CT travelers upset over being stuck in PA airport with ‘no answers’ from airline

Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Hartford are frustrated after they said they were stranded in the airport overnight, many for nearly 24 hours, with no answers from the airline.

Flight 3195 to Bradley International Airport was supposed to take off Saturday night, but never did.

“We got on the plane for about 45 minutes, and they told us that there were mechanical issues, and we probably would not be getting out of there tonight, to make other accommodations,” Nichole Delgreco of Meriden, said.

Delgreco, her parents and teenaged daughter were heading home from a family vacation to Jamaica. Their layover was in Philadelphia, and they hoped to be home Saturday night.

Instead, they said they slept on the floor of the airport.

“If you looked in the airport, there were people scattered everywhere,” Delgreco said. “They said come back at 8 a.m., and you can be on the next flight. There was no next flight.”

Delgreco said she never got ahold of anyone from American Airlines, and no one contacted her. The family waited in the airport Sunday, but the flight continued to be delayed.

“They told us nothing at all. What they kept doing is just delaying the flight. The time would come where we were supposed to depart, and it would just get moved to another time. It probably happened six or seven times. Not one worker came over to accommodate us at all,” Delgreco said. “No water, not even a sorry.”

To make matters worse, their medications were inaccessible on the plane.

“Me and my father both have heart conditions, and they both have diabetes. Their medications were on the carry-on bag that they were told to put on the plane,” she said. “[We] were unable to take their medication for over 24 hours.”

Keith Reynolds, of Old Saybrook, was in the same boat.

“I have agent orange [and] Parkinson’s, and a number of other issues from Vietnam,” he said. “By Sunday, I’m beginning to get nervous that I won’t be home to get my meds.”

He said he first heard from the airline on Sunday afternoon.

“One o’clock Sunday,” he recalled, “that was the first time that [an] American Airlines employee actually said, ‘Well, let me see if there’s any other way to get you home.’ Not one suggested anything or tried to rebook me or tried to do anything to help me.”

Reynolds was booked on a flight to Providence and a friend picked him up.

The Delgrecos spent over $300 on a rental car and drove the four hours from Pennsylvania.

They’re frustrated by the ordeal, and hope the airline will make it right.

NBC Connecticut asked American Airlines for comment but have not heard back.

“I never expected a company as big as American Airlines to fall so flat on its face for so many people,” Reynolds said. “All 130-ish of us got off that plane at 12:30 at night to a closed airport, and not one person was there off that gate to guide us as to where to go next, what to do…nothing. That never changed the whole time I was there.”

“They need to be held accountable for what they did,” Delgreco said. “It was unacceptable.”