A Brooklyn family missed out on their 8-day dream vacation that they had been saving up for a year because their delayed flight out of John F. Kennedy International Airport forced them to miss their $8,500 cruise.
Tisha LaSaine says she had been working hard at her post office job so she could take her mother, twins and oldest son on a weeklong cruise out of Orlando on June 30.
The vacation was meant to serve as a celebration for LaSaine’s 50th birthday and one last summer adventure for her oldest son, Kaseem Miller, who was starting his junior year at Hampton University in Virginia.
“I’m about family. I’m just about family,” LaSaine told ABC7.
The trip began with a hiccup when Delta Airlines Flight 2019 was delayed for nearly two hours due to a “crew issue,” the outlet reported
“We took off at 11:40 a.m. Our flight was scheduled for 9:54,” Miller said.
The JFK to Orlando flight was scheduled to land at 12:51 p.m. — well before the cruise was set to depart from Port Canaveral at 3:30 p.m.
“I went to my mom and told her mom I don’t think we’re going to make it,” the heartbroken mom told the outlet.
As the family arrived in Florida, they trekked 45 miles to Cape Canaveral only to stand on the dock and watch their ship sail away.
LaSaine and her family turned around and flew back home after they didn’t secure living accommodations for the late arrival.
“We missed the whole trip. That’s a whole week. That’s 8 days,” Miller said.
“I think I cried more than the kids and it was for them,” LaSaine added.
Fortunately for the family, the cruise line refunded their money, but met faced an issue when they turned to Delta for similar assistance.
The Brooklyn family was seeking a flight refund because Delta’s delay made them miss their entire vacation, but the airline only offered them e-credit for a one-way trip worth $250 per traveler.
“I was like, that’s a lot of money for me to lose that I put out in a few months,” LaSaine said.
After working with the ABC affiliate, LaSaine received the remaining full ticket refund of $2,600.
“Delta apologized for the delay that led to their circumstance,” the company told the outlet.
Weeks after the “crew issue” delay ruined LaSaine’s family vacation, Delta flights were seriously affected by the CrowdStrike global outage as over 6,000 flights were canceled over a six-day period.
Over 500,000 passengers were left stranded and the company reported losing $500 million.