Scott Darling and his wife drove their 17-year-old son, Asher, to the San Jose, California, airport Sunday morning and saw him off at the check-in counter. They were back in their car and pulling out of the airport when they got a frantic call: Delta Air Lines wouldn’t let Asher check in because he didn’t have a parent accompanying him on the flight.
“I was perplexed,” Darling said. Asher had flown by himself on several occasions, he said, and “we were never notified about this.”
Delta has been the slowest U.S. airline to restore its operations, canceling over 1,000 flights each day from Friday to Monday. More than 450 others had been canceled as of midday Tuesday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
On Tuesday, the secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, said his agency was opening an investigation into Delta’s ongoing response “to ensure the airline is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.”
Delta began to ban children younger than 18 from traveling without a guardian as it struggled to recover from the global technology outage Friday that affected Microsoft users and systems across the world, and forced airlines around the world to ground flights.
Its suspension of travel for unaccompanied minors, a measure implemented with little notice, left some children stranded across state lines or even in different countries, and it left families scrambling to book last-minute flights on other airlines or arrange alternative transportation.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A plane lands at Salt Lake City International Airport, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.
The Department of Transportation was “extremely concerned” about reports of unaccompanied minors being stranded at airports, it said in an email. “We are seeking answers from Delta as part of our investigation and have made clear that we expect Delta to prioritize getting kids safely and swiftly to their destinations,” it said.
Some families, like the Darlings, said that they were not notified of the change until their children were turned away at the check-in counter, and that Delta offered little support or assistance.
The travel suspension, on top of the airline’s continued cancellations and delays, has shaken some customers’ long-held loyalty.
Delta initially suspended travel for unaccompanied minors until Sunday, but the suspension was later extended through Tuesday. “Those already booked will not be able to travel. Please do not book new travel for unaccompanied minors during this time,” its website said.
In an email statement early Tuesday, Delta Air Lines said that it implemented the suspension to “protect minors from being separated from their families and caregivers in the event of flight disruptions or cancellations” following the outage.
“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 statement said.
For many parents, particularly those with young children, the situation has been distressing.
At about 3 a.m. Tuesday, Patricia Starek was waiting at her home in New York City for the news that her 12-year-old son was finally on his way back to her after being stuck in Colorado for three extra days.
Her son, Ellis, was visiting her sister in Boulder, Colorado, on the first solo trip he’d ever taken and the longest time he’d been away from home, Starek said. He was supposed to fly back to New York on Saturday, she said, but Delta informed her sister on Friday that he would not be able to.
Delta said he could fly Monday when the suspension was lifted, she said. Then, when it was extended, that became Wednesday. She tried speaking to Delta’s customer service, waiting for hours on hold on the phone, she said, but was told nothing could be done.
On Monday, she gave up and scrambled to find a flight on another airline, ultimately booking a JetBlue flight that night for about $650, she said.
Although Ellis was safe and staying with family who were looking after him, Starek said it was still distressing to be separated from her son for longer than she should have been while navigating a confusing and chaotic situation.
“It was a complete nightmare,” she said. “I can’t wait for him to be home.”
For some parents, like Jason Hewlett from South Jordan, Utah, whose 17-year-old son, Redford, was stranded in Montreal overnight, the experience has made them lose confidence in a long-trusted airline.
Redford was supposed to fly home Saturday from visiting family friends. But Delta pushed him onto a Monday flight, and then said that the earliest flight he could take was on Wednesday. But Redford was supposed to leave for a trip to Thailand on Tuesday.
His trip home ended up being a multiday journey. Redford flew on an Air Canada flight Sunday from Montreal to Las Vegas, where his grandfather picked him up and drove two hours to his house in St. George, Utah. From there, Redford took a six-hour shuttle bus home to South Jordan, arriving Monday afternoon.
Hewlett said that he found out about the travel suspension by checking Delta’s app, and that the airline did not proactively contact his family. He added that he was able to speak to a Delta representative only by calling the phone line exclusive to Diamond Medallion members, the highest tier of the airline’s frequent flyer program, after no one picked up on the general phone line.
Tami Hewlett, Jason Hewlett’s wife, said that the idea that the travel suspension was protecting children, especially those on the return legs of their journeys, was ridiculous. “All it’s doing is stranding them,” Tami Hewlett said.
Similarly, Darling, who drove his son to the San Jose airport, said that being unable to fly with Delta put his son, Asher, more at risk.
After being told that Asher could not check in without a parent accompanying him, Darling bought a refundable first-class ticket for himself, intending to use it to get Asher to the boarding gate. At that point, he hoped that they could find an adult on the flight who could accompany him and that Darling would be able to refund the ticket.
They managed to find such a person, and Asher boarded the plane with that passenger. But when Darling tried to stay behind, he said, airline staff said that Asher would not be allowed to fly unless Darling was on the flight too.
“I said, ‘He’s already on the plane, he’s with another adult who’s agreed to accompany him, what’s the matter?’ And they said, ‘It has to be family,’” Darling said.
Airline staff made Asher leave the plane, Darling said. Darling and his wife booked him another flight, on Southwest Airlines. It was departing an hour later, bound for Los Angeles, where Asher would attend a summer pre-college program. But the plane landed at a different airport in Los Angeles than the one the program had arranged to pick Asher up from, and he had to take an Uber in an unfamiliar city, Darling said.
“They said they had instituted this policy for Asher’s safety,” he said, “which I found kind of comical.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Christine Hauser contributed reporting.
