My husband has been stationed in Hawaii, where we all live now. My parents miss our children very much, but they live in Alabama which isn't exactly close by. When the summer vacation rolled around, they wanted our children to come to visit. I have a daughter (age 13) and a son (age 9). I just started working, so I was unable to go as well. My mom wanted me to put my kids on a plane and fly them to Alabama. I was uncomfortable with that. She told me she had called and Delta has a service that you pay $100.00 cash each way and a employee would be assigned to your children and keep an eye on them, make sure they got on their connecting flight in Atlanta (the hub) and make sure everything was fine. I called the airlines to research this program and they said that they have had it for years, and never lost a child yet. (And laughed)
The tickets were scheduled so the children would leave Honolulu at 4:20 pm, have dinner on the plane, there were movies scheduled. I figured that was great. Its such a long flight that they could eat, watch a movie and fall asleep. They would arrive in Atlanta about 3:30 am (our time) and catch their plane to Pensacola (a 45 minute drive from Orange Beach, Alabama).
The morning after I put them on the plane, I called my daughter. She was there, with my parents, she then had a startling story to tell me.
She told me that when they had arrived in Atlanta, a woman guided them off the plane, and handed them off to another woman who took them to a room. She also gave the second woman all their tickets (the children weren't to hold the tickets, which I understand, in theory) The children were instructed to sit down. They must have been in a daze, it being 3 am. The bottom line is, the lady who was to take them to their next flight was chatting with a co-worker and just ignored my kids. They missed their flight, which they had plenty of time to catch. The woman then discovered her error, and put my kids on another plane taking off three hours from when their plane landed as opposed to them having to wait less then an hour.
I'm an understanding woman, but I'm also APPALLED.
When I found this out, I immediately called Delta for an explanation. I was advised that they would refund me the $100.00 I paid for them to be watched, since they weren't. I'll have to update on how THAT turns out, but my main concern is them flying back. I can't imagine trusting them again. If this flight had been uneventful, I would have been thrilled with the service, and happy to use them again, but now i don't want my kids to fly back alone. I don't have the money to just buy myself a round trip ticket to Pensacola. I can't exactly go and pick them up. I don't understand why they (in light of what happened) fly me to go get the kids. Or at least answer my emails and phone calls.
If anyone can offer me any advice or help, I'd greatly appreciate it. They fly back on July 26th.
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