American Airlines to rescue Montana high school students stranded in Dallas-Fort Worth

American Airlines came to the rescue of a group of Montana high school students who were stranded in Dallas-Fort Worth – the airline’s headquarters – due to weather-related problems.

The 67 students, their teachers and chaperones had traveled from Missoula, Montana, to Walt Disney World to perform in a band and choral competition.

“Disney was amazing,” chaperone Barbra West told the NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Half of our kids have never flown before. Some of them have never been out of Montana before, and their eyes were popping out of their head the whole time!”

But the trip home wasn’t so amazing until American did an amazing thing.

The connecting flight from Orlando to Dallas arrived safely but the weather grounded their flight back to Missoula – as well as hundreds of others. The resulting delays and cancellations, as well as difficulties with rebooking, forced the group to remain at the airport as checking into a hotel was also not available. They spent a full day, and night, sleeping on the airport floor.

Worse, the airline informed the group that the earliest the group could fly home was three days later – for a portion of the traveling party – and five days later for the rest.

That’s when American jumped in.

In an unusual move – and especially rate given the weather circumstances – American told the group it was chartering a special flight just for them to fly back to Montana.

“The winter storm has had a significant impact on our operation, especially in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW),” according to a statement by the airline. “Throughout it all, our team has worked tirelessly to safely care for our customers, including going above and beyond to transport the group of students home after their travel was affected by the storm. We are proud of our team’s extraordinary effort — from our colleagues who coordinated logistics to our crew members and airport teams who took special care of our customers.”