2023-11-11 02:35:00
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A Florida mom filed a lawsuit once morest American Airlines late last month, claiming the company left her two unaccompanied sons in a “cold room akin to a jail cell without food, water or a blanket” following their connecting flight was canceled.
Amber Vencill paid $150 to the airline for her sons — who are 10 and 12 years old — to travel as unaccompanied minors from Missouri to Syracuse, N.Y., to visit their father in the summer of 2022, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 31 in New York County court.
During an unanticipated layover in Charlotte, Vencill was told the children would be placed in a “nice room for unaccompanied minors where there were beds and their own bathroom,” the complaint stated. Instead, they were housed in a “lost children’s room” in the airport, per the complaint, where the boys spent the night on a sofa with the lights on.
Elizabeth Eilender, an attorney representing Vencill, said Vencill didn’t learn of the situation until the following morning, and had difficulty reaching airline representatives at a “number that was supposed to be a direct line to where the children would be,” the lawsuit stated. Although airline representatives refunded Vencill the $150 chaperone fee following she complained, Eilender said more needs to be done to ensure airlines monitor children better.
“The entire point of this lawsuit is to bring attention that American Airlines has a problem with their unaccompanied minor service,” Eilender told The Washington Post. “Airports are probably the worst place in the world for children to be misplaced.”
Eilender said her client also hopes to shed light on the airline’s previous incidents involving unaccompanied minors, such as last summer, when a 12-year-old girl was left to wander a Miami International Airport terminal alone. In a statement responding to the lawsuit, American Airlines said they’ve reached out to Vencill and are reviewing the complaint.
“The safety and comfort of our customers, including unaccompanied minors in our care, are our highest priorities and we’re committed to providing a positive experience to everyone who travels with us,” the airline told The Post.
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American Airlines requires children between the ages of 5 and 14 and traveling alone to use their unaccompanied minor services, according to the airline’s website. Vencill’s lawsuit alleges that the treatment her boys received didn’t live up to the standard of care American Airlines promised.
“In the rare case that your child needs to stay overnight because of a missed connection, we’ll arrange for overnight accommodations, meals and supervision,” the American Airlines website reads. “We’ll call if this occurs.”
When Vencill complained to American Airlines following the incident, representatives for the company said in an email that their personnel are specially trained to provide extra supervision and “warm and friendly attention” to minors traveling alone, according to emails included in the complaint.
“I’m sorry to hear that, despite these safeguards, the level of attention afforded to your child was unsatisfactory,” American Airlines’s customer service team wrote. “Because of the circumstances you described, I’ve authorized a refund of the Unaccompanied Minor fee you paid.”
Vencill, who declined to speak to The Post, said in the suit that the event caused her to suffer “severe emotional distress” and “unnecessary panic” for hours, fearing the children had been injured, lost or kidnapped.
“It’s a feeling no parent ever wants to feel,” Vencill said in an interview with Good Morning America.
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