It may sound like the start of "Home Alone 2" but, according to one family's account of events that took place in the summer of 2022, a similar mix-up occurred with two underage boys flying from Missouri to New York's Syracuse alone to meet their father.
The lawsuit, which was filed in court by Florida resident Amber Vicill on Oct. 31, claims that a canceled American Airlines AAL connecting flight left her children alone in a cold room at the airport on the night of July 31, 2022.
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According to the lawsuit first reported by USA Today, the 14- and 12-year-old boys had a flight from Missouri to Syracuse, New York with a layover in Charlotte. Vencill had paid an additional $150 for a staff member to see her sons through their flight as unaccompanied minors but, when the flight from Charlotte to Syracuse was delayed and later canceled, received a call that her children would be placed in a room for children at the airport.
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'Nobody knew where they were,' says lawyer representing mom
American Airlines' policy states that the airline will both call and "arrange for overnight accommodations, meals and supervision" in the "rare case that your child needs to stay overnight because of a missed connection." None of this occurred — the boys later told their mom they had "spent the night on a sofa with the lights on" and had not had anything to eat until they were placed on another flight the next day," according to the lawsuit,
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Vencill classified the room as "freezing" and "akin to a jail cell." As the airline reportedly received say that the children would be placed on a flight the next morning while the father who was supposed to pick them up in Syracuse was told it would be 5 p.m. the following day, the lawsuit also classifies what happened as "losing" the children.
"They're very lucky the children didn't end up in Mexico or Latin America or wherever," David Jaroslawicz, the Jaroslawicz & Jaros PLLC lawyer representing Vencill, told the New York Post. "Nobody knew where they were. The airline did not respond. Finally, she got a nice woman at the airport who looked for the children and found them."
'You can replace luggage or golf clubs but you can't replace the kids'
After calling the airline several times, Vencill learned that the children were in a "lost children's room" until they were able to board a flight the next day. American Airlines later apologized for the incident and offered to refund the unaccompanied minors fee but their refusal to offer more than that was pushed Vencill to take it up in court.
"There's no margin for error with children," Elizabeth Eilender, another attorney who is representing Vencill, told USA Today. "You can replace luggage or golf clubs but you can’t replace the kids."
In a media statement, American Airlines said that "the safety and comfort of our customers, including unaccompanied minors in our care, are [their] highest priorities."
"We're committed to providing a positive experience to everyone who travels with us," the airline said in a statement. "We have been in touch with Ms. Vencill directly and we are reviewing the details of the lawsuit."
