A Liverpool woman’s vacation in the U.S. turned sour after she had a nightmare experience in the Miami International Airport, where she was forced to camp out for over 12 hours. The debacle has made her vow never to fly with American Airlines again. Even flight attendants on TikTok are validating her decision.
In a viral TikTok, 22-year-old Ellie (@ellieabigail) sits at an airport as she recounts the frustrating tale. She explains how she has been at the airport since 5am after her flight to St. Maarten was canceled the day before. The young woman was forced to pay out of pocket for her hotel stay. American allegedly couldn’t reimburse her because the flight cancelation was due to weather.
Indeed, American Airlines‘ policy states that “If the delay or cancellation is caused by events beyond our control (like weather), you are responsible for your own overnight accommodations, meals and incidental expenses.”
Stuck At The Airport
Ellie says the time for her flight the following day changed four times until she saw it was for 7:30am. She woke up only to find out her flight was canceled—again. Frustrated, Ellie says she made her way to the airport to see if they could put her on any available flight to St. Maarten.
This was only the beginning of her long day at MIA. After being placed on standby for the 10:20am flight, she says she noticed she wasn’t the only one. Fifty others were also on standby, and Ellie says the staff at the front desks were no help.
“The staff are the rudest, rudest people I have ever spoken to in my life,” she says. She was then placed on another flight—which she says was also overbooked. To add insult to injury, Elli says they were offering up to $2,400 to people on the current flight to switch to tomorrow’s flight voluntarily.
Eventually, all the flights Ellie was placed on left—without her and the other standby passengers. At this point, Ellie says she has been at the airport for over six hours, with no vouchers for food or incidentals.
Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Finally, Ellie says the airline decided to add an extra flight for 6pm, which is the flight she left on. Throughout the entire day, Ellie says she had been walking the entire length of the airport from gate to gate, paying for her meals out of pocket. She mentions that she found it odd that the flights to St. Maarten were canceled “due to weather,” yet the other flights throughout the day still made it there.
Ellie concludes her saga with, “I would never fly with American Airlines again.”
Is There More To The Story?
In a follow-up post, Ellie says the desk agents told passengers the cancelations were “due to weather.” However, she claims other staff told folks it was due to understaffing.
BroBible has reached out to American Airlines via email to confirm.
@ellieabigailx @American Airlines I hate to be a Karen but your staff are genuinely the worst people I have ever encountered in my life. Train your staff some compassion and customer service. AND run me my bag!!!! 💰💵 #americanairlines #fyp #miamiairport #miaairport
Viewers Are On Her Side
Ellie’s original clip earned over 500,000 views, with the majority of the commenters angry on her behalf.
“As a flight attendant, this is one of the only complaint videos I’ve ever seen that I fully agree with you,” a user said. “I’m sorry, I will say, unfortunately staff in Miami are like this. it’s frustrating when I go through there and I work with them.”
Another wrote, “Im fuming for you, offering 2K to some is ridiculous in the first place when they can’t put you up in a Hotel…I get its different reasons but 2K???? put a claim in, keep receipts, and put a complaint in aswell. diabolical!”
A third user also urged Ellie to file a complaint, which she said in her update video that she will.
BroBible reached out to Ellie via TikTok direct message for further comment.