The remaining 14 Chicago area students and supervisors on a global leadership trip to Puerto Rico returned home Tuesday, four days after a global technology outage forced airlines to cancel hundreds of flights, leaving them stranded.
The trip was hosted by the Gloria J. Taylor Foundation, which doled out almost $20,000 to pay for lodging, flights and food while the group was forced to stay on the island an additional four days, said Cliff Taylor, the foundation’s co-founder.
The group did not receive any voucher assistance from their carrier, United Airlines, during their extended stay, but Taylor said the airline will reimburse the nonprofit group for lodging and food expenses once they send in receipts. The airline has also refunded the canceled the flights, Taylor said.
“Right now they’re sounding like they’re gonna do what they need to do,” Taylor said Tuesday, after arriving with four students from Puerto Rico.
A spokesperson for United said in a statement the airline will continue to work with customers to provide refunds on unused tickets and compensation for their extended stay.
Each year the foundation takes a group of top academic performing students from south suburban areas including Calumet City, Crete, Matteson, Richton Park and Olympia Fields on a global leadership trip to learn about branding and marketing strategies. This was the foundation’s second year going to Puerto Rico.
The group of 20 high school and college students were supposed to arrive home July 19 after spending the week in San Juan. After the outage, United rebooked the group several times only to have all of the possible flights canceled last minute.
Some group members were able to return home Sunday after rebooking with United once again, but the other half did not return until Tuesday.
The nonprofit booked return flights for the remaining members through Southwest Airlines.
Five of the remaining group members arrived at Midway Airport Tuesday afternoon, with the remaining nine landing at about 11 p.m.
While the students made the most of their time on the island, Taylor said they were eager to return. Many of them had to miss work and cancel plans due to the unexpected extension of their trip.
Roxanna Araujo, a high school junior from Chicago who returned on the earlier flight Tuesday, said she was shocked when she discovered her Sunday morning flight had been canceled again.
“I was surprised, because I was already ready to go home and I got everything packed,” she said. “So we had to unpack stuff again, and the earliest flight we got was Tuesday.”
Joseph Lewis, a recent high school graduate from University Park with plans to attend Illinois State University in the fall, said he missed out on several plans with friends over the weekend.
“It was hard to do that, miss all that … just being away from the house, it was just so unexpected,” Lewis said.
Another student broke their phone during the trip, Lewis said, and had to borrow his phone to call their parents after flights were canceled.
Flight disruptions were caused by a faulty software update from cyber security firm CrowdStrike, which left travelers scrambling to find last minute lodging and rebooking flights Friday.
Most major airlines have said services are being restored, but that there could be more delays and disruptions.
Since Sunday, more than 5,000 flights into, within or out of the U.S. were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
smoilanen@chicagotribune.com
