United Airlines Leaves 9-year-old Boy Stranded in Chicago

According to reports, a 9-year-old boy was left at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Saturday after a United Airlines representative failed to put him on his connecting flight home. He was on a return trip home after visiting with his dad, which he does by himself a number of times every year.

Julien Reid arrived at the airport in Chicago at 11am after catching a flight from San Francisco at 6am. A worker for Unite Airlines was suppose to make sure he made it on his connecting 1:50pm flight to Ottawa. Instead, the boy was left stranded at the airport for about 8 hours.

The 1:50pm Chicago-Ottawa flight was suppose to arrive at 4:45pm, but it was delayed to 5:35pm. After seeing this online, the boy’s mother, Genevieve Harte, went to the airport to pick him up, but didn’t see him anywhere. She tried to get help, but failed.

Not long after, Julien called her using his prepaid mobile. He said that he was still at the Chicago airport in a room full of other kids, who were watching a film that had been on a loop the entire day. The airline had given him McDonald’s, but the boy is a vegetarian.

Harte asked her son to get the attendant watching them on the phone for a chat, which was when she found out that no one had picked up her son to put him on the flight. Soon after, Julien was put on another flight home. He said on Monday to a reporter that he didn’t think he would get home and would have to sleep there for the night. He was happy to finally be on his way home, he added.

Megan McCarthy, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, apologized for the ordeal and confirmed that they put Julien on the next available flight. She added that the airline then waived the child-care fee and gave the family ‘a goodwill gesture’.