Originally Posted by theKrafty1tar

Seems like the issue is that they are all traveling on Group tickets. Had a similar situation back in 2012 when I was coming back to the US after a study abroad program in France. Security personnel strikes caused our flight LYS-FRA to be canceled and it was a struggle for the (outsourced) ground staff in Lyon to do much of anything since ~20 of us were booked on a single group ticket through our University.

We had the foresight to call into the call centers and have our booking split. Some of us traveled to Geneva and others to Paris by train to get alternative flights offered by LH group.

The overall meltdown of air travel in Europe (it’s disingenuous for the article to pinpoint LH) certainly isn’t helping. Across the board flights are packed, airports are over capacity and the heatwaves haven’t helped either.

Keep in mind this is a HUGE group all going to one destination. Generally cancellation of feeder flights are easier to accommodate as on the connections passengers are going to many different destinations. Perhaps they could have split the group up and sent them via various hubs in Europe to different hubs in USA to get back to the Bay Area. But it seems like they were adamant about traveling together. And anyway, those connections would not have been convenient for all involved (but at least it would get them home).

Crappy situation for all involved, but seems like things worked out in the end.