Forsythe Middle School student Julien Griffith finally returns from London after airline snafu
“It’s great, just to be able to tuck her into her own bed and have her at dinner, we had a bunch of her friends over yesterday,” said her father, Cameron Griffith. “She finally got to see all her Christmas presents and hang out with her brother again, it was pretty cool.”
Julien was supposed to return home Dec. 23 from a trip visiting friends, but was stuck in London for several more days when airline officials at Heathrow Airport wouldn't let her on the plane, saying she couldn't fly overseas as an unaccompanied minor.
It was easy enough getting the Forsythe Middle School eighth-grader on the plane at Detroit Metro Airport for the trip overseas. Julien was accompanied by her parents to the plane’s door after filing extensive paperwork because she was an unaccompanied minor.
Julien’s older sister rearranged her work schedule to fly to London and fly back with Julien, Griffith said. The older daughter is an employee of Delta Air Lines, Griffith said. He said it is likely that she won't have to pay for her ticket to pick Julien up.
Cameron Griffith said he’s still waiting for an explanation of why it was OK for his daughter to leave the country but not return home.
A Delta Air Lines official reached on Wednesday afternoon referred questions to Pinnacle Airlines because Julien was flying on a Pinnacle Airlines ticket. Pinnacle operates Delta Connection flights in the United States. Pinnacle officials did not return calls Wednesday.
Julien was staying with family friends who had been transferred to the United Kingdom for work. Weather conditions in London delayed Julien's return flight from Dec. 23 until Sunday, which is when officials said she couldn’t get on the plane.
It wasn’t a problem for her to stay with the family she was visiting for a few extra days. However, they were getting set to take a vacation of their own to the Canary Islands, Griffith said.
That led to a mad scramble to find a trustworthy friend with whom Julien could stay until her flight situation could be fixed. The father of the family Julien was staying with eventually found a family member about an hour outside of London who could house Julien for the night, Griffith said.
“They were awesome and took care of her and dropped her off at the gate,” he said.
Griffith said there was a miscommunication between airline officials in Detroit and London. Delta officials in Detroit have continued to tell him that Julien should have been allowed to fly back.
Julien’s ticket was a standby ticket, which allowed her to take the flight if there were enough open seats on the plane. Griffith said the family had a back-up plan in case all the seats on the plane were full, but that wasn’t the case.
“There were seats on the plane, the problem was she wasn’t given one,” he said.
With the stressful period over and Julien safe at home, Griffith is thankful for the help he received from his friends in London.
“We had to find someone we trusted and we got lucky with this family member,” he said. “They’re great people and we had to trust his judgment.”
Comments
a2citizen
Fri, Dec 31, 2010 : 9:57 a.m.
@Susan: Ouch!!! I figured that if Delta was not backing down it was because they knew they had solid legal standing.
curly
Fri, Dec 31, 2010 : 9:43 a.m.
A better question is why this newspaper apparently took the word of this family about the circumstances around this incident and did not inquire or bother to learn that this family and employee violated the terms of the employee pass and that DL had every right to refuse to transport this minor back to the states without an adult accompanying here. The rules of the pass and their use are well known and spelled out to every employee. This simple question appears to have never been asked of the family and is a glaring example of the poor journalism displayed here in the attempt to get a story that sells papers. Unfortunately as other posters have said, the family is likely to find out what going to the press is going to cost them. Not only are they going to lose all future pass rights, the employee is highly likely to be fired and she should be..and this paper will feel no responsibility in the roll they played.
Susan
Fri, Dec 31, 2010 : 3:23 a.m.
Julien, I am guessing your parents were aware of the risks of sending you overseas without them, and also aware of the rules that the rest of us family members of Delta employees traveling on free or reduced rate passes must abide by...we absolutely love the ability to travel the world but we always plan for contingencies, because there are no guarantees in the world of Standby travel. Quite honestly the rules for Unaccompanied Minors are spelled out in the Pass Policy section of the Delta Intranet, and your sister should have been very aware of this clause: If a child UNDER AGE 15 travels on a pass unaccompanied on a transoceanic flight (including flights to and from Mexico, Central or South America), or if a child UNDER AGE 15 travels on a pass unaccompanied on a connecting or through flight within the Domestic route system, the employee and pass rider will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including suspension of pass travel privileges and termination of employment. In fact...making such a big stink about Delta's alleged culpability in this case is probably going to come back and bite your sister in the butt....maybe making this a news story wasn't such a good idea after all?? Hope you enjoyed traveling on your buddy pass, it's probably one of the last you or any of your family members will have access to!
Sugar451
Fri, Dec 31, 2010 : 12:40 a.m.
Again---how is this a new story?
a2citizen
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 1:25 p.m.
It's a jungle out there.
1067254003
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 12:21 p.m.
All of you people that are saying that it was my parents fault, you are SO wrong. My best friend moved to the UK a couple months ago, so I wanted to go and visit her. My parents sent me, expecting me to come back on the 23rd, so I would have a week to spend with her. When I got there, a couple days in, my family found out there was going to be a snowstorm over in England. The snowstorm was the thing that made me not be able to go back home for Christmas. The next flight out was the 27th, so we planned on that date. I had a standby ticket.When we went to the airport, the people said I couldn't go back, because it was illegal or something for an unaccompanied minor to fly overseas with a stand by ticket. So, the big problem was that Detroit Delta people made a HUGE mistake, and let me on the plane to go to England, and the people at Heathrow wouldn't let me go back, because they knew the rules unlike the people at Detroit, who had no idea about the rule, and didn't give me or my parents any problems. So.. It was NOT my parents fault.
mkm17
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 9:21 a.m.
The use of snafu in this case isn't annarbor.com's worst journalistic offense, but it's certainly not the best, clearest headline ever. I consult with the American Heritage Dictionary when I am not sure about a word. I would not use thefreedictionary.com.
a2citizen
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 8:46 a.m.
@kaitlyn: According to the story she missed Christmas at home because of the weather. "...Weather conditions in London delayed Julien's return flight from Dec. 23 until Sunday, which is when officials said she couldnt get on the plane..." And how do you compensate someone for something they did not pay for?
john
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 4 a.m.
plane not plan****
john
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 3:58 a.m.
How is this even a news story let alone a headline? Are you serious AA News? Look I am sorry she had to go through the delays and am glad she's back. But why in the heck is this newsworthy? Including a picture of it makes it even more bizzarre. Is this Ann Arbor TMZ? You'd think that the plan was stranded in Antarctica for a month by the way this thing has been covered. What has news reporting come to?
Sugar451
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 1:08 a.m.
Wow, must be a slow news day in Ann Arbor when a middle schooler being stranded (along with thousands of others) is headline news. Who is this kid related to to warrant such attention?
frozenhotchocolate
Thu, Dec 30, 2010 : 12:17 a.m.
How can you say SNAFU when it implies vulgarities. Shes ok and fine, people get mixed up on planes all the time. So when a ten year old misses the bus and is late to school should we issue an 'amber alert,' i would hope not. Alswell that endswell.
Kaitlyn
Wed, Dec 29, 2010 : 11:04 p.m.
If an online dictionary isn't good enough for you, the real world webster's dictionary says snafu is a situation marked by errors or confusion. The story involves just such a situation therefore it is a snafu. Snafu has been used in headlines in a lot of news stories. Just recently many news articles have been calling the big snow storm a snafu. Is that the only thing that you all can find to comment on in this story? How about being happy that this girl made it home safe and sound, or angry about the stupidity of the airline that kept her from her family during the holidays? I for one would like Julien and her family to know that I hope that they get this situation sorted out and a perhaps compensated for both the ticket and lost days.
Tex Treeder
Wed, Dec 29, 2010 : 9:53 p.m.
Despite what you might have found in some on-line dictionary, I'm going to have to side with trs80 on this one. Whatever happened to pride in how you speak or write? I'd hope that a newspaper (even an online newspaper) would have better standards.
trs80
Wed, Dec 29, 2010 : 8:57 p.m.
You made me giggle, a2citzen. Let the acronyms roll...
a2citizen
Wed, Dec 29, 2010 : 8:49 p.m.
@trs80: Since this is apparently a case of employee benefits and not customer service, you might want to add BOHHICA to the list. A2.com....please delete previous entry
trs80
Wed, Dec 29, 2010 : 8:37 p.m.
Good thing A2.com is not a real news becasue SNAFU in the headline is a tad distaseful. SNAFU is not what should have been used to descibe this situation. SNAFU, as I am sure you know, stands for Situation Normal All F(udged) Up. Guess A2.com is FUBAR.