare.

However, it only took 30 mins to sort it out. Couldn't they have done something similar for this family?

a reply to: worldstarcountry

I am a parent and no id is required for toddlers. Kids in general in fact - if you arent old enough to have a drivers license it is no problem. In theory you could put any name on the booking pass and there wouldnt be any difference. Although i assume sharing a last name with a parent is a good green light indicator. Kind of scary from a kidnapping/child trafficking standpoint but not too much as that would be taking a big risk if a child is at least of talking age.

I do not know if this applies for kids flying alone but doubtful.

originally posted by: olaru12
I think we are so fortunate to have an ethical businessman as president now. Rest assured Pres. Trump will put an end to this abuse of the American consumer.

LOL, Yep, it's Trumps fault. Actually, this is residual blowback from Obama being a horrible president. And Hillary is a crook. Bill Clinton raped women. How am I doing? Derp!

originally posted by: katfish
The man bought a seat for his older child. They then decided since it was a red-eye, the smart thing to do was send the older child on a separate flight (which they paid for). The 2 year old only sleeps in the car seat. So, use the 18 year old's ticket for the baby, who can use the car seat to sleep.

The attendant insisted the child could go on a lap (against FAA rules). I understand that the person on the ticket is supposed to be the one in the seat.

BUT. We were flying in January and on one leg of the flight, my husband's boarding pass was misspelled by one letter. It was a situation where flights were rerouted at the last second and we were being pushed to different flight times/planes. Thank goodness we had small carryons, because we were hustling all over airports. So, the ticket agent threw passes at us and one had one letter off. There was quite the hubbub, though husband has AMPLE i.d. And, the person who made the mistake got on board and told the captain they screwed up. It was a nightmare.

However, it only took 30 mins to sort it out. Couldn't they have done something similar for this family?

The problem is once the 18 year got on the earlier flight, the existing ticket on the flight in question was null and void. The seat was no longer available and is used for standby, other passengers, etc. As mentioned, security also plays a part in this rule.

This isn't a case of where you bought four tickets, all four people are on same plane and thus can trade seats anyway they like.

Airlines tickets are not transferable and if you get on a different flight, the original ticket is GONE.

I don't think you all realize the importance of the named person in the right seat. You can't just swap or change or give your ticket to any body. You can transfer your ticket with some-one else IF the name is changed on the manifest before boarding.
If you don't realize it the manifest, seat allotment etc. is for one thing only (but they will tell you otherwise) and that is to give authorities a helping hand to identify you in the case of dire consequences when you are just a bit of crisp carbon.
So if your Jim Blogs and Fred Blogs has given you his ticket they will report Fred Blogs death in the first instance but it's really Jim Blogs.
Wrong names on manifests opens up a whole can of worms that can have far reaching consequences.

originally posted by: crayzeed
I don't think you all realize the importance of the named person in the right seat. You can't just swap or change or give your ticket to any body. You can transfer your ticket with some-one else IF the name is changed on the manifest before boarding.
If you don't realize it the manifest, seat allotment etc. is for one thing only (but they will tell you otherwise) and that is to give authorities a helping hand to identify you in the case of dire consequences when you are just a bit of crisp carbon.
So if your Jim Blogs and Fred Blogs has given you his ticket they will report Fred Blogs death in the first instance but it's really Jim Blogs.
Wrong names on manifests opens up a whole can of worms that can have far reaching consequences.

back to the gray area, every situation is unique and should be evaluated on its own.
i gwt what you are saying but if jim bogs is small enough to fit in a car seat he will not be mistaken for fred blogs in the event of an accident.

and we still have the issue of them telling him to hold the kid even though the faa says not to and he didnt on the previous delta flight

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
But why exactly are airlines overbooking?

In a single word, greed.

This all started with Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. President Jimmy Carter & Alfred E. Kahn. A economic advisor to President Jimmy Carter . I rest my case.

I think Alfred, before he past away said he had regrets about Airline Deregulation. I might goolge it later. But he was not happy in where Airline Deregulation was heading before he died. I kind of think he felt like he was used by President Carter for pushing for complete deregulation of the airlines.

I know it was a mile stone for President Carter because it was a symbolic take down of the National Recovery Act .

originally posted by: crayzeed
I don't think you all realize the importance of the named person in the right seat. You can't just swap or change or give your ticket to any body. You can transfer your ticket with some-one else IF the name is changed on the manifest before boarding.
If you don't realize it the manifest, seat allotment etc. is for one thing only (but they will tell you otherwise) and that is to give authorities a helping hand to identify you in the case of dire consequences when you are just a bit of crisp carbon.
So if your Jim Blogs and Fred Blogs has given you his ticket they will report Fred Blogs death in the first instance but it's really Jim Blogs.
Wrong names on manifests opens up a whole can of worms that can have far reaching consequences.

The child that caused all of this (the infant) should have been on the manifest, as it was already checked in on the flight and had boarded.
The attendants wanted the child to fly unsecured... against the recommendations listed on Deltas website.

In the event of a crash, which seat do you think they would find an unsecured infant in???

The issue was that the attendants saw an opportunity to steal a seat for someone.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Make a note of this;

If your caught in this sitution do not flatly refuse to leave unless of course you have a very important reason to remain on it.

If you refuse can be ejected from the flight.

However, if you make them a conditional offer such as "if you do x then I will do 'y' then you are in contract negotions and not refusing to leave and so you have more power and legitimacy to extract consessions from the carrier.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: katfish
The man bought a seat for his older child. They then decided since it was a red-eye, the smart thing to do was send the older child on a separate flight (which they paid for). The 2 year old only sleeps in the car seat. So, use the 18 year old's ticket for the baby, who can use the car seat to sleep.

The attendant insisted the child could go on a lap (against FAA rules). I understand that the person on the ticket is supposed to be the one in the seat.

BUT. We were flying in January and on one leg of the flight, my husband's boarding pass was misspelled by one letter. It was a situation where flights were rerouted at the last second and we were being pushed to different flight times/planes. Thank goodness we had small carryons, because we were hustling all over airports. So, the ticket agent threw passes at us and one had one letter off. There was quite the hubbub, though husband has AMPLE i.d. And, the person who made the mistake got on board and told the captain they screwed up. It was a nightmare.

However, it only took 30 mins to sort it out. Couldn't they have done something similar for this family?

The problem is once the 18 year got on the earlier flight, the existing ticket on the flight in question was null and void. The seat was no longer available and is used for standby, other passengers, etc. As mentioned, security also plays a part in this rule.

This isn't a case of where you bought four tickets, all four people are on same plane and thus can trade seats anyway they like.

Airlines tickets are not transferable and if you get on a different flight, the original ticket is GONE.

This is what's confusing about this story. The son took an earlier flight. I've done that many times myself. When I do, I'm on standby and use my paid ticket for a different aircraft. If I get on, the seat I had on the later flight would become available to someone else. If that's what the the 18 year old did, the seat on the flight with the parents didn't belong to them. Or, it could be that the family bought a new ticket to get the 18 year old on the other flight in which case, the seat in the later plane was still in the 18 y/o's name. They should have talked to a Delta agent to explain what they were doing and all this could be avoided.

I blame the media for jumping on a juicy story and not checking all the facts. If you Google the story, there are pages and pages of articles and every one is mostly the same. The headline then gets everyone excited and people start getting up in arms. Since when is journalism simply a job of regurgitating what someone else said and not do any investigation?

I'm not sympathizing with the airline but at the same time, there's no reason to storm the corporate castle with pitchforks in hand either if we don't have the full story.

LogicalGraphitti

The dad paid for another ticket on an earlier flight..the 18 year old didn't catch an earlier flight..his father paid for him to fly on that one so there would be room for his 2 year old to have his own seat. At least that is what is said in the video. So, they bought an additional ticket.

Thanks,
blend57

originally posted by: blend57
LogicalGraphitti

The dad paid for another ticket on an earlier flight..the 18 year old didn't catch an earlier flight..his father paid for him to fly on that one so there would be room for his 2 year old to have his own seat. At least that is what is said in the video. So, they bought an additional ticket.

Thanks,
blend57

During the boarding process, boarding passes are scanned. The gate agent will check the system before closing the flight. Since the 18 y/o didn't board, the seat appeared to be empty. Did the parents have the boarding pass? If so, they should have shown/scanned it.

Again, I'm not siding with the airline necessarily but stupid is as stupid does. The family needs to take some responsibility.