‘UNBELIEVABLE’

Family Forced to Sleep Outside Hawaii Airport After United Flight Canceled

The mom described a hellish night of cockroaches, construction noise, and sprinklers.

A family of six was forced to sleep outside a Hawaii airport after their United Airlines flight was canceled, according to a report. Timmie John, of Idaho, told SFGate that she along with her grandmother and four kids were told their red-eye from Kona International Airport was canceled with all hotel rooms within 50 miles full and the airport itself closing overnight due to repair work. John says she asked a United agent what they were supposed to do, to which the worker responded: “‘Sometimes I see people sleeping over there’ and pointed to benches on the grass outside.” John and her family spent the night on a hillside outside the airport. “We were all just trying to survive the night,” John said, adding that she spent the evening “smashing cockroaches” and enduring construction noise and sprinklers. “It was unbelievable,” she said. A United spokesperson said they’d provided compensation to delayed customers and sent “a link to all customers for accommodation reimbursement due to a lack of available hotel rooms in the Kona area.”