‘It’s just bad luck.’ The Charlotte airport wasn’t the adventure these Scouts had planned
A dozen sleeping bags filled with disappointed Boy Scouts huddled around a seating area at Charlotte Douglas International Airport over the weekend.
Troop 1 from Honesdale, Pennsylvania, narrowly missed its connecting flight to Florida, where they had booked a trip to the Boy Scouts of America’s Florida National High Adventure Sea Base. The Scouts would’ve been on a sailboat in the Florida Keys this week, according to Brendan Ellis, troop committee chairman and former Scoutmaster.
“Partly, it’s just bad luck,” Ellis, who helped organize the trip, told The Charlotte Observer on Monday. “It’s hard to move in a big group.”
The Scouts’ “bad luck” started Saturday when their original American Airlines flight from Philadelphia was canceled around 4 a.m., Ellis said. The troop, Scoutmaster Rob Langman and three other adults remained at Philadelphia International Airport most of day, he said.
Eventually, the troop booked another flight that got the Scouts to Charlotte at 11 p.m., but the initial cancellation put them behind a day.
The bad luck continued.
On Sunday, an American Airlines gate agent on their connecting flight to Florida wouldn’t wait for all the Scouts, who were running from another terminal, to board the plane, Ellis said. Two Scouts got to the gate, but the other 10 did not, he said.
“They wouldn’t just wait for the rest of them,” Ellis said. “That was the disappointing part.”
The airlines told the troop that weather contributed to the delays and cancellations over the weekend, according to Ellis. Weekend storms across the Southeast, particularly in Florida, led to more than 10,000 flight delays or cancellations, USA Today reported.
The storms forced air traffic control measures to be put into place to restrict northbound and southbound travel in the Southeast and Florida, American Airlines spokesman Andrew Trull told the Observer.
Sea adventure canceled
The next available flight to Florida wasn’t until 4 p.m. Monday, Ellis said. Charlotte airport officials provided the troop $12 food vouchers, he said.
With the Scouts’ sailing days diminishing, troop leaders canceled the excursion, Ellis said. However, they wouldn’t be able to return to Honesdale — about 100 miles north of Philadelphia — until Tuesday, leaving them stranded in Charlotte for one more night.
American Airlines found the Scouts a flight to Wilkes-Barre Scranton, Pennsylvania, that departed Tuesday morning, Trull said. Wilkes-Barre Scranton is about 25 miles southeast of Honesdale.
“Unfortunately, in this situation, the severe weather that resulted in flight delays and cancellations compounded then with the spring break travel period, made it difficult for us to accommodate them as quickly as we would have liked,” the airline spokesman said.
The troop stayed in a hotel on Sunday and Monday, Ellis said.
When the Scouts arrived to Charlotte’s airport on Tuesday, they learned that half of the 16 travelers would fly to Wilkes-Barre Scranton; the other half would fly to Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton International Airport, Ellis said. The troop was back in Pennsylvania around 11 a.m., he told the Observer on Tuesday.
Trull said travelers who encounter delays and cancellations should work with the airline’s customer care team, whether that be through online chat, social media or directly with agents.
“We’ll try to find some options that work to get you on your way as soon as possible,” he said.
For the confusion, American Airlines gave each traveler a $525 voucher, Ellis told the Observer.
“Now that they ended up at two airports, I’m kind of like pounding my head, but it’s whatever, they’re home now,” he said.
‘A learning experience’
Although they were stuck in Charlotte, the Scouts made “the best of the situation,” Ellis said.
On Monday, they went rock climbing at the U.S. National Whitewater Center, Ellis said. “The boys are having a good time,” he said.
“I think it’s a learning experience for them that no matter what, you can still kind of get through things. But you have to keep a calm head,” Langman, the scoutmaster, told Queen City News.
The sea base allowed the troop to reschedule its trip, Ellis said.
“When you think of Boy Scouts, these are the trips you should picture,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll all work out, and it’ll just be a delayed trip.”
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 12:03 PM.
CORRECTION: After publication, Brendan Ellis clarified that it was an American Airlines gate agent who would not wait for the entire Boy Scouts troop to arrive for boarding.
