SkyWest crew refuses to allow autistic pax to sit near family — walk off plane when questioned

[MauleSkinner]

There are quite a few assumptions being made here. Was the flight in question a connecting flight? Was their previous flight delayed? Was their previous flight delayed enough that they missed their original connecting flight and needed to be switched onto a different connecting flight at the last minute? When my wife and I travel together, we always check in early and always book seats together. We do all the things you're supposed to do to make that happen like asking the gate agent to try to seat us together, asking the gate agent if purchasing an upgrade will allow that happen etc and yet we still sometimes end up on flights where we're not seated together. I guess we're just cheap and lazy and its always our own fault if we're not seated together though.

I see nothing in their Facebook post that indicates any extenuating circumstances, so I’m going to believe there weren’t. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

 

[ElPaso Pilot]

I see nothing in their Facebook post that indicates any extenuating circumstances, so I’m going to believe there weren’t. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

Um... arriving late to the gate is a very good way to lose your seat assignment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ommodate-traveler-autism-now-they-ve-n1043996

"Isola, a graduate student at the University of Houston, said in a now-viral Facebook post that he and his family arrived at the gate to learn they were all seated apart. They were among the last people to board the flight because a U.S. Customs and Border Protection computer outage caused hours-long delays at airports Friday, he said.

Once they boarded the plane, a woman quickly volunteered to switch seats with Tayo so he could be near his sister during the more than two-hour flight."​

 

[MauleSkinner]

Um... arriving late to the gate is a very good way to lose your seat assignment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ommodate-traveler-autism-now-they-ve-n1043996

"Isola, a graduate student at the University of Houston, said in a now-viral Facebook post that he and his family arrived at the gate to learn they were all seated apart. They were among the last people to board the flight because a U.S. Customs and Border Protection computer outage caused hours-long delays at airports Friday, he said.

Once they boarded the plane, a woman quickly volunteered to switch seats with Tayo so he could be near his sister during the more than two-hour flight."​

I stand corrected. But now the gate agent was on their side.