by As Delta canceled thousands of flights between Friday and Tuesday, it suspended travel for unaccompanied minors like Sarah, extending the pause several times before saying they would finally be allowed to fly again on Wednesday.
Some parents have had to scramble to find child care far from home, spend hours waiting in line with Delta and find their own expensive tickets. Some have booked their children on other airlines or planned road trips in the worst-case scenario.
“I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster,” Sarah said Tuesday from her grandparents’ home in Charlotte. “I’m really happy because I have a plan and I’m okay with it … and then my flight gets canceled again and I have to get on another one.”
Families who spoke to The Washington Post — all still separated from their children — complained that Delta did not ask them about their children’s individual circumstances or offer to rebook flights on other airlines.
“No one asked me where my child was, whether he had a problem or not,” said Katie Cruise, a Virginia teacher whose 11-year-old daughter was spending time with cousins in Salt Lake City. “At no point did they ask me what my child’s needs were.”
Melissa Watt, Sarah’s mother, said she had looked for a plane ticket for a grandparent to accompany her daughter home, but could only find a $4,000 ticket. She called Delta’s decision to bar unaccompanied children from flying for so long “irresponsible and unacceptable.”
“As a parent, I feel totally helpless,” said Watt, a health professor.
Sarah, who is due to return home on Wednesday, said she was looking forward to hugging her parents and dogs, Khaya and Scout.
“I’m a little afraid of getting my hopes up,” she said.
Delta declined to say how many unaccompanied children were affected by the outage. Parents took to social media to express frustration with the airline and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. One Georgia man said his children were stranded at three different airports, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta.
Airline employees escort unaccompanied children through airports, help them board early and get settled on planes. They also find safe places for children to wait during layovers and hand them over to a designated person to pick them up after landing.
In a statement Tuesday, Delta said the airline had placed a ban on unaccompanied travel by children “to protect minors from separation from their families and caregivers in the event of flight disruptions or cancellations.” The carrier was working to “remedy this situation” for customers, the statement said.
“We take seriously the trust caregivers place in us when their children travel and sincerely apologize for any confusion or frustration,” Delta said.
The Department for Transportation said in a statement that officials were “extremely concerned” by reports that some unaccompanied minors were being stranded at airports.
“We are seeking answers from Delta as part of our investigation and have made it clear that we expect Delta to prioritize transporting children to their destinations safely and quickly,” the statement said.
Most U.S. airlines allow children ages 5 and up to travel without an adult, but up to a certain age, they must pay a fee for extra assistance. Rules for eligible flights vary by airline, but younger children are only allowed to travel nonstop. An adult must bring the child to the gate on departure and someone must pick them up on arrival.
“The devil is in the details, and a lot of the details vary from airline to airline,” said Summer Hull, director of content for travel site Points Guy and a family travel expert. She said some airlines may prevent an unaccompanied minor from flying if they’re concerned that an individual flight could run into problems.
While it is upsetting for a child to be prevented from boarding, she said: “It is even more upsetting for it to go wrong in the middle of their journey and they end up somewhere where one of their guardians is not there.”
Delta states in its contract of carriage that it may temporarily suspend travel for unaccompanied minors “if there is a possibility that weather, irregular operations or other conditions may cause a flight to be diverted.”
Southwest Airlines, which stopped allowing unaccompanied minors to travel during the December 2022 operational crisis, has included similar clauses in its contract. The airline says it can suspend unaccompanied minors from certain flights if circumstances warrant, but it rarely prevents them from flying entirely.
Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, said the families’ complaints were legitimate, but he believes Delta’s decision was necessary given its operational problems.
“It’s the right decision that Delta has made because, with so many flight disruptions and so many limited seats, Delta is being wise in prioritizing the well-being of these children by saying, ‘No, we will not carry them,'” he said.
The move may prevent further problems at airports, but it still leaves parents of children in a difficult situation. Cruise, the Virginia teacher whose daughter was stranded in Salt Lake City, said Tuesday that her child had to change flights three times.
“I’ve been waiting [on] “Probably four different calls, for a total of eight hours at this point,” she said.
His daughter was supposed to fly home Saturday night after traveling with her 17-year-old cousin. The cousin was allowed to fly despite the outage, but Cruise was told his daughter wouldn’t be allowed to fly until Sunday. That eventually turned into Wednesday, and Cruise couldn’t find tickets to join his daughter or for another family member to fly home with her.
A family friend of Cruise’s, who has experienced cancellations herself, is now scheduled to fly with her daughter on Wednesday, which she called “a really nice glimmer of hope.”
Although Cruise said his daughter was having fun with her cousins, the ordeal was difficult.
“She was texting me with sad emojis when she found out” about the latest cancellation, Cruise said.
Chris Perruna’s 11-year-old daughter was supposed to return home to New Jersey on Monday after visiting family in Atlanta. Instead, she spent the day at work with her aunt, a teacher who returned to class on Monday, while her cousins went to summer camp.
His daughter had booked a Delta flight for Wednesday, but the family was worried that Delta would again extend the ban on unaccompanied travel for minors. So the family booked her a United flight out of Atlanta Tuesday night for about $450, including the unaccompanied minor fee. Perruna said he and his wife were nervous, but their daughter was doing well.
“I guess from an 11-year-old’s perspective, she saw it as an adventure,” he said.
In Detroit, Amy Hellebuyck waited for her 12-year-old daughter to return Tuesday afternoon.
After taking her first solo flight to California for her cousin’s 7th birthday, Averie Hellebuyck was scheduled to fly home Monday morning. Her aunt, who was caring for her in California, was scheduled to leave for work Tuesday, so a return Wednesday on Delta was out of the question.
“These are your most vulnerable passengers, these children who need to get home and you’re not making them a priority,” Hellebuyck said of Delta’s approach. “You’re kind of abandoning them.”
She tried to fly to California, but Delta told her there was only one first-class seat available for $2,200. She asked if the airline could book her daughter on another airline; the answer was no. She vowed to get in her car and drive to California if necessary, since she hadn’t been able to find a seat for herself.
“It was a complete disaster,” said Hellebuyck, who works in communications.
Hellebuyck eventually found a return flight on American Airlines for nearly $800, which left Monday night and was quickly delayed. After some adjustments, her daughter was scheduled to fly to Detroit Tuesday afternoon with a stopover in Phoenix. Hellebuyck has requested a refund from Delta and said she would like the airline to refund her for the American Airlines flight.
“You pay what you have to pay to bring your child home,” she said.
She walked her daughter through a step-by-step plan in case something went wrong in Phoenix. On Tuesday, she updated her daughter’s flight status throughout the day.
“I’m just ready to hug her,” Hellebuyck said.
