Flying with kids is a stressful experience for parents, and if the airline isn't helpful that only makes it worse.
Brian and Brittany Schear were traveling from Maui, Hawaii, back to their home in Huntington Beach, California, with the children when they encountered trouble on their Delta flight back in 2017.
They were traveling with their toddlers ages 1 and 2, when they were told they couldn't all fly together. That's when things escalated, and the couple was threatened with jail time.
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Brian Schear told NBC News that they had initially bought a ticket for their teen on the red-eye flight before deciding to send him on an earlier flight, giving the seat to their 2-year-old. The father of two explained all of this to the ticketing agent, and the agent made accommodations for the family to sit together.
They boarded the plane without issue, but once they were in their seats, a Delta official came and told them that due to other standby passengers, the 2-year-old would have to give up the seat.
When they refused to give up the seat, the Schears were threatened with jail time.
Brittany Schear began filming their encounter with the Delta agents. In the video, an employee off-camera could be heard telling Brian that if they didn't comply, the family would be kicked off the plane.
“Then they can remove me off the plane," he replied.
Additionally, an employee can be heard saying, "So this is a federal offense. You and your wife could be in jail and your kids will be in foster care."
Of course, this was startling to hear, but because the 2-year-old's name wasn't on the ticket and it was listed under their teen's name, they were being forced to give up the seat.
"I bought that seat… you’re saying you’re going to give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat. That’s not right," Schear said.
"As we were leaving the plane, there's four or five passengers waiting for our seat. The bottom line is, they oversold the flight," Brian Schear told CBS Los Angeles.
After being removed from the plane, the Schears weren't even reimbursed for the flights or their hotel stay.
"They never contacted us. And honestly, we didn't contact them. This whole thing has made me so angry and … you know … with the money that I'm out for the tickets, I couldn't care less about that," Brian Schear explained to NBC News.
However, after the video began to circulate, Delta reached out and made a statement.
"We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we've reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation," the company said. "Delta's goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologize."
"I'm not a confrontational person … and when you're a mother and you have your 1-year-old and your 2-year-old and they threaten to take your kids away from you, I mean whether that's possible or whether that's, you know, against the law, it just, it made my heart drop," Brittany Schear told NBC News.
