An Atlanta, Georgia father recently revealed that Delta Airlines left his three children, aged 10, 12, and 15, stranded at different airports along the East Coast after the global tech outage severely affected the company.
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As we previously reported, a software update released by CrowdStrike, a leading global cybersecurity firm, inadvertently caused system issues for Microsoft and several airlines on Friday, July 19. While most of the airlines in the U.S. were able to quickly recover from the disruption, Delta Airlines continued to suffer in the aftermath, struggling to restore normalcy to its flight schedule.
Comparatively, on Monday, July 22, American Airlines canceled only 1% of its flights and United Airlines canceled less than 1%, but Delta Airlines ended up canceling about 16% (over 600 flights) as of 7:00 a.m. EST., according to data from FlightAware. The global tech outage left thousands of Delta passengers (both children and adults) stranded, with many forced to seek alternative transportation options (like renting cars) to reach their destinations. Meanwhile, others were forced to endure lengthy delays or even cancel their trips.
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On Sunday, July 21, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sent a warning to Delta, stating, “I have made clear to Delta that we expect the airline to provide prompt refunds to consumers who choose not to be rebooked, and free rebooking and timely reimbursements for food and overnight hotel stays to consumers affected by the delays and cancellations, as well as adequate customer service assistance to all of their passengers. No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent. I will ensure that our department supports Delta passengers by enforcing all applicable passenger protections.”
On Tuesday, July 23, Delta was still struggling to recover after the global tech outage and had to cancel hundreds more flights due to a lack of pilots and flight attendants. As of 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, the Atlanta-based airline canceled another 466 flights, and its regional carrier Endeavor Air, canceled another 28 flights. Between Delta and its Delta connection company, more than 5750 fights were canceled since the July 19 tech outage.
On Monday, July 22, in the midst of all the chaos, an Atlanta Georgia man named J.R. Reed revealed to news outlets that the global tech outage affecting Delta left his three children stranded at different airports along the East Coast. The Georgia father said all of his children were separately visiting relatives ahead of a family trip to Disney World before getting stranded. He said they all had tickets to get home on Delta, but they couldn’t even get onto the planes and make it back because of the tech meltdown pausing Delta’s unaccompanied minors program.
Reed, who has Million Miler status with Delta, told CNN, “Delta flew my kids out and won’t fly them home. Delta had instituted an embargo on their unaccompanied minors program and would not be allowing any unaccompanied minors to fly. Delta made an explicit decision to pull the plug on this program. They haven’t communicated that and it’s incredibly hard to find on their website. There is no proactive notification.”
The Georgia father explained that due to the embargo affecting all unaccompanied children, his eldest child, a 15-year-old boy, was stuck at Charlotte Douglas International Airport for 12 hours; his middle child, a 12-year-old girl, was stranded at New York’s LaGuardia Airport; and his youngest child, a 10-year-old girl, was stuck in Orlando after flying solo for the first time.
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Eventually, Reed was forced to buy himself a ticket to New York to pick up his 12-year-old and then he managed to get a car to pick up his 15-year-old and bring him back to Atlanta from Charlotte. Meanwhile, Reed’s sister bought a ticket to Atlanta to bring his 12-year-old home from Orlando.
Reed updated that Delta refunded his New York ticket and his sister found an agent in Orlando who allowed his youngest child to fly home on Wednesday, July 24, once the minors program was back in motion. Reed said, “As soon as Delta made the decision to not honor any child tickets flying by themselves, their first priority should have been rebooking those passengers, and they didn’t care.”
Delta reps told CNN that they embargoed the unaccompanied minors program as of Friday, July 19 through Tuesday, July 23 “to keep them from being separated from their caregivers should their flights be canceled or delayed due to the outage.” The company said, “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.”
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