Delta Airlines came in big time to rescue a group of stranded students traveling from Oklahoma to Virginia after their American Airlines flight was canceled, with no alternatives being offered.
On June 2, a group of 41 students and their chaperones were flying from Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) to Richmond International Airport (RIC), were told that their American Airlines flight was canceled due to weather related issues. Even though American Airlines offered them a full refund, the group had no alternative arrangements to get out of Tulsa.
After many phone calls with different airlines, the school’s chaperones finally got lucky after Delta stepped up to save the day. Six and a half hours later, the airline flew a spare aircraft with crew to Tusla to pick up the students to fly them to Richmond.
Shantell Barbour, one of the teachers accompanying the students, thanked Delta for their service over Twitter.
“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.”
Delta responded by saying, “Hi Shantell, 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! Thank you so much for sharing this picture, it really warmed my heart. Their smiles are priceless!!!”
The airline also issued a statement to Business Insider.
“Seeing people for who they are, and not just customers of one carrier or another is what really made this story possible,” a Delta representative told Business Insider. “While we are in the travel business, we’re in the people business first, and we couldn’t be happier that these students were able to make their trip.”
According to Barbour, the tour company that they initially booked the flights with, went ahead to handle payment for the Delta tickets and is working with American to finalize the refunds for the canceled flight.
[Featured Photo: barbour_5th/Twitter]
