This is a story of fighting a corporation that makes insane claims – and winning.
A mom flew American Airlines passenger from Portland to Dallas to Tallahassee with her two 18 month old twins. Since only one child can fly on her lap, she bought the other child their own seat using her miles, but a flight attendant refused to allow them to use it, saying children under two weren’t allowed in seats without a car seat. This was wrong. The passenger sued American because they wouldn’t refund the seat they’d purchased but weren’t allowed to use.
According to American,
- They’re only required to transport a passenger, not to transport them in a seat. Since the toddler flew, they got the full value of their ticket.
- The flight attendant, who threatened to kick the passengers off the flight and who denied use of the seat all based on a misunderstanding of policy, was within their rights to do so even though they were wrong.
This is literally insane. According to American’s own website a child can sit in their own seat, without a car seat, if they can “sit upright in their seat without assistance and have their seatbelt securely fastened during taxi, takeoff, landing and whenever the ‘fasten seatbelt’ sign is on.”
Everything was fine on Erika Hamilton’s first flight, but on her connecting flight a crewmember told her it’s “FAA and American Airlines policy to not allow an infant under the age of two to occupy their own seat without a car seat.”
The crewmember threatened to remove the family – but another passenger stepped in and offered to let the second child sit on their lap, which is considered less safe than flying in their own seat with seat belt.
But since the stranger helped them out, the family traveled, and that’s the basis that American Airlines used to deny the refund.
Erika Hamilton and the twins when they are allowed to sit in seats
And according to American, their contract of carriage says nothing about a passenger actually having a seat. So they could be like Pakistan International Airlines and fly 7 passengers standing in the aisle for a 1,700 mile trip.
Plaintiff alleges American breached the CoC by refusing to let her infant occupy the seat she had purchased. The infant, however, had a ticket that required American to transport her from Portland, Oregon, to a final destination of Tallahassee, Florida. While Plaintiff alleges that there was a dispute about where and how the infant was to sit, Plaintiff does not dispute that the infant in fact flew safely from Portland, Oregon, to Tallahassee, Florida.
Plaintiff offers no facts to support any language within the CoC supporting her claim for breach of contract by American, and there is nothing in the governing contract that requires American to do anything beyond transport a passenger from one place to another on the date and time of the ticket. Even the seat assignment of a passenger is not guaranteed under the contract.
I think it’s actually much simpler than that.
- The family purchased a service, a seat that they were not allowed to use, so that service should be refunded. (Lap infants fly free on domestic flights, so the travel occurred without the need for the purchase that the airline refused to allow them to use.)
- American Airlines does not, in fact, regularly carry more passengers than seats. The idea that a seat is how ticketed passengers are to be transported is assumed, and no one ever thought it was necessary to spell this out explicitly before American Airlines claimed otherwise.
Meanwhile the notion that flight attendants can deny boarding to passengers for any reason or no reason, and such decisions are un-reviewable, is simply wrong. Here the flight attendant was acting directly contrary to airline policy, and American’s Contract of Carriage states that the airline acts as sole judge of a passenger’s fitness to fly – not a crewmember acting against the view of the airline.
And surely American would not agree that a racist flight attendant determining that no African American passengers are capable of following safety protocols is justified in removing all African Americans. So the authority of cabin crew to remove passengers is not unlimited, even in the eyes of the airline.
American should have refunded the ticket rather than putting themselves in the position of making these stupid arguments. The airline failed to win a dismissal at summary judgment. And now the mom has now been vindicated with $3,500.
According to the woman, her goal was to make a simple point – a point she should not have had to make.
I took the case to court because I think a big problem with corporate America is that there is very little remedy for the ‘little guy’ when a corporation essentially steals from you. What happened here was that American Airlines sold me a ticket, and then refused to let me use that ticket because they did not know or understand the terms and conditions of their own contract.
Erika Hamilton is a legend.
“And surely American would not agree that…”
At this point, I don’t know how sure I’d be tbh
And now there is case law to refer to when this happens again. AA makes many foolish decisions on an everyday basis.
Seems like threatening to kick someone off a flight–even if for bogus reasons that actually go against company policy–is the only thing FA’s at American enjoy about their job. Must be quite the power rush, as they even want to do this while they are “off the clock” and not being paid (as they continually remind us when they are asked to assist during boarding)
Great reporting… Glad you used a photo of UNITED. @gary
Good on her. Enough with the FA bullies.
@steve – it is a photo of the family when they are allowed to sit in seats
“literally insane” perfectly reflects a good many AA flight attendants I’ve encountered.
More reason NOT to fly with AA (A$$holic Airlines). But yes the best part of this is the legal precedent it has now set! Awesome mother making a huge win for everyone!
AA defends bad actors that are flight attendants, baggage handlers and both baggage claim customer service and regular customer service reps without fail no matter how egregious. They will fight tooth and nail. They won’t issue comp no matter the evidence. They will claim all discipline is internal. It stinks. I’m EP and find that 95% of employees are fantastic. The ones that ruin it for everyone are union protected or protected at the corporate level.
Honestly they will do anything to not give you a refund. I’m an AA Aadvantage member since 1992. Been Executive Platinum all but a couple of years, primarily Covid. On October 6th I purchased a business class ticket to Tel Aviv through LHR. British Airways codeshare to Israel. They did not want to give me a refund with the explanation that my flight to LHR took off. In fact they said it was good thing I cancelled before the flight or I wouldn’t get anything. I pointed out the obvious that I bought a flight to Israel not London. The flights to Israel on BA and American are all cancelled. There is a travel advisory on their website about traveling to Israel. They finally agreed but I’ve yet to see the credit on my CC.
I hope more passengers can and do sue airlines when their employees do not fulfil the terms of the contract.
The photo in the article with the Mum & her twins is misleading as both 18mo olds are sitting in a seat when only one of them paid for a seat as the other child was a lap child.
A great number of FA are Bullies or Flight Terrorists.
Big props to the passenger who offered to let one of the children sit on their lap. An act of kindness by a stranger that saved this family from being stranded in a connecting city. I cannot believe AA paid lawyers (certainly more than $3500) to try to defend this.
@Robert Reisman: From a legal perspective, I don’t think that this case resulted in case law, which would be a published legal decision by a judge. Rather, it appears that AA settled out of court.
That said, if I understand AA’s conditions of carriage correctly, the mother followed proper procedure in booking a ticket for one child and having one child on her lap and the other child in their own seat, so I hope she would have won if the case had gotten to the point of the judge rendering a decision.
As this case shows, the rot starts at the top with AA
Can you please provide the case citation?
Thanks.
I’ve been promised a refund, but don’t see it. BOA told me it will appear on my next monthly statement. Waiting to see. All I will say is stay away from Philippine Airlines & ASAP tickets. 2nd year in a row I got a refund from BOA, after first telling me I wasn’t. Pay no attention to their final decisions, keep pushing. Worked for me!
I love it when they pull out the old FAA card. I lost count of a number of times stewardesses have done this to me. Yes I said it stewardesses.
I have been in a similar situation as the plaintiff, on AA even, but tend to avoid conflict so never pursued legal action. I will say it is one of the angrier situations of my life and am very happy for anything she gets.
The real crime here is flying with an infant…let alone two??!! Be a parent. Stay home until the kids are old enough to properly travel.
Note she won. In this new age of draconian flight crews, I won’t be putting up with this crap, and if I dont, I dont fly. Hate flying anyway. Breeze, American, and United and scum.
@Al Courtines, Philippines Airline is consistently the lowest cost carrier on the flights I take from LAX to PNH and return. I don’t take them because of the stories of bad flights.
Clown still wearing a mask. Halloween was Monday.
I would have awarded $10m in punitive damages.
Talk about putting your foot in it… the trolls trying to poke holes in the article without actually reading the article are so precious.
@Thomas I
Why don’t you file an EU 261?I got my refund in 2 weeks.
@Thomas I
Why don’t you file an EU 261?I got my refund in 2 weeks.
@ChadMC
What a moron….
Nothing will happen to discipline the F/A because the Union will prevent that.
There was no precedent set here, as you cannot set a precedent in small claims court. Even if you could, it would only exist in that one particular court.
She is a lawyer that filed in small claims court because she knows that the judge there does not have to follow the letter of the law, and can just rule on their own opinion of fairness.
The only thing she succeeded in doing is getting American Airlines to require the children under two must have a child seat when sitting in a seat. They have removed any option of discretion.
Generally, so then passengers need to stop asking for an empty seat if they have an infant under 2, as they do not have a paid ticket for the infant. If you want your infant to have a seat buy a seat
This is why I don’t fly. If I want to be treated rudely, I can just go to work, I don’t have to pay the airlines hundreds of dollars for the privilege!
I recently had the worst experience in AA, my 1st time traveling with AA. I was traveling alone with my 1.5 yr old, on a red eye flight. During boarding they simply refused to provide priority seating for me and my kid, even at our special request by the attendants at the boarding gate. The reason of refusal being AA provides priority seating for family with kids only for those whose kids will be seated on a car seat. What on earth is the logic *for only kids on car seats*!
I am disgusted by this horrendous airline’s nasty attitude!! In a day and time when customer service matters for a business, how is such an airline surviving and why no one is regulating such offenses? Many people go through similar issues but generally avoid conflict with airlines & never pursue legal action with time energy & money. But these nasty airlines deserve to be sued as they take advantage of helpless people. Wish there was a regulatory body to complain to .
I flew an oversold flight out of PDX recently (Alaska) with a child in her on seat using a car seat—-this is the safest way to fly, but I don’t blame parents when lap infants are free. Anyways, the boarding agent stopped me to confirm the age of my child (24 months exactly) and I think if I had said under 2 they had planned to revoke her seat. These chronically oversold routes are a huge headache for travelers
Spirit Airlines is a joke too. I’m purchased a ticket as well as “travel insurance” to visit my dad. Unfortunately my dad passed away before my trip so I wanted to cancel my flight and recv a full refund since I purchased insurance. SA said they would only credit me for a new flight instead of a refund because the ticket was in my name and I’m not the one that died….SERIOUSLY, because I’m not the one that died. Well I took my complaint about this to Twitter, and within minutes none day Spirit corporate emailed me and assured me I will get my full refund immediately. The power of social media!! I never and will never fly with them ever again!!!!
Why would any sane general counsel litigate a matter that could easily be settled with a small cash payment or worthless AA miles?
This is not going to prevent a rush of claims as I can’t imagine it is AA policy to re-sell seats that have been purchased for toddlers (particularly as most parents are smart enough to bring car seats).
It just makes the airline look foolish, generates ill will and incentivizes others to seek relief in small claims court. Estupido!
All airlines try to scam passengers and impose unjust rules in their favor. They lie about flights being delayed and hold passengers hostage on run ways for hours without proper ventilation and accurate delay times. There needs to be rules in place to stop airlines from their poor customer practices. They need to be penalized when they are in the wrong. If a flight is delayed or cancelled (because there are not enough passengers) the airline should owe a refund. They should not be allowed to keep your money if you change your mind and cancel a flight. Its about time to change things!