A woman has vented her outrage after claiming that American Airlines left her 15-year-old brother stranded in an airport for almost 24 hours with only a $12 snack voucher as compensation.
Bonnie Ngai, who works as a travel content creator, took to TikTok to detail the chain of events.
She tells viewers, in a state of frustration: ‘My brother has been stuck in the Philadelphia airport for almost 24 hours. His plane was supposed to come to New York City [but] it got diverted to Philadelphia because of weather.’
While she says she can ‘totally understand’ the diversion, she deemed the treatment towards passengers as unacceptable.
After disembarking the plane around 7pm, Bonnie says announcements kept pushing its departure back by hour increments – but her brother then discovered the plane had been delayed to 11am the next day.
Bonnie Ngai, who works as a travel content creator, took to TikTok to vent her outrage after claiming that American Airlines left her 15-year-old brother stranded in an airport for almost 24 hours
Bonnie says because of the incident, she will ‘probably’ never fly with American Airlines again, despite them being one of her preferred carriers
While ‘adult’ passengers were able to get a hotel room, Bonnie reveals that her brother could not as he was under the age of 18.
Instead, he was told to wait in the terminal and given a $12 ‘snack voucher.’ However, as it was midnight, Bonnie highlights that no stores were open at the time.
Touching on why $12 was an insult, Bonnie vents: ‘Travel is my job, I’ve been many, many airports across the world, $12 can maybe get you a bottle of water and some air and some chips in America.’
After getting a snack voucher at midnight, Bonnie’s brother got another one about 11 hours later which she said would have to be used for both breakfast and lunch.
In a state of disbelief, Bonnie said she called customer service on her brother’s behalf.
However, the agent she spoke to said there was nothing they could do and they would have to get another voucher approved, which could take time.
Bonnie suggested the airline could have offered her brother the lounge services so he could get some food and wait in comfort.
Adding to her frustration, the content creator claimed that when she asked the agent what he would do in the same situation if he had a teenage child, he simply told her he would have ensured sure the teen had money in his pocket.
Bonnie reassured viewers that her brother did have money, but that wasn’t the point and the airline should have acted accordingly.
Responding to viewer requests, Bonnie posted an update to the situation, showing that her brother made it back to New York safely in the end
She explained: ‘The kid has money in his pocket. I guarantee you, we give him enough money to buy snacks, food, whatever.
‘But it’s your guys’ responsibility to help him, reimburse him and [compensate] for the time that he’s been in this airport, and the s*** that he has to deal with, and not sleeping and not eating because your flights couldn’t get their s*** together.’
Concluding her monologue, Bonnie says it was an ‘absolute joke’ and because of the incident, she will ‘probably’ never fly with American Airlines again, despite them being one of her preferred carriers.
Responding to viewer requests, Bonnie posted an update to the situation, showing that her brother made it back to New York safely in the end.
In the follow-up clip, she explains: ‘He is on zero hours of sleep but he’s alive and well and that’s all that matters.’
Bonnie also posted another clip, showing how her brother passed out on a park bench later that day as he was so tired, despite there being a ‘beautiful’ view of Manhattan in front of him.
The TikTok creator does not reveal if her sibling received any form of compensation following the ordeal, in the form of money back or AAdvantage miles.
Many viewers sympathized with the situation.
One commenter wrote: ‘As a mom of a 17-year old-daughter I would be petrified and crying uncontrollably.’
Other viewers revealed how similar things had happened to them, with one writing in the comment section: ‘This happened to me in Atlanta when I was 16. I was terrified!
‘And they booked me on a flight at 6am so I had to walk through multiple terminals at 4am. I hope your brother is okay!’
DailyMail.com has reached out to American Airlines for a comment on the matter.
