Journey chaos: KC Christian mission journey to Poland derailed by flight points

PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. (KCTV) – For the final three years, college students at Kansas City Christian School have been going to Poland to assist with a basketball camp as a mission journey. But this yr, the scholars needed to miss out on the Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp attributable to flight points.

“We made a connection with some of the guys in Poland about 4 years ago who were here when the war broke out in Ukraine,” stated Josh Poteet, the Kansas City Christian School Athletic Director and Dean of Students. “We were able to build that connection, go over, and run basketball camps. It’s been a real blessing to be able to go.”

The college students are in a position to play video games in addition to take instructional journeys whereas in Krakow. Poteet says among the youngsters who had been going this yr had already been on the journey a number of occasions, whereas for others, it was going to be their first time in a foreign country.

Many of the scholars who attend the camp are initially from Ukraine. Poteet says dozens are a part of this yr’s camp.

“They’re there right now running the camp,” stated Poteet. “These kids are coming from an area that is suffering in war. So being able to come in and be able to have something that’s fun for them is great.”

While the camp is happening this week, Poteet and his college students gained’t be there. After what he describes as a journey nightmare, the group of 19 is again in Kansas City.

“We were supposed to leave on Saturday, July 4,” stated Poteet. “There was weather in Chicago and the flight coming to Kansas City from Chicago wasn’t able to come in before our flight to Germany left. We got rebooked two days later, which would have made us late to the camp by one day, but still would have been a good trip.”

He says once they had been rebooked for Monday, the group was break up into two, with half going to Houston and the opposite half going to Chicago. The group would meet again up in Germany to fly the remainder of the way in which to Poland collectively.

“Sunday night I went on the United app and checked our whole group in and got everything good to go,” stated Poteet. “I couldn’t really sleep and at about 3 or 4 in the morning I looked at my phone, and all the reservations were gone.”

He says the app not solely acknowledged that flight cancelled, however so had been the flights coming again to Kansas City. The group made the choice to nonetheless present as much as the airport Monday morning. Working with United brokers and displaying them screenshots of their flights, Poteet says they found Lufthansa, the airline they’d be flying in Europe, had not accepted the group’s remaining flight and cancelled it.

Poteet says he labored with the United brokers to e-book all 19 on a flight to Chicago Monday afternoon, in addition to on flights to Germany and Poland.

“At that point it almost seemed too easy,” stated Poteet. “I was very adamant that I needed confirmation we had seats on all of these flights. They printed off itineraries, our e-tickets with numbers. The one thing they were not able to print off were our boarding passes for the next two flights, which kept my skepticism high.”

He says the group flew to Chicago that night, however once they acquired to the gate for his or her subsequent flight, they had been advised whereas that they had a reservation, United by no means despatched their tickets. He says he proceeded to go between the United and Lufthansa desks on the airport whereas the group acquired a lodge for the night time, however in the long run, they determined it was finest to fly again to Kansas City.

“It stinks,” stated Poteet. “Most of these kids have been fundraising for the last twelve months. $2,700 and a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of them or a first in a lifetime experience. They want to go and make a difference with these kids. It was draining for all of us, but it was probably the right decision to get back to Kansas City and cut our losses.”

Poteet states even when they get their flights refunded, which he says the airways are engaged on, they’ll possible lose round $10,000 from different bills. But he provides this loss goes past the cash.

“It’s hard because you build a relationship with these kids,” stated Poteet. “Our kids are getting text messages and WhatsApp notifications from these kids that they’ve become friends with who say man, we wanted to see you again.”

He hopes adjustments may be made to make sure one thing like this doesn’t occur to a different group.

“I get that trying to rebook 19 people on planes is hard, but it should be easier than it was,” stated Poteet. “For some reason, something doesn’t work. For United to be able to book us on flights, give us e-tickets, give us receipts that show us the amount paid for each flight and then to not have tickets on the flights is, something’s wrong.”

United Media Relations supplied an announcement after KCTV 5’s inquiry into the matter:

“We worked to rebook these customers after severe weather impacted their initial flight between Kansas City and Chicago. We also attempted to confirm the remaining flights in their itinerary operated by our partner airline, but unfortunately that carrier was unable to confirm their travel and accommodate this large group.”