With tickets in hand, Shirley Yamauchi - a teacher at Kapolei Middle school and her 27-month old son were on the final leg of an 18-hour flight from Hawaii to Boston. 
 
 "He and I, we had both our tickets scanned, we both went on board no problem," Yamauchi said. 
 
 That is, until a male passenger, flying standby - showed Yamauchi his ticket had the same seat number as her son, 24A. 
 
 "It was very shocking. I was confused. I told him, I bought both of these seats. The flight attendant came by, shrugs and says 'flights full'," Yamauchi said. 
 
 Yamauchi says she didn't want to cause a scene, remembering the recent United incidents like the Kentucky man who was violently dragged off his flight in April. 
 
 "I'm scared. I'm worried. I'm traveling with an infant. I didn't want to get hurt. I didn't want either of us to get hurt," she said. 
 
 So - Yamauchi was forced to sit her son on her lap for the three and a half hour flight. 
 
 "I had him in all these contorted sleeping positions. In the end, very sadly, he was standing up between my knees," she said. 
 
 According to FAA guidelines, the FAA strongly advises against a child sitting on someone's lap, saying to passengers "Your arms aren't capable of holding your child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence." 
 
 "What happened to my son was unsafe, uncomfortable and unfair," Yamauchi said. 
 
 With no help from staff aboard Flight 2047 - Yamauchi searched for help. She spoke to agents at the gate, who directed her to customer service. Who then directed her to a hotline number. 
 
 When she finally reached someone on the phone: 
 
 "I was told if we refund you anything right now, we're going to have to cancel the rest of your flight arrangements to Hawaii," Yamauchi said. 
 
 Flights home for an adjusted ticket price would be additional expenses on top of the $969 ticket that her son did not use. 
 
 Adding insult to injury, the man who took her son's seat? Paid just $75. 
 
 "It's worrisome. Everyone who has helped me so far has contradicted each other. With their suggestions, this needs to stop. United has made errors that make national headlines. yet, it continues," Yamauchi said. 
 
 A spokesperson from United Airlines sent a statement to Island News. 

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 / Updated By Ariana Brockington 
 
 A Hawaii teacher says she was forced to hold her toddler son in her lap for a three-and-a-half hour flight because of a mix-up in United Airlines' system. 
 
 “It was unsafe, uncomfortable and unfair," Shirley Yamauchi told NBC News. "I couldn’t believe it was happening to me." 
 
 Yamauchi said the seat she purchased for her 27-month old son was given to a standby passenger. Yamauchi said she purchased two tickets — almost $1,000 each — for a trip from Hawaii to Boston with a layover in Houston. 
 
 After waiting more than five hours last Thursday in Houston to board, Yamauchi said she and her son were exhausted. Once they were seated, a United flight attendant came to see if Yamauchi’s son, Taizo, who was in his seat, was on the plane. 
 
 The Kapolei Middle School teacher said a man who was a standby passenger approached her and said her son was in his seat. She said she notified a flight attendant about the confusion but, “She shrugged and said the flight is full.” 
 
 Yamauchi, 42, said she hastily had to place her son, who is 25 pounds and half her 5’2” frame, on her lap. She said the standby passenger was one of the last people to board the plane. The flight quickly departed after he sat down and no other flight attendants questioned her about her son, she said. 
 
 The teacher claims for the entire duration of the flight, no one addressed her having her son in her lap despite her struggling to put the seat belt over both of them. Taizo had to stand or crouch on the floor because Yamauchi said he became too heavy to hold. “He’s tall child for a toddler. He comes up to my belly button. It was a three and a half hours flight,” she said. 
 
 The ticketing guidelines on United’s website state, “Once infants turn two years old, they are required to have a purchased ticket and occupy a seat.” 
 
 Yamauchi said she did not try to alert another flight attendant due to recent problems on United aircrafts, such as the April incident where a doctor was forcibly removed from his seat. 
 
 “If I were traveling by myself without my child, I would have spoken up a little louder or more forcefully,” Yamauchi said. 
 
 Shirley Yamauchi said United Airlines made her fly with her 27-month-old son in her lap on a flight from Houston to Boston, despite having purchased a seat for him. Shirley Yamauchi 
 
 “Those are things that happen to other people. They don’t happen to you,” she said. “I had hoped United had changed their policy after the Dr. Dao incident.” 
 
 “I had an email from Oscar Munoz saying they were going to do better," Yamauchi said referencing the customer email the airline's CEO sent following the public's response to Dr. Dao's injuries. Munoz also addressed the controversy during an exclusive interview with NBC News' Lester Holt. 
 
 When the flight landed, Yamauchi informed multiple United staff members about what happened. “I was told four different things from four agents,” she said. One told her that she should have said something when she was on board. 
 
 United contacted Yamauchi Tuesday and told her that her son's ticket will be refunded and she will be sent a travel voucher. 
 
 United Airlines spokesman Jonathan Guerin said in a statement, “On a recent flight from Houston to Boston, we inaccurately scanned the boarding pass of Ms. Yamauchi’s son. As a result, her son’s seat appeared to be not checked in, and staff released his seat to another customer and Ms. Yamauchi held her son for the flight. We deeply apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son for this experience.” 
 
 Yamauchi is unsatisfied with the explanation. “I saw them zap both tickets. There was no issue, no problem. They let us through. It just doesn’t add up. It’s very weird,” she said. She also doesn’t agree with the compensation. “It doesn’t seem right or enough for pain and discomfort.” 

 The company said, "We deeply apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son for this experience. We are refunding her son's ticket and providing a travel voucher. We are also working with our gate staff to prevent this from happening again."
– United Airlines is apologizing yet again after a mom was forced to hold her 2-year-old son for a 3.5-hour flight—because the airline gave away his seat. Shirley Yamauchi, 42, says she paid nearly $2,000 for two tickets for herself and her son, Taizo, to fly from Hawaii to Boston with a layover in Houston, and checked in well in advance of the final leg of the journey on June 29. But shortly before takeoff, Yamauchi says a man boarded and said he'd bought a ticket for Taizo's seat on standby. When Yamauchi notified a flight attendant, she says she got only a shrug. "I had to move my son onto my lap. He's 25 pounds. He's half my height," she tells Hawaii News Now. "It was unsafe, uncomfortable and unfair." United's own ticketing policy says children must be in their own seat once they reach age 2, notes NBC News. Taizo is 27 months. Yamauchi, who is 5-2, says she "lost feeling in my legs and left arm" as she held onto her son, who had to stand on the floor when he became too heavy, per KITV. The station notes that FAA guidelines advise parents against holding kids on their laps. She wanted to complain but remembered other United incidents in the news. "The violence. Teeth getting knocked out," she says. "I'm Asian. I'm scared and I felt uncomfortable. I didn't want those things to happen to me." Five days after the flight, United offered Yamauchi a refund for Taizo's ticket, a travel voucher, and an apology, claiming Taizo's boarding pass wasn't properly scanned and gate agents believed he hadn't checked in. But Yamauchi says she saw agents scan Taizo's ticket. "It just doesn't add up," she says.