Delta saves 41 stranded students with a private flight after American Airlines cancels trip

Fox News ^ | Fox News | Janine Puhak

[Hojczyk]

A group of fifth graders from Oklahoma arrived at their Washington, D.C. field trip in style, touching down in the nation’s capital on a private Delta Air Lines flight after their American Airlines trip was canceled at the last minute.

On June 2, 41 fifth-grade students from Tulsa and their chaperones received the disappointing news that their American flight departing Will Rogers World Airport to Richmond, Va. for their highly anticipated school trip – which has been in the works for almost a year – was canceled, Though the carrier issued the group a refund, there were no alternative flights to D.C. available at the time, KOCO reports. Waiting it out at the airport for six and a half hours, the youngsters were soon back on their merry way – thanks to the generosity of two Delta gate agents who witnessed the exchange.

Contacting the airline’s headquarters in Atlanta, the staffers were able to coordinate for a spare aircraft to be flown to the Oklahoma City airport to ultimately transport the students to Richmond, the News reports.

"It was absolutely amazing when Delta corporate came in and just said, 'We’ll just give you the whole plane,’” one of the trip’s chaperones told local media.

“THANK YOU for getting this group of 5th graders out of OKC and onto Richmond Virginia on a private flight when @AmericanAir wanted to leave us stranded! Most amazing corporation to work with at 3:00am,” another trip chaperone echoed in agreement on Twitter, sharing a photo of some of the students and a Delta employee at the airport.

“It was an absolute pleasure to assist you in your time of need. We are glad that we were able to help with such an amazing group of kids!” reps for the carrier warmly wrote in reply.

[NonValueAdded]

Good for Delta! Nice to hear a good story for once. Now about AA ...

[gnarledmaw]

Actually that a lie. Evergreen treated me the best. Government contracts paying the fare and the need to try and make up for ancient questionably airworthy aircraft probably had a great deal to do with that. AA was the best treatment by carriers from which I personally had purchased tickets.

[7thOF7th]

AA has consistently declined in the quality of their service since acquiring US Air. Charlotte is a nightmare to fly out of and the games the AA mechanics play with red tagging flights to influence their bargaining power is reprehensible. The manner in which they are supposed to help customers who have had their flights canceled is horrible with long lines and poor solutions. Even prior to this story, I made the decision a couple months ago that AA will be in my rear view mirror until they make BIG changes to their customer service model.

[lurk]

That is maddening when an airline cancels a flight. Pack all your stuff 90 minutes on two trains, show up at check in, then they tell you. Then you miss your appointment at destination and have to pack it all back home.

[pfflier]

Long long ago an AA captain saw me sitting in SFO in my 1505s. He also saw the aircrew wings and invited me to fly in the cockpit jumpseat for free. His whole crew was reservists that flew out of Travis.

Back then you could fly standby but had to be in uniform. The prospects were looking grim but that act of kindness got me back to Oklahoma in time for Thanksgving dinner.

[Deplorable American1776]

Delta is good, but I like JetBlue...

[WASCWatch]

My younger son is Delta pilot who is moving up to flying international routes from SEA to Asia and Europe. Delta is a great airline.

[DoughtyOne]

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Just $236.00 dollars to 95.00%

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

Sometimes flights are full out of Tulsa, or at least higher fares. A few years back we had tickets from Ft Smith to Tucson for $300 because Tulsa to Tucson was $600. Then AA cancelled our flight and we were put on a 6am flight too early to drive to from Tulsa. So I called and asked to switch our tickets to fly from Tulsa instead. Voila! Round-trip from Tulsa for $300. So AA did ok for our cancelled flight on that trip.

[steve86]

I don’t understand how Richmond, VA got involved.

[cornfedcowboy]

This isn’t easy for an airline to just put together a plane, and crew, and gates for 40 people in the matter of a few hours. Nice work Delta!

[cornfedcowboy]

I agree Delta is the best of the three legacy carriers. That said, it isn’t a high bar.
Congrats to your son making and his pilot status. That is a big deal.

[Paal Gulli]

This sort of thing was the norm before de-regulation.

[Drew68]

Yeah that’s good press.

Not for American Airlines.