20 year old daughter having to spend night at JFK airport.

[DaughterStranded]

Not an AIBU, but posting for traffic as really worried.
20 year old DD has arrived at JFK airport to find connecting flight to South Carolina cancelled due to signalling issues. The next connecting flight will go 7am tomorrow morning. There are no earlier flights to any nearby airports available.
DD has decided to spend the night at JFK airport. I am worried she will fall asleep and get robbed of her phone/money. Anyone else had this situation to deal with? Any advice or tips anyone?

I’ve spent nights in airports before it’s all apart of being young

Since I was 18 ive slept in airport floors so many times....she'll never sleep. Airport is usually open until late at night and then between midnight ajd 4am there's lots of staff still kicking about and plenty other people who are trying to sleep. But you just keep hearing beeping and alarms. . And shops re open at 4am and it gets super busy with arrivals for morning flight departures. She's young....she doesn't need sleep. She could sit in an Internet cafe and sleep on the next flight

Ahhhh! To be young, wild, and free! We’ve all been there. My DH spent a night in a Central American airport at that age and was fine. I myself have had to spend 8 hours at a Colombian airport when I was that age… I was fine. It’s an airport! There’s security EVERYWHERE.

She’s 20 she’ll be fine.
many a time I’ve slept on a beach while travelling between spots.
well versed with airport floors and passport in the old bra.
give her some credit and have some faith.

No help, but god, I wish I could apologise to my mother for what I put her through when I was that age! Mind you, she didn't usually find out til afterwards.....I feel for you,@DaughterStranded 🩷

I hope she was OK. This is what I've done before on layovers. You're barely asleep usually. It would be unusual to see anyone at an airport properly sleeping. Mainly people slump and rest in the early hours.

Anytime I've been delayed overnight rather than just on a layover in the early hours of the morning I've been able to get a hotel room from the airline.

The US recently (within the last few weeks) legislated that delayed flights require compensation to passengers. Make sure you follow up on this!!!

This website is great.

Used it in Athens airport where I had a late (cheap) flight in and a very early flight out to one of the islands. There would not have been enough time to get to a hotel so a night on the floor was the only real alternative. Security announcements every hour but I did snatch some sleep and useful to know when the coffee shop opened.

The airline should've covered the cost surely? Don't assume your travel insurance will - they rely on you taking other options first.

My dd got stuck abroad because of a cancelled flight and her travel insurance said she had to put a claim in with the airline first and they would top up if she was out of pocket.

i did this too after camp america, but there was a group of us, and we kept being woken by the cleaners, my own dm did this at an airport somewhere!

She'll be fine. Learning experience.

Do you not think that’s a product of parents like OP where they don’t just let their kids try and figure it out themselves? 🤨 I’m Gen Z and my parents have always left me to it so your sweeping generalisation doesn’t apply. It’s so funny how casually ageist people on MN are to younger people but god forbid it happens to someone Gen X or older 🙄

It’s nice you’ve got her a hotel and it will definitely be a better nights sleep butsleeping in an airport at 20 is all part of life’s adventure and building resilience so unless she needs to be fresh for something important tomorrow then I think you overreacted a bit.

As for whether compensation is due will depend on who's fault it is. The OP says 'signalling issues', which sounds like it might be outside the airline's control so no compensation due although they might be required to provide overnight accommodation so worth following up, also with the travel insurance. They might get something back.

But I'm another one who now wants to go to the TWA Hotel, it looks awesome. I've never even thought about going to New York before but if I did, I'd probably be getting a day pass for there even if I didn't stay the night.

This will come under the delay section of your travel insurance so probably won't cover the whole cost, it's often so much per 12 hours or something. Someone mentioned cancellation on insurance but this is not cancellation this is delay. Cancellation is if you have to cancel like if you're ill or something not if they cancel. I would be looking to claim from the airline

I spent a few hours at JFK recently. It seemed safe and friendly, there’s worse places to be.

This.

I slept on the floor at airports many times as a young traveller.

It never once occurred to me to contact Mummy for help!

What have we done to the younger generation? It really worries me.

I’ve slept there twice but 20 years ago when in transit and backpacking so on a budget. It was fine but that was then. Put valuables in backpack and put it on me, slept on big backpack. Just remember getting kiwi and strawberry Snapple from the vending machine and chatting briefly to security guards who didn’t try to kick me out. Was very quiet but security around and felt pretty safe.

Hope her flight went smooth this morning OP. Out of interest, what travel insurance do you have that will cover your adult dd? We do annual TI but each adult ‘child’ has to have their own policy.

It was Jetblue. Thank you for posting the link!

@Change2banon We have Nationwide Flex travel insurance which provides travel insurance cover via UK Insurance Ltd. However, Nationwide Flex have just changed to another provider. The only reason we are still covered by UK Insurance Ltd is that we recently purchased an insurance upgrade.
20 year old DD is still covered under our policy because she is under 24 and in full time education. Our older DS isn't covered.

That’s great! I’ve never heard of a TI policy covering an adult ‘child’! So it covers her even though you’re not travelling with her? Thats fab, and I hope they pay up for the hotel 😊

@GrumpyPanda Thanks for the information you posted! Fantastic!

@Change2banon Yes, the policy definitely covers DD travelling independently. However, as Nationwide Flex have recently changed their insurance provider, I don't know if DD will be covered after the next renewal.

Threads like this make me absolutely determined to work on making my children independent and resilient. I travelled across Europe and India in my early twenties and slept in train stations, ferry ports etc. when travel plans didn’t work out.
My parents had absolutely no idea where I was most of the time, the deal was I rang home once a week to check in. There is no reason for a 20 year old to need their mother to oversee how and where they spend the night.