A birthday celebration for a close friend brought Robert Engelhardt and his family in the Dominican Republic has turned into a nightmare after they have been left without a flight home for several days.
Flying out to Punta Cana from O'Hare International Airport on Aug. 1, Engelhardt and his family had a return flight scheduled for Aug. 6.
That flight never ended up taking off.
“We got to the airport and we're waiting for a flight and then just getting delayed, getting delayed,” Robert Englehardt told NBC Chicago. “Finally they came on, it's about 6:30 or so, they told us that the plane was having issues with its brakes, so they had to cancel a flight which is understandable. I mean, it's a maintenance issue. I'd rather than cancel it then anything bad happened. So they put everybody on the bus brought us to a resort for the night."
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
But he says there continued to be issues with their plane going forward.
With three more flights home canceled since, the family has spent countless hours waiting in the airport.
“I've literally just spent three hours on the phone, and they told me Friday would be the earliest I could possibly fly me out on American Airlines,” Engelhardt said. “And we've called everywhere else and pretty much Friday is about the only day that we could probably get back to the United States."
Local
The Engelhardts say the airline put them up in a different resort and also provided vouchers for food.
American Airlines offered the following statement to NBC Chicago.
"Our team has been working to accommodate customers on alternate flights, as we never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused."
