My children were on flight 346, which left Orlando, Florida and arrived in Philadelphia, PA at approximately 5:00 pm, which was already 2 hours behind the scheduled time. They were supposed to make a connecting flight, flight 284 to Providence RI. They got held over for approximately 4-5 hours before the news came that the flight was cancelled all together. The ticket counter of course was totally overwhelmed with angry passengers. The problem here is, that my two children were traveling unattended, with the my 17 year old son being old enough to take care of his 11 year old sister. These 2 minor children could not get anyone's attention to let them know they were unattended and had no idea what to do. My son, who was scared to death, got on the closest pay phone and called me collect. I told him to get pushy and get someone to notice him and explain the situation.in the meantime, I would make attempts to call US Airways located at the airport and tell them I needed their help. The Philadelphia Airport would offer no help and would not make any attempts to contact the US Air ticket counter. I attempted to call for 3 hours and kept getting the same answer or no answer. My son made every attempt to yell for help but he went ignored. My ex-husband who was receiving the kids in Providence, was there attempting to get them on another flight, but they said it would not do any good unless we could get the kids to the counter to get noticed.
I ended up calling Philadelphia Police Department, which was based in the airport to go help my kids, the whole time my children stayed on the pay phone or stood by it, and stayed in contact with me. I knew where they were at all times, but could not get a representative of either the airport or the airlines to help them. A police officer found them right where I told them they would be and he forced his way up to the ticket counter, this was around 2am 12-24. He (the police officer) announced the situation to US Airways employees and my children were now considered a priority. My ex-husband had made the arrangements for them to get on flight 1484 to Providence. That flight was delayed also but finally took off around 3:00-3:30.
This is a simplified version of the horrible account that my children went through. And now I learn that this occurrence was due to employees calling in sick and some other mishaps involving US Airways. I can understand mechanical problems and weather issues, but neither of those were a minor or major factor in this total neglect of my children. I am extremely upset with US Airways treatment of my children.
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