“I was trying to explain that all hospitals are required by law to treat patients in need of emergency care regardless of their ability to pay and that the Republican plan does not change that,”

He makes me think he’s a derpier version of Mathew Perry.

The family tried to lie about who was boarding the flight, that is most definitely doing something wrong.

Ok you’re right I’ve never tried to transfer a ticket but I would still try to call Delta and see how it would work instead of winging it. If I didn’t call Delta ahead of time I would just tell security that my 2 yo son’s name is the name of the 18yo and none should have been the wiser. The only thing I can think of…

This is an important point. When my I booked our family’s flight to Orlando last year, the airline made it impossible to seat all three of us in one row. Not just on one flight, but on both. Luckily for us, there were kind folks (or, more-importantly, folks who didn’t want to sit next to a toddler) who accommodated…

actually thst’s not the situation. the seat belongs to a specific person. if that person does not make the flight (or leaves on an earlier one), the seat is freed and goes to the first stand-by person. as soon as they sent the 18 year old on a different flight, they lost the seat.

the issue is that you can’t “transfer” tickets. the airlines have decided to not allow that. it’s a pain in the ass to even get your name fixed if you somehow screw it up making the reservation. and since the baby didn’t have a ticket in the first place (just a registration as a “lap child”), the 18 year old’s ticket…

All you fucking idiots defending this socal douchebag are doing the entire flying population a huge disfavor- along with Gawkner net and all the other idiot websites pushing this story. This dumbfuck very clearly gave up a seat, and tried to pull a fast one by putting his child there. Flying is very heavily regulated…

I don’t know why the family didn’t just say the baby’s name was the same as on the ticket. What’s the airline gonna do, ask to see the baby’s driver’s licence?

Yeah they should have changed the flight for the 18 y.o. to the earlier flight and then booked a seat on the later flight for the toddler and child seat. Obviously that would have cost more and I’m guessing the later flight they were originally booked on was full. I guess the other alternative would have been to get…

That is not mentioned anywhere in this. There was no “transferring of ticket”. Did they pay a name change fee?

They did change the flight. He got on an earlier flight. Because once the older son was not checked in for this flight (because he was on a different, earlier flight) then the ticket becomes open again for wait listed passengers. I’m assuming we’re missing the entire exchange of “sir, please move your baby seat, this…

There’s a reason why this event, which happened months ago, is only getting attention now.

Pleasantly surprised to see this comment.

It’s not “fundamental to air travel”. God didn’t reach out from heaven and scribe down on a sacred stone tablet that “Thou shalt not tranfer seats!”

Dude, it’s air travel. How many thousands of people go through just that one airport each day? Many of the rules need to be 100% rigid for this very reason - there’s not enough resources to devote to every moron who thinks that a little kid sitting on their lap will be no big deal.

Did they actually scan the older son’s ticket when they boarded, or did they just assume it would be cool and not inform the airline in any way that they were doing this?

Right on. Yes, it sucks, but that rule is there for a reason (security purposes) and the system is there for a reason (filling capacity in the case of no-shows). I’ve flown Delta for years and they’re pretty good about working with you in difficult cases if you call them (they’re rebooked me on other airlines when…

Sadly, yes, this is correct. 18 year doesn’t show up, that seat goes to someone else.

They’re both so insufferable. I wondered how they stayed married to other people all of those years. At one point, they were calling each other “Mommy” and “Daddy.” No way in hell would I be happy with my spouse behaving that way with their co-worker. Their divorce will be a shit show of epic proportions.