Originally Posted by
AirNurse
Offloading wasn't an option, unfortunately., and the flight was almost an hour late departing -- I would have felt awful delaying other pax, especially if someone ended up missing a connection in LA because of us.
Don't hesitate next time, not that there will be a next time, I've never heard of this before. The safety implications alone would justify you offloading yourself, the delay wasn't your fault, and if you or your spouse were not secure in the seat then the implications to you and other passengers do not bear thinking about. If there was no seatbelt then the aircraft should have returned to the gate even if it was discovered after leaving the gate, it's licence to operate stuff at that level. I presume it was a totally full flight, but yes, offload yourself if there wasn't another option (and actually something would have happened in that scenario, of that I have no doubt), a little polite but firm assertion goes a long way.
In your shoes, I would make a formal request for the return of a good chunk of the fare allocated for that sector, and use MCOL or Section 75 (if UK based) or CEDR (if not) to ensure payment. The EC261 thread isn't relevant here, but the mechanisms mentioned here are explained over there.