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Sorry, but that dad wasn't looking for answers. It was not going to end any other way than it did. By the time they asked him to leave, he'd held the flight up for an hour arguing his point.
I don't have a specific link, but they were on Delta's red eye, which leaves OGG at 10:45 pm. The various new sources state that the family left the plane at midnight. So it does appear that the flight was delayed for over an hour as a result.
His story makes perfectly good sense and is partially backed up by the video. We know the airlines people lied.
We have no reason to not believe the father. His story makes sense and fits the facts known. And again the airline has not refuted any of them.
And a lot of what he says is not backed up by the 8 minute video.
1. He says the airline would not let them use the seat because they were overbooked. At no time in the video did I hear the airline people say he couldn't use the seat because it had been assigned to someone else. The issue was that it wasn't assigned to the toddler's name. At one point, the father said airlines permiot people to change seats all the time and was told not until in the air. So the father said fine, we'll hold him on takepoff then put him in the seat. Which would not be a possible option if the seat was filled with someone else. And he was told (incorrectly) that he couldn't do that because FAA didn't allow the toddler to be in a seat, not because someone else would be there. Throughtout the video, the father was clearly believing the seat would be vacant and was upset that he couldn't use it for his toddler, even after in the air.
2. It seems like if the father really had three boarding passes and an agent had in fact issued a boarding pass for the toddler, that the father would have mentioned this and showed them at some point in the video. No mention that he had called and cleared it either. It just seems odd that the father remembered all these "facts" afterwards but didn't think relevant to mention at the time he was fighting to stay on the plane.
I also noticed the family seemed especially prepared to document the whole scene, including having the camera perfectly positioned and set up on a tripod. It may not be the case here but I bet there are a lot of people out there trying to figure out how they can bait an airline into a PR disaster so they too can claim their Dao payola.
Would they receive this money if story didn't make it to national news?
Should we now always keep our phone ready to record any unprofessional behavior of airline employees?
When airlines will start to care about their passengers?
I'd say better than 50/50 that they would have been compensated after the fact. I don't have elite status with Delta, and have been through some significant service failures by front line employees. After complaining to a customer service rep, I got an apology and adequate compensation for the severity of problem.
All the airlines have problem employees; but in my experience, Delta is more likely to try harder to clean up after those problem employees. United on the other hand....
And a lot of what he says is not backed up by the 8 minute video.
1. He says the airline would not let them use the seat because they were overbooked. At no time in the video did I hear the airline people say he couldn't use the seat because it had been assigned to someone else. The issue was that it wasn't assigned to the toddler's name. At one point, the father said airlines permiot people to change seats all the time and was told not until in the air. So the father said fine, we'll hold him on takepoff then put him in the seat. Which would not be a possible option if the seat was filled with someone else. And he was told (incorrectly) that he couldn't do that because FAA didn't allow the toddler to be in a seat, not because someone else would be there. Throughtout the video, the father was clearly believing the seat would be vacant and was upset that he couldn't use it for his toddler, even after in the air.
2. It seems like if the father really had three boarding passes and an agent had in fact issued a boarding pass for the toddler, that the father would have mentioned this and showed them at some point in the video. No mention that he had called and cleared it either. It just seems odd that the father remembered all these "facts" afterwards but didn't think relevant to mention at the time he was fighting to stay on the plane.
I also noticed the family seemed especially prepared to document the whole scene, including having the camera perfectly positioned and set up on a tripod. It may not be the case here but I bet there are a lot of people out there trying to figure out how they can bait an airline into a PR disaster so they too can claim their Dao payola.
I noticed that too ... not once in the entire eight-minute video does the father make any mention at all of having spoken to a Delta employee beforehand and receiving permission to use one child's ticket for another child. Only afterward did he claim that they had permission. All I see in the video is him politely but firmly maintaining the stance that the seat he bought is his to use however he wants.
The airlines had better spell out their rules and not put them in fine print that nobody reads. The family may have known that the tickets were non transferable but they didn't have a good enough understanding of what that meant. They thought it meant they couldn't give or sell the tickets to someone else. They thought that they could use the seat for someone in their own family who was on the flight anyway, in a seat they had already paid for.
Put it in plain English and put it in large, legible print. Then, next time something like this happens, let the flight attendant show the person the rules in black and white instead of standing there arguing. In fact, they should also print up all their rules and the flight attendants should carry them so they can show them to the passenger. Most passengers, if actually SHOWN the written rules, will agree to them. This arbitrary arguing--he said/she said, obviously is not working. The Delta employee gave false information about the car seat vs lap seat so that doesn't lend much credibility to anything they save. Have it available in writing so the passenger can read it for themselves.
There are several details in this case that I am still unclear on. Here's one of them:
Ok, if all they had to do was put both the babies back on their laps the way they originally intended, why did they need compensation?
Because they bought an extra ticket to send the older son alone. And then Delta seized the existing ticket with the threat of the state taking their younger children
Another example of how common sense could have skipped the problem. The airlines are one of the only businesses in which the customer is never right. How come?
In the business world, if you give the folks in the trenches the autonomy to deal with issues, you will seldom have an issue.
And a lot of what he says is not backed up by the 8 minute video.
1. He says the airline would not let them use the seat because they were overbooked. At no time in the video did I hear the airline people say he couldn't use the seat because it had been assigned to someone else. The issue was that it wasn't assigned to the toddler's name. At one point, the father said airlines permiot people to change seats all the time and was told not until in the air. So the father said fine, we'll hold him on takepoff then put him in the seat. Which would not be a possible option if the seat was filled with someone else. And he was told (incorrectly) that he couldn't do that because FAA didn't allow the toddler to be in a seat, not because someone else would be there. Throughtout the video, the father was clearly believing the seat would be vacant and was upset that he couldn't use it for his toddler, even after in the air.
2. It seems like if the father really had three boarding passes and an agent had in fact issued a boarding pass for the toddler, that the father would have mentioned this and showed them at some point in the video. No mention that he had called and cleared it either. It just seems odd that the father remembered all these "facts" afterwards but didn't think relevant to mention at the time he was fighting to stay on the plane.
I also noticed the family seemed especially prepared to document the whole scene, including having the camera perfectly positioned and set up on a tripod. It may not be the case here but I bet there are a lot of people out there trying to figure out how they can bait an airline into a PR disaster so they too can claim their Dao payola.
Is this (the bolded portion) true? I was under the impression the seat had been sold to a standby passenger. My opinion could be swayed a bit (but not totally if the seat was going to be vacant anyway.
I don't have an overwhelming issue with overbooking provided people are warned in clear bold print that they are purchasing a ticket on an overbooked flight and the rules are spelled out in clear language how it will be determined who will not get to make the flight. Additionally, if the airline places a standby passenger in a seat already paid for by another passenger for whatever reason they should be required to refund the original paying passenger. Why should Delta have been paid twice for those three seats in the first place?
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