California family kicked off Delta flight after being told young son must give up seat

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA (WCMH) – A family in California posted a video to YouTube showing them being removed from a Delta flight after they were asked to give up a seat their son was using.

According to KTLA, Brian Schear, of Huntington Beach and his family were leaving Maui on April 23 heading to Los Angeles when they were told their 1-year-old son needed to give up his seat for a standby passenger.

Schear says he had originally purchased the ticket for his older son, but he ended up going home on an earlier flight. The family then decided to use that ticket to put their younger son in a carseat instead of having the child sit on their lap.

A Delta employee then tells Schear he isn’t allowed to use the extra seat he paid for. The employee also claimed it is a federal offense to use a car seat, and that he and his wife “will be in jail.”

“With him being two, he cannot sit in the car seat,” the airline employee is heard saying. “He has to sit in your arms the whole time.”

According to Delta’s website, it is recommended that customers with children under the age of two purchase a ticket and use an approved child seat.

“We want you and your children to have the safest, most comfortable flight possible,” Delta’s website reads. “For kids under the age of two, we recommend you purchase a seat on the aircraft and use an approved child safety seat.”

Schear claims Delta had overbooked the flight, and the airline wanted to use the seat for customers on standby.

“You’re saying you’re gonna give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat?” Brian Schear says to an airline employee. “That’s not right.”

Eventually, he agreed to hold his son on his lap for the flight, but the airline said it was too late. They then asked his entire family to leave.

Schear tells KABC-TV they were then forced to find a hotel for the night, and ended up having to pay another $2,000 for another flight the next day, on United Airlines.

Delta released the following statement:

We’re sorry for what this family experienced. Our team has reached out and will be talking with them to better understand what happened and come to a resolution. I can confirm that this was not because the flight was overbooked.”