Having your flight delayed seems like the worst, but actually your travels plans could go south even more. What if your plane is a full 90 minutes late so you miss your connecting flight? Yep, that’s pretty bad. And what if, while you’re waiting for this connecting flight, you’re pressed into working for the airline that’s messed up your travel in the first place?
TikTok user Laura Picadillo may just win the crown for wildest “air travel gone wrong” story with this one. “Hey American Airlines,” Laura begins her video, armed with a pleasant smile. “I’m kindly requesting that you pay me the wages you owe me for the services I provided last night.”
Upon belatedly getting off her first flight, Laura was told she’d be put in a hotel overnight so she needed to go outside to wait for a shuttle. Although she was promised by the desk and on the phone that the shuttle runs 24/7 and should arrive every 10 minutes, it didn’t. While waiting, Laura was approached by an American Airlines employee leading a group of tourists. “Do you speak Spanish?” he asked, to which a nonplussed Laura replied that she did.
After snatching her bottle of water and chugging the whole thing, the employee told her “OK, you got them?” The man explained that these people, like Laura, need to get a hotel and he’s supposed to get them there, but they don’t speak English and he doesn’t speak Spanish. “You’re going to take care of these people now,” he ordered. “Can you tell them to tip me? I’m working two hours past my shift ending.”
With the employee vanishing, it fell to Laura to do his job for him and to converse with these fellow passengers, and talk to the shuttle drivers on the phone, in order to make sure they got to their various hotels.
“At this point I assume my new role as American Airlines Translator and Hotel & Transportation Coordinator,” Laura joked. “Is that OK? Can I give myself that title?”
Although Laura’s shuttle should’ve arrived at 9:32 pm, it didn’t get to the airport until 11:14 pm. And even then, there was only room for one person. With eight of the people in her care still waiting, Laura told the driver she was going to stay with them to make sure they got where they were going.
“Are you Laura?” the driver asked her. “Your parents have called the hotel nine times. You need to come in this van with me right now. Your mom told me she was going to peel off my skin and wear it as a coat.” Laura deadpanned: “I love when strangers get a sneak peek into my childhood.”
The driver assured Laura that he would come back for “her people” as soon as he’d got her and this van-load to their hotel. After checking in and having a brief “break from [her] shift,” Laura returned to the lobby to help the Spanish tourists check in. Only they never showed up. “That was around midnight, so that’s around when I clocked out,” Laura quipped. “I deemed missing persons above my pay grade.”
And what is Laura’s pay grade? She reveals she only got a “$12 meal voucher” for the ordeal, plus she had to check out of her hotel a full seven hours prior to her flight. Sadly, the chances of Laura getting some proper reimbursement are slim given what that actual American Airlines employee was going through.
As Laura puts it, “It looks like you’re already having problems paying your employees fairly if they’re just passing off their work to random strangers in the road when their shift ends.”
Many in the comments are of the opinion Laura should just send in an invoice as if she was an actual employee. “Laura, send them an invoice to accounts payable, with your hourly rate, the work you did (translator & guide), & replacement water cost,” one shared. “Seriously.” Another said: “You should get a consultant rate. $81.25 is the rate I know is pretty standard.”
Oh, American Airlines. Never change. No, wait, please do.