Filming A Seat Dispute Could Cost Hawaii Flyers Their Flight

On a five- or six-hour Hawaii flight, nobody wants to trade a carefully chosen aisle or extra-legroom seat for something worse just so other passengers can sit together. We’ve covered unwanted seat-swap pressure on Hawaii flights, and heard from readers who refuse to budge. But a recent confrontation went in a completely different direction. The passenger started recording the crew and was removed before departure, even though the airline reportedly told its employees that recording alone isn’t grounds for removal.

This time it happened September 9 aboard a Delta flight from Bogota to Atlanta. While that wasn’t a Hawaii flight, the airline flies to the islands, and its policies apply here as well. On the Bogotá flight, Santiago Daza says a flight attendant asked him to give up his assigned seat so a woman could sit next to her husband. He initially agreed, but changed his mind after seeing that the replacement seat was smaller and less comfortable. Daza stayed in his original seat, and the disagreement escalated when another crew member approached him.

Santiago Daza says he began recording the escalating encounter with Meta smart glasses. The video captures a crew member asking him to stop filming, but Delta later said Daza failed to follow crew instructions.

Colombian news outlet Minuto60 reported, citing information obtained off the record, that the instruction Daza refused was an order to stop recording. Delta hasn’t publicly confirmed that account or identified any other instruction he disobeyed. That leaves a potentially significant conflict with the airline’s own published and internal recording guidance.

Delta’s instructions to its own flight attendants.

In October 2024, Delta reportedly issued an internal memo after consulting with its legal team. According to reporting at the time, flight attendants could ask passengers not to film them, but “cannot force them to stop, nor may we remove someone from a flight merely because they took a photo or video.”

The memo reportedly encouraged de-escalation and seeking assistance from ground personnel or pilots. It recognized an exception when recording or accompanying behavior interfered with flight safety or security, including the safety of employees and passengers. The original memo isn’t publicly available for independent inspection, but Delta’s current onboard experience page reinforces the general principle, describing customer photos and videos as an important part of travel subject to safety and security restrictions.

A seat request isn’t necessarily a crew order.

A request to accommodate another passenger is different from an airline formally changing someone’s assigned seat. We’ve experienced that ourselves. After we’d checked in and received our boarding passes, American Airlines reassigned our seats to accommodate a minor whose parents had voluntarily moved, leaving us separated until we managed to get it sorted out before boarding. BOH reader Patricia H put the passenger frustration plainly in our earlier seat-squatting discussion: “That is unfair pressure to put on people who want what they planned for and paid for.”

As we explained in our earlier reporting on confirmed Hawaii seat assignments, a paid seat isn’t an absolute guarantee. Delta’s contract allows assignments to change for operational reasons, although the airline hasn’t publicly established that Daza’s seat was formally reassigned rather than simply requested for another passenger.

We’ve seen the other side of seat enforcement ourselves. On our Southwest flight out of Honolulu, a gate agent walked through a half-empty aircraft, checked a seating manifest, and required passengers to return to their assigned seats. The airline was enforcing its own assignments, even when travelers couldn’t understand why moving to an empty seat was a problem.

Delta’s international contract of carriage gives the airline much broader removal authority than most passengers probably realize. Under Rule 7, someone who fails to obey an instruction from a flight crew member may be removed. Delta’s domestic contract, covering its Hawaii flights, contains the same provision.

Federal law separately requires compliance with specific safety instructions, including seat belt requirements, and prohibits threatening, intimidating, or interfering with crew members performing their duties. Not every disagreement automatically violates a federal safety regulation, but an airline can still have contractual grounds to remove someone. A passenger who believes an instruction is unreasonable may have little opportunity to challenge it while remaining aboard.

The problem with documenting what happens onboard.

Daza says Delta subsequently told him that after reviewing the flight, it found no report from the captain or crew documenting his removal. That account was also reported by other media, although Delta hasn’t independently confirmed the absence of a report.

When we examined British Airways’ restrictions on filming airline crews last May, BOH reader Dee asked what would happen to recordings needed as evidence of onboard confrontations, including those involving crew members. Troy disagreed with unrestricted filming: “I wouldn’t want people constantly recording me at my job.” Daza’s footage captures part of the exchange, but doesn’t establish why he was removed.

For Hawaii travelers, removal before departure can mean a lost hotel night, disrupted mainland connections and reservations, or another day waiting for the next available flight. Someone who has paid extra for a particular seat may feel entirely justified in challenging a proposed move, especially when the alternative is substantially worse. But once a crew member gives an instruction, continuing the argument can put the entire Hawaii trip at risk.

We don’t know whether Delta had a legitimate safety reason for the order reportedly given to Daza, and the airline hasn’t explained how that instruction fits with its own recording guidance.

Would you stop filming if a crew member ordered you to, even when you believed the recording was your best evidence of being treated unfairly, or would you keep recording and risk losing your flight?

Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii with surfer at Kona Tiki Hotel, Big Island.

By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.

Some of the most meaningful parts of Hawaii are the ones visitors walk right past without knowing they are there. We’ve spent nearly 20 years finding them firsthand for BOH as full-time Hawaii residents reporting on travel, culture, and island life, and telling you what they mean for your trip. Join us →