Family Claims They Were Kicked Off Delta Flight Over Child’s Seat | NBC Nightly News

A family is claiming that Delta agents threatened them with arrest after they refused to give up their toddler’s seat on the flight to passengers on the standby list.

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Family Claims They Were Kicked Off Delta Flight Over Child’s Seat | NBC Nightly News

[tenzin]

My heart just dropped when the flight attendant said; at this point you are on your own. They have two little kids.. shame on you lady and shame on delta.

[tinaloveseddie]

Who trains the flight attendants??? She actually threatened them with jail and foster care?? WTF? Hopefully she was fired!

[bluehappysun]

fire that flight attendant. how dare she threaten that the children would go into foster care. sounds like she was getting mad so she started getting personal. not professional. fire her a$$

[LRoth]

The Delta staff should be fired for using such outrageously poor judgment

[deborahcheek]

Threatening to take their children away is unforgivable, outrageous! I hope this flight attendant's name is made public, she is fired, and fined!!! That is despicable!! If she was at a loss for words she should have gotten help from someone with a brain, assuming there was at least one intelligent employee on that fight!

[kyez]

The ignorance of the employees is shocking. To sight ffa rules incorrectly to convince someone to get off the flight. That person should be fined. If their paycheck is affected you know they would not treat customers this way.

[hep]

It really angers me when professionals misuse authority.  In this case she lied using federal laws in hopes to scare him.  You can put cops in this category too.

[robbyosborne]

Threatening to take away a parents' children all over not giving up the seat that the child in a restrain seat is in is absolutely appalling and despicable!

[nymiradripp]

"at this point, now ur on ur own" just

[kristilisakleiner]

I am so very impressed with how calmly the parents handled this traumatizing situation

[brka]

WOw that is nuts. I hate Delta for this!! How dare they threaten to put this family's children in foster care because of paying for the seat. SICKOS!!!

[juliamclain]

They paid for their seats!!! They threatened to take their kids away from them if they did not comply with an order for THEIR mistake. They did not offer to compensate the family them for food, hotel, time and plane fare etc. FIRE THESE AGENTS!!! SUE DELTA BIG TIME! fire that condescending agent who kept patronizing them in the most insincere way!!!

[Kilmaurs]

DO NOT ACCEPT THE AIRLINES COMPENSATION. SUE THEM. AIRLINE COMPANIES HAVE TOO MUCH POWER.

[hudsonsteele]

Sue the heck out of them! Don't take the money!!!

[theogunesekara]

The flight attendant represented the best qualities of Delta. The fact that such people would be hired speaks volumes about the shoddy and totally unprofessional standards of the Airline.

[eriwilnel]

Makes you wonder who she was trying to get the seat for. Your gonna bump a toddler out of a car seat to give to someone on standby? A lot of times Delta employees family members fly complimentary on a standby status. Wouldn't surprise me to find out there was a conflict of interest with this attendant.

[ianjay]

United Airlines: We kicked out one passenger.

Delta Airlines: Hold my beer..

[snnysnflwrgrl]

I earnestly hope this family sues Delta for millions.

[wc]

Wow, that flight attendant was power hungry. Why threaten customers with taking their children away? Could have said it much more nice.

[awordindueseason]

I'm usually on the side of the flight crew against unreasonable, disruptive and disrespectful passengers, but the flight attendant's actions in this case were egregious! It was clearly a switch in seats from one minor child to another minor child--both belonging to the parents who paid for both seats. People in customer service should also have an expectation to be able to think critically and accommodate when doing so does not violate the intention of the original rule. Otherwise they need to find a job that does not require a true customer service skill set.

Did she think the 2 year old was a terrorist? Did she think Delta was inexplicably losing money? Even when safety rules are established for the protection of all, we are not machines but rational and hopefully empathetic human beings. This was so CLEARLY an acceptable exception "to the rule" that the airlines could only try to save face by giving a public apology and monetarily compensating the family. Besides the flight attendant went well beyond her ethical authority by threatening the family with jail time and making their children wards of the court.

Although I believe she is/was simply not suited for a customer service industry, the attendant should have at least been suspended, mandated to sensitivity training, and received better training on the federal rules she did not seem to understand.