A passenger on a Delta flight from Bogotá to Atlanta says he was kicked off the plane after agreeing — then declining — a seat swap, and the whole saga is now spreading through Colombian media.
Santiago Daza was flying Delta flight 983 on September 9, heading to Atlanta with a connection to Orlando. According to his account, a flight attendant asked him to move so a woman could sit next to her husband. He said yes at first, but when he realised the replacement seat was worse than his own, he changed his mind and kept his assigned seat.
Things escalated from there. Another crew member came over and asked for his name, and Daza — sensing trouble — said he would record the interaction with his Meta smart glasses. The footage, shared by the outlet Colombia Oscura in early October, captures an employee objecting to the recording and demanding he stop. Shortly after, he was told the captain had decided he was off the aircraft. Fellow passengers weighed in on both sides: some objected to him filming, while the woman seated beside him defended him, telling him she was a witness that he had done nothing wrong.
Delta has confirmed a passenger was removed from that September flight for refusing crew instructions, and says he was rebooked on a later flight. The airline reportedly offered Daza a $150 travel credit to settle the matter, which he is refusing. He claims Delta's customer service team later told him they could find no report from the captain or crew explaining the removal, and that he was asked to take down the videos — a request he also declined.
The underlying lesson for travellers is simple: you are under no obligation to accept a seat swap, and crews generally can't force one on you. Swaps tend to work when both sides get something — a better seat or a cash offer, the way passengers sometimes trade a middle for an aisle for $100 or so. What bit Daza here wasn't the seat refusal itself but the follow-on confrontation. Airlines give captains enormous latitude to remove anyone they judge a disruption, and courts rarely second-guess that call. Recording an interaction can protect you, but it can also turn a routine disagreement into a removal, since crew may treat filming as a refusal to follow instructions.
If you're ever asked to switch seats, it's worth staying polite, asking exactly what seat you'd get before agreeing, and knowing that declining is your right. If a situation starts to spiral, keeping your cool gives you a better case afterwards than footage does in the moment. Daza's complaint is ongoing, and it's a reminder that even a small onboard negotiation can snowball once crew authority enters the picture.
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