On Feb. 22 eleven of us returned from our Carnival Cruise, after having a glorious week of fun in the sun we arrived for our US Airways 7:05 flight out of Fort Lauderdale. Two of our group were in wheel chairs and already boarded with their children/immediate family. Myself, husband, and 11 year old son were standing at the gate agents desk as we have many many times before to get a tag for the 4lb wooden boat packaged appropriately in cardboard, since it was too big for overhead comp. and too fragile for baggage. We expected to get a tag and be on our merry way as usual. Much to our surprise, we were told by the gate agent that she was tired of people like us trying to do this and we would have to check it as regular baggage and they never allow things like that to be tagged. I pleaded with her to no avail. We still had about 15 minutes so I went two gates down to the customer service desk and asked if something like tagging the boat was acceptable. In which I was told that she didn't see why not. She asked which gate it was. When I told her, she glanced at her co-worker and said that there wasn't anything she could do because that would be counteracting the judgement of her other coworker whom had much more seniority than her. So she then referred me to her supervisor who was at the time busy with a drunk passenger, getting her to change flights and so on. But i was told to go to my gate and he would be over shortly. I went back to the gate and by then they were announcing that the flight was overbooked and were taking volunteers, blah blah.At that time we were asked if we would volunteer and take a later flight the next day. We kindly declined because of the rest of our friends/family already aboard and my son had already missed a week of school. I then asked one more time if they could tag the boat like a "stroller" and was rudely told no way. I had to check it as baggage/sign the breakage waiver, I did, having no other choice since the superviser never came over.
The three of us walked down the gangway, and were stopped at the entrance of the plane and were told that all the overhead compartments were full so our roller boards had to be tagged like a "stroller" and taken below, just like I asked them to do with the 4 lb boat.
We boarded the plane, got to our assigned seats and low and behold there were three empty seats and four people standing. The male flight attendant told us to take our seats immediately, because we were holding up the flight. Now either I missed the humor in his sarcasm or he couldn't count as well as my eleven year old whom understood the situation. After kindly asking him what we were supposed to do, he replied "take your assigned seats immediately" Very frustrated by now, I handed him our boarding passes and said ok please figure this out for us, tell us exactly where to sit.
He proceeded to try and make the last three rows stand up and shuffle their seats to where they were supposed to be sitting, as if three seats were going to magically turn into four! All the time giving us sarcasm because he actually couldn't figure out that there were not enough seats.
Finally after he told my husband that we were trouble makers, MY HUSBAND HAD ENOUGH. He called him a F****** idiot.
Yes, my husband was asked to leave the plane, which he did willingly because he knew he should not have let the F bomb fly, but he got off as gracefully as one can after doing something like that.
The flight attendant told my son and me that the sheriff's had been called and would deal with him.
My son started crying hysterically and I realized I had all of our money, id's and so on. I notified the flight attendant that I needed to deplane the aircraft. He told me I couldn't to sit down or he would call the deputy on me. I told him to do what he needed to do and stood up gathered my and sons things together and told him to get out of my way I was leaving the aircraft. He then told me to hurry up and get off of his plane, berating me the whole time. We probally made it past four rows going down the ailse and my son's back pack slipped off his shoulder so I stopped to put it back on since he was in front of me. The male flight attendant then shoved me in the back and told me to get moving, well when he did that my son fell because i was shoved into him. I then told the male flight attendant to never touch me again. And he best never shove me again. His reply was, "Honey I never touched you" Keep moving.
When we reached the door way of the aircraft I turned to him and asked what his name was so I could report him and he laughed and told me it was his word against mine, good luck honey, let me guess, your gonna get me fired right? Turned and walked away.
In the waiting area of the gate, as promised there was my husband, and two sheriff's deputy's.
The very rude gate agent and the superviser whom I was waiting for in the beginning of this whole mess were telling the deputy's that we were trouble makers and were asking for trouble from the beginning. Last time I checked my son and I had done nothing. I asked the deputy if I could speak to him about what happened and he told me to shut up and sit down or I would be arrested. My son by then was more hysterical than I had ever seen him in my life was having what i would call a adult panic attack, couldn't breath and told me he was going to throw up. So I being a mother, got up and went over to the small waste basket to give it to him to vomit in and the deputy yelled " I told you to take a seat now lady this is your last warning, I'm gonna arrest all of you. Needless to say my son vomited all over the floor. The gate agent told the deputy " see, I told you they were touble makers" and all the while the supervisor went along with it agreeing. Never once was I or my husband or son aloud to state the facts as to what had transpired over the last fifteen minutes.
Finally, we were asked for ID, showed it, and were told to leave the premises. I tried to ask if they were going to reschedule us or what were our options? The gate agent told us that was our problem, and again the deputy told us to leave immidiately or we would be arrested.
So there we are left high and dry in Fort Lauderdale. Had to get a hotel, which is not cheap in Lauderdale. Got to hotel and called us airways and they said we were "Blacklisted" so I had to pay for three one way tickets on Continental Airlines, at 700and some odd dollars apiece for three tickets. I have yet to hear back from US Airways after filing two complaints. I still have no idea where my baggage is. I filed a complaint against the Broward County Sheriff's Dept. Deputy's What else can I do? Do I have a leg to stand on? And please no comments about my husband he knows he deserved to be thrown off of the plane, that was never a gripe. But what about my son and I who did nothing wrong? Shouldn't they have tried to help us make some kind of arrangements, not just tell us tough, we are on our own? Please someone give me advice, good or bad, I'm a grown woman who can handle alot but not if I don't know what my rights are. I do not want to look like an idiot for no reason again!