The family of a 12-year-old boy are furious with American Airlines for sending the child traveling alone to the wrong state 1,100 miles from his home, according to The Insider.
On June 8, the teenager was scheduled to leave Dallas, Texas, where he had been visiting his mother, to return to his father in Columbus, Georgia. However, the airline got it wrong and flew the boy to Columbus, Ohio instead.
When he bought the return ticket over the phone, the child’s father claimed to have repeated that his son should go to Columbus, Georgia, and not Ohio.
“The frustrating thing is that I looked up the flights online but the company doesn’t allow parents to buy the tickets themselves, otherwise I would have done it online,” Bub’s father told The Insider media.
According to the father, the American Airlines employee assured him that he had booked a seat on the correct flight. The ticket was $250 plus an additional $150 as the child was traveling alone.
“They blame you, but they don’t take care of your children,” the father complained.
While waiting for his son at the airport, the man began to worry as the child did not arrive. The father then called the airline and after some research, they finally found him at the airport in Columbus, Ohio.
“For a while we didn’t know where he was. It was a real nightmare!” said dad.
The child had to take a flight from Ohio back to Dallas, Texas. He then had to wait five hours before boarding another plane that eventually took him to Columbus, Georgia. His return home took 12 hours longer than expected.
American Airlines wrote an apology email to the family, but the boy’s father said he would no longer do business with the company. “You are incompetent,” he said.