Just wanting to have a wee rant this week about a video that I’ve seen shared around Facebook a bit. About a month ago, a family (dad, mum, two year old and a baby) were kicked off a Delta flight after the dad held up the flight by arguing with air stewards. The online furore was palpable! How dare someone not break the rules for a family WITH BABIES. OMG. What has this cruel world come to?

The thing is though, the guy was in the wrong. He had sent his oldest son home on an earlier flight that day, and had assumed that the empty seat could be used to seat the baby in. The baby never even had a boarding pass as it was booked as a lap passenger. So the guy assumed that as he had paid for the ticket, this would be fine. However, when a passenger doesn’t check in, they forfeit their seat – and the airline gives it to a standby passenger – a term known as “overselling a flight” (we’ll get to that in a bit). The guy was told that the seat was no longer his to use because tickets are non-transferable and as the son had not checked in for the flight, it was now the airline’s seat to distribute.

This is standard practice, for legal reasons. I’d be pretty surprised if I turned up at a boarding gate with a ticket that did not have my name on it (even if it was paid for by someone I knew) and was allowed to board. The guy should definitely not have kicked up a major fuss over this. Anyway, the flight was grounded for about 40 minutes while he argued with them about this, and finally he was asked to leave the flight. The internet uproar continued over this. The thing is though, in America, they had this little thing called the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Airlines became REAL FUCKING JUMPY after that date, and their policies definitely reflect this. Accept that or don’t fly. And if a passenger is argumentative enough to delay a flight taking off for such a long time, they sure as hell aren’t going to be allowed to fly – because if they are unpredictable and have a psych out mid-flight, nobody can escape. I’m not saying I think the guy would have done that; I’m just saying that this is a risk that they are no longer willing to take after 9/11.

People were commenting things online about how stupid and wrong it is that airlines are allowed to oversell flights. But the thing is, if they didn’t oversell flights in anticipation of people not showing up, FLIGHTS WOULD BE SUPER FUCKING EXPENSIVE. So, this practice is a good thing for anyone who ever wants to fly in their lifetime – there are some great articles online that explain why overselling is pretty much necessary to keep flight prices down, and there are a lot of statistics that go into their overselling methods. Furthermore, compensation for being involuntarily bumped from an oversold flight that many people choose to volunteer themselves for being bumped – it’s a great way to travel super cheap for flexible people.

Other outraged comments were scolding the other passengers on the flight for not all getting up and walking off the plane in solidarity or offering up their own seats. All I have to say to that is: Are you people fucking retarded?

I wish people would use their heads and consider a situation logically before immediately jumping on the clickbaity sympathy-attempt headlines of “OMG Family With BABY Kicked Off Flight!”. I’m sorry but having a baby doesn’t give you a green pass for not complying with rules and regulations, and I’m sick of people expecting special treatment just because they undertook the unremarkable choice of breeding. Here’s a suggestion – if you really care about your family’s wellbeing, ensure they get home by not fucking arguing endlessly when you are wrong. If you have a grievance, get yourself and your family home first and then complain through the correct channels. It’s not rocket science.

Love Akika xoxoxoxoxo