Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Business Insider
Parents say Delta stranded their kids while they were flying alone
By Geoff Weiss,
5 hours ago
In the wake of the CrowdStrike outage, Delta barred unaccompanied minors from flying.
Two parents told Business Insider that meant their children were stranded.
Delta said it made the call "to protect minors from being separated from their families."
Some parents say they were left scrambling to help their stranded kids after Delta Air Lines suddenly changed its policies as it grapples with extended delays and cancellations that stretched into the fourth day.
"It was about three hours of sheer panic," one of the parents, Cecilia Stone, told Business Insider.
Joel Fortney, a serial entrepreneur and loyal Delta customer, said his 12-year-old daughter wasn't able to fly back home to Iowa after a two-week stay at summer camp in Maine on Friday.
The daughter remained calm as Fortney frantically tried to get his daughter home. "Ultimately, I had a 12-year-old just kind of floating," he told BI.
Fortney's daughter was able to stay overnight at a hotel with some of her camp counselors, he said, and then he rebooked her on a United flight to Chicago the next day — where he and his wife drove six hours to pick her up.
Fortney was able to get a refund for the unused portion of the Delta ticket, but said he "going to be shopping" for other airlines in the future.
"I would never want this to happen to another family," he said. "It felt like a uniquely Delta decision and it really impacted people in a way that just didn't make any sense."
Stone, 39, said her son — a 17-year-old Navy Sea Cadet — was also stuck while trying to fly from a Salt Lake City training camp to his home in San Diego on Saturday.
Donald had a regular ticket, but as a minor was still not allowed to fly, Stone told BI. She said Delta didn't notify her of the change; she found out when her son called her after he couldn't check-in to his flight.
Stone immediately began calling other airlines, she said, none of which had any flights.
Hours later, Stone was able to find a Southwest flight to San Diego that evening.
"It was just incredibly frustrating," she said. "It boggled my mind that [Delta] thought that that was okay."
Delta told Business Insider in a statement that it stopped unaccompanied kids from traveling "to protect minors from being separated from their families and caregivers in the event of flight disruptions or cancellations."
"We take seriously the trust caregivers place in us with their children's travel, and sincerely apologize that that trust was compromised through confusion around the embargo," the airline said, adding teams were working to keep customers updated and to make things right for affected customers.
Stone said she hasn't received a refund yet. She plans to "steer clear of Delta Airlines altogether" in the future.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Comments / 0