The Felders spent the last days of their family vacation camping – in Newark Airport.
“I needed to spend $143 on five blankets,” Shaliece Felder told the Post. “The one way we managed to secure cots was because someone saw my kids on the ground.”
The Felders’ United flight was purported to depart Monday to Charleston, South Carolina. As a substitute they were caught up in flight chaos which brought misery to tens of hundreds.
This week saw nearly 7,000 flight cancellations and 35,000 delays within the US, with Newark and Chicago O’Hare the worst affected.
Felder dropped $150 on only one dinner for her family of 5 and one other $40 for coffee. Why not abandon the airport and its astronomical prices? “United was misleading us into believing that we might board the flight in some unspecified time in the future that evening.”
They might still have been at Newark late Friday in the event that they had not paid out of pocket for flights to Charleston from Philadelphia on Thursday – one other $1,063.
The prices mounted all week for individuals who were stranded. “We ran out of Pampers and had to purchase some within the airport,” said a cash-strapped Arnisha Keitt, also stuck at Newark. “It was $18 for seven diapers.”
The Keitts, who were on vacation with their 1-year-old grandson, got food vouchers from United. But most of them were for the airport in Houston, where United was attempting to reroute them, not Newark where they were stuck.
“We needed to share a meal because we had to make use of funds to be sure our grandchild ate,” said Keitt. She estimates their three-day saga cost them $2,300.
That include a $780 Uber ride from Newark to Baltimore, where they were finally capable of catch a flight home to South Carolina, and a $50 Uber to Walmart to purchase a recent $169 automobile seat because their luggage went missing.
They looked into renting a automobile, but there weren’t any available.
Event organizer Kristan Burba, of Jackson, Wyoming, was stuck in Denver for 3 days, while her husband got stuck in Newark.
She spent $336 on food and $412 on basic necessities, because they didn’t have their bags. “We also spent $145 on Ubers to and from our hotel – $980 for 2 nights – because I wasn’t having my kids sleep in an airport,” she said.
Down south, Latest Yorker Sonia Hendrix was only offered a $50 future Delta travel credit for her surprise layover in Orlando — which stretched from hours to days.
Over the course of 4 days she spent $925 – including $57 for a much-needed 15-minute massage on the airport’s XpresSpa and $225 on a change of garments. She also lost out on what she estimates is $12,000 of billable hours.
“It was a complete nightmare,” she told The Post. “I felt like I used to be in hell – surrounded by Disney World-goers.”
Airlines insist the worst is over and so they are doing their best to get passengers on their way, with their luggage.
A rep for United, which suffered essentially the most delays and cancelations, told the Post:”Our airport customer support staff works tirelessly to deliver bags and board flights.”
A JetBlue spokesperson said FAA-required ground stops had caused the delays and said: “We’re working to get those impacted where they’re going as soon as possible.”
Delta said it had only 6 canceled flights out of 4,900 scheduled on Thursday .
One passenger said Delta had not less than been generous with the Biscoff cookies. “This very nice attendant gave me three packets and I used to be so grateful,” said delayed passenger Kimberly Dawn Neumann.
She had been “ravenous to death” and called her ordeal “torture.” A fellow passenger said they must be serving shots as a substitute, she told The Post, adding, “I didn’t disagree!”
Other travelers traded planes for trains. Erica Bates flew her aunt and uncle Sheri and Danny Delaup in from Latest Orelans for her son’s highschool graduation in Westchester.
“Their JetBlue flight home to Latest Orleans was canceled Sunday and Monday,” Bates told the Post. “They were told they couldn’t leave until Friday.”
With no rental cars available, they opted for Amtrak. “Thirty-one hours in a roomette but they made it home!” The associated fee: $1173.20.
