LOS ANGELES — Delta Airlines kicked a young family off a flight and threatened them with jail if they didn’t comply. <br /> <br />Video filmed on April 23 aboard Delta Airlines flight 2222 from Hawaii to Los Angeles was posted to YouTube on Wednesday by dad Brian Schear from Huntington Beach, California. <br /> <br />Schear’s wife Brittany started filming when airline staff asked the family to give up a seat they had paid for to make space for another passenger. <br /> <br />The couple was traveling with two toddlers and the seat was occupied by their 2-year-old son. <br />For safety reasons, the Schears planned to strap the boy into a car seat placed on top of it but the airline insisted Brian hold him in his lap. <br /> <br />To make matters worse, airline staff said the child could not occupy a seat during the flight because it was against Federal Aviation Administration rules. <br /> <br />Which is untrue. The FAA recommends that toddlers sit in government-approved car seats for safety purposes — and so does Delta’s own website. <br /> <br />The issue that Delta used to trip the family up in the end was that the seat was originally booked in the name of Brian’s 18-year-old son, the Washington Post reported. <br /> <br />But the teen flew back on an earlier flight so his brother would have a seat. The thinking being that otherwise the kid would not sleep on the 5-hour-long red-eye, and it would compromise safety with him crawling all over his parents’ laps. <br /> <br />But technically tickets on Delta flights are non-transferable. <br /> <br />Eventually the family accepted they couldn’t win and asked if they could give up the seat and get in the air. <br /> <br />Instead, Delta threatened the family with jail if they didn’t all get off the flight. <br /> <br />They were told that having nowhere to stay was not Delta’s problem and they were on their own. <br /> <br />So at around midnight the Schears had to scramble around for a hotel. They then spent $2,000 on a new flight leaving the next day, according to ABC affiliate KABC. <br /> <br />Delta apologized on Thursday and said they’d contacted the family to offer them a refund and additional compensation.
