A United Airlines passenger stranded in Houston claimed that four of her most recent flights home had been canceled and that she was growing increasingly frustrated with the situation.
The TikTok video showed creator Haley Earlene Cary (@haleyearlenecary) in the airport. It was posted on the platform on June 30 and drew more than 125,000 views.
The pointed caption, directed at the United Airlines TikTok account, read, “Get your SH*T together. I have been trying to get home for a WEEK! I missed an entire weeks worth of pay. 4 canceled flights. Now I am stranded in Houston WITH my autistic son. NOT OKAY.”
@haleyearlenecary @United Airlines get your SHIT together. I have been trying to get home for a WEEK! I missed an entire weeks worth of pay. 4 cancelled flights. Now I am stranded in Houston WITH my autistic son. NOT OKAY. #unitedairlines #delayedflight #cancelledflights #autism #autismtraveling #flightcancellations #flightdelays #cancelledflights #travellingvideos ♬ original sound – Haley Earlene Cary
The video also featured a text overlay that declared, “Do yourself a favor and don’t travel right now.”
In the video, Cary shared, “I’m really not holding myself together right now.” She went on to say, “They can’t find a captain for our flight. So we’re gonna be here till at least 4:10, and then I’ll probably miss the connecting flight in Newark. So this is the fourth flight they have screwed up.”
She noted that after arriving in Houston on a delayed United Airlines flight, four of her subsequent flights had been canceled. The first was due to the weather. The second, in her words, “was canceled because of a drunk guy on the plane. My third flight was canceled because they couldn’t find crew.”
Traveling with an autistic child, she said while closing out the video, made the ordeal even harder.
Commenters offered a range of takes.
“This is why I pay for direct flights,” one shared.
Cary noted, “There’s no direct flights from California to Maine lol,” also giving a sense of how far she had to travel.
“They don’t just cancel an entire flight for a drunk guy, they would remove him,” a commenter named Norm mansplained. “Sorry to hear but I think you’re misinterpreting the logistics.”
The creator responded, “I am not misinterpreting anything. That is what happened.”
Another asked, “Why do people get on social media and whine / complain about travel interruptions?”
Someone wrote back with an all-caps response on behalf of Haley, saying, “BRO IF A DRUNK MAN GOT MY FLIGHT CANCELED I’D MAKE SURE HE NEVER MADE IT HOME.”
A group of commenters got into a discussion about the many air travel issues that passengers have had this summer. The Daily Dot has reported on a number of these problems, such as a recent United Airlines passenger who says the airline booked him to Dubai instead of Dublin, and another American Airlines customer who says she had to pay for an overnight stay at a hotel from her own pocket after her flight was canceled.
But curious viewers got to see a happy follow-up video posted to the platform on July 1, revealing that Haley had made it home with her son.
@haleyearlenecary Update! We are home but @United Airlines did NOT make it easy. #unitedairlines #lostluggage #lostluggageissues #flightdelayed #flightdelays #flightcancelled #flightcancellations #californiatomaine #travelingwithkids #delayedflight #autismtraveling #flightcancellations ♬ original sound – Haley Earlene Cary
She did note in the caption, however, that United “did not make it easy.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Haley via TikTok comment and to United Airlines via email.