Can Delta Airlines threaten to put you in jail?

There are insufficient facts to make a judgment here. Poorly handled, but there are facts which I'm confused about here. The ticket was bought in one name, but not the name of the kid who they wanted to put in the seat. 2 year-old aside, can you buy a ticket for passenger X and then give it to passenger Y to use? Poorly handled on both sides I think, the passenger's, and the airline for even allowing them to board. Again, I would like to see all of the facts.

The extra ticket was bought for the older son who flew the night before. According to dad the gate agent said it was ok to use it for the infant. Nevertheless, you can't threaten to put the parents in jail and then say the kids will be in a foster home. Beyond the pale. The dad was very calm and collected but not the agents. God bless cellphone cameras.

sticky situation. delta says tickets are not to be transferred to a different name, faa says you can transfer, but it has to done before boarding the plane, regardless, telling your clients ( ticket holders) that paid for your services regardless of what business you are in, that they could be put in jail and their children put in foster homes because of a misunderstanding is bad business. Since the clients finally said, okay ( uncle in my mind ) the kids will sit on our laps, it could have been handled better by both sides, the clients should of been allowed to fly. the client should of made everything clear to the gate agent and this could have been put in writing.

looks like delta has issued a mea culpa to the parents and promised to make everything right. as with life, bad news travels fast and with cell phones recording everything, you have to get it right.

apparently youtube video no longer available???
looking at delta's site, there are change fees for changes of itinerary and so forth, but it doesn't appear that tickets can be transferred from one passenger to another. not a matter of paying a fee. simply not allowed.

That father was wrong. He bought a ticket for his son X but he never checked in and thus the ticket was a no-show. One doesn't buy anonymous seats on a plane, one buys service to fly person Z from A to B.

Airlines do stupid things but it doesn't mean that they are always wrong.

Petri said:

That father was wrong. He bought a ticket for his son X but he never checked in and thus the ticket was a no-show. One doesn't buy anonymous seats on a plane, one buys service to fly person Z from A to B.

Airlines do stupid things but it doesn't mean that they are always wrong.

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I agree the father was wrong in thinking that he could use that seat even though he paid for it, since his older son was a no show. however the airlines were wrong in telling the father that putting a childs seat in that seat was against faa regulations ( their threats of jail time for the father or putting their children in foster care......lol) and by the way they re-sold that seat, so they made double their money, in my mind something very wrong about being able to sell a seat twice. I think the policy should be that if its a no show, the seat remains empty, if they resell that seat, then they should be required to offer the original buyer at least a modest refund. since 9/11, airlines have used that horrible tragedy to harass and intimidate their customers, sometimes over something trivial. this has to stop now!

Delta is notorious for intentionally overselling seat in the hopes that some people won't show. When this doesn't happen, and they have a full plane, instead of offering customers incentive to be bumped, the agents intentionally look for reasons you can't board. For me, it was the fact that I had a one way ticket to st. martin. St. martin immigration states you can have a return ticket or an ongoing ticket. I had an ongoing ticket for St. Barth and a French passport. They refused to take this into account, bumped me and offered to reimburse my Delta ticket. I lost my St. Barth ticket. Another time I was suppose to fly with them, they cancelled due to weather conditions. They were the ONLY airline to cancel. ONLY use Delta if you are not committed to going anywhere and want to waste time and money.

yes, they told dda the same thing. he is a french citizen and flying back home. delta gate agent said no you cannot fly today because you have no return ticket to the usa. dda told them he never has to return to the usa. the gate agent say oh yes you do, it says it right here on my computer. she kept saying sir to dda, you are flying into a dutch country, so now you must have a return ticket to the usa. finally after about 30 minutes ( I kid you not), she finally called a manager over, we had requested that she do this sooner, but she refused, said she did not need a manager, its in black and white on her computer screen. when the manager arrived, he just laughed and said over ride the computer, this man is going home to his own country, he does not have to return to the usa EVER. It was a good thing that we arrived to the airport early, we could have missed our flight. yikes delta.