Okay, this whole "airlines throwing threatening and physically throwing people off their planes" is getting seriously out of hand. About a month ago, United Airlines physically dragged a passenger off one of their planes after refusing to volunteer to give up his seat. While this man was eventually let back on the plane, he came back bloody and disoriented after being brutalized by airline staff and dragged across the ground like a rag doll. When this happened, many people hoped that that would be the end of the whole affair, but it appears that Delta is taking after United.

On April 23rd, a Californian family traveling to Hawaii was accosted by a flight attendant and told that their ticket which was originally for their teenage son of eighteen, who had agreed to take an earlier flight, could not be used for their two year old infant after they had already seated. The father argued that this was not true and, as they had paid for the ticket, they should be allowed to use it for their child. After several minutes of arguing, he was threatened and told that he would be forcibly removed if he refused to give up his seat. When the father still refused to give up the seat, the official then stated that, his wife would be sent to jail and his children that were currently with him, a two year old boy and a one year old girl, would be taken away from them. The family eventually exited the plane and were forced to pay 2000 dollars in order to book a hotel room for the night, receiving no compensation for the four tickets they were forced to give up.

While this occurred about two weeks ago, Delta has just now formally apologized to the family, an act that has come twelve days too late. That family went through check in, security, and was let on the plane before they were accosted and told to give up that seat. It is not their fault that Delta overbooked the flight and they should not have to pay for as they did and even if they were at fault, you do NOT threaten their family. There were multiple ways to go about asking the family to leave and threatening their children is not the way to go about that, no matter what the circumstances may be.

Acts such as this are making everybody hesitant and sometimes even reluctant to book flights on these airlines. Even I am nervous about coming back home from London for fear of being physically thrown of the plane. As an airline, they have a duty for to make sure everything goes smoothly with their flights, and threatening a family is not how to do that.