Looks like it's Delta's turn in the Wheel-of-Terrible-Airline-Experiences-Going-Viral this week as an Orange County family say they were booted off a Delta flight as they were coming home from Hawaii.
The Schear family from Huntington Beach say they bought a ticket for their toddler to sit in during the flight, but Delta asked the family to give the seat up and hold onto their baby instead of placing him in the seat so they could board an additional passenger.
The family refused and argued with the airline staff, but were told they could be arrested and put in jail for failing to comply.
Brian Schear say the airline did not hold back. He says an employee told him that, "You have to give up the seat or you're going to jail, your wife is going to jail and they'll take your kids from you," he told ABC7.
The family filmed the encounter (of course, because who isn't recording these days?) and posted it on YouTube.
"You're saying you're gonna give that away to someone else when I paid for that seat?" Brian Schear can be heard telling an airline employee. "That's not right."
Eventually Schear agreed to hold his son for the four and a half hour flight, but Delta wasn't having it. The whole family was asked to disembark around midnight.
Schear says they were forced to scramble for a hotel room and pay $2,000 for another flight on United (yikes, talk about a rock and a hard place).
An airline employee told Schear that FAA regulations say young children are not supposed to have their own seat, and are supposed to sit in parents' laps during flights.
However, a scan of FAA regulations on their website do not indicate any such rule. In fact, Delta's website seems to encourage parents to purchase seats for children under the age of 2-years-old.
"We want you and your children to have the safest, most comfortable flight possible. For kids under the age of two, we recommend you purchase a seat on the aircraft and use an approved child safety seat."
Schear's frustration with Delta can be seen throughout the video he posted: "You need to do what's right," he says. "I bought the seat and you need to just leave us alone."
It's the latest in a string of incidents on airlines that have been in the news lately. Between the notorious video of a doctor being dragged off an overbooked United flight to fights breaking out in the cabin and even a giant bunny dying while in United's care, it's been a rough few weeks for the airlines.
Earlier this week, Congress even called them out on the carpet telling the CEOs of United, Southwest, Alaska Airlines, and American Airlines to shape up, or they'll be hearing from their committee again.