When my mother was alive, she lived in Florida and I lived in California. She was a native American and spoke English well. She would occasionally travel across the country to stay in California. Every time she did this, I flew to Florida and accompanied her on the trip.

I cannot imagine expecting two elderly people who don't speak English to travel across the country with a connection in Atlanta (one of the biggest and most complicated airports in the US) by themselves. You should have arranged a car to take them to Philadelphia and get them on a nonstop flight to the nearest city near you, if you didn't want to accompany them.

Sorry, that's my perspective. Flights are late, they miss connections. That could happen on any airline. An airport agent from any airline will not talk with a person/relative on the phone - that is also every airline's policy that I know of.

When my step-kids were younger and I couldn't travel with them to see their father, I always had them take nonstop flights. If it cost more, then so be it. Their welfare was the most important thing for me.

Sorry to rant at you but your rant about the airline showed me that from my point of view you did not consider all of the potential problems that could arise and ensure that you had made arrangments to prevent these problems and your parents' successful trip.