My brother and his family have been trying to fly back to China for the past 4 days.
They were supposed to leave on Saturday morning. For some reason (they still haven't been given an explanation) their tickets were dropped. They went to check in and the airline told them they didn't have tickets. Many phone calls were made and no one could tell them why they didn't have tickets for their return flight. There was another flight going out that afternoon but they couldn't get seats together. WIth 4 kids ranging in ages from 10 to 1, they couldn't be spread out on the plane. It just wouldn't work.
Because their visa expires this Friday, they had no choice but to book more tickets. They can't wait around for this to get resolved. So they got tickets on a flight for yesterday morning at 9 something. When they arrived to check in, they were told that flight was cancelled but there was another flight at 11 something. Their connecting flight in Chicago was leaving at 1:40. They'd have to run to the gate, but it was doable. After a couple hours at the airport they found out the flight was delayed to 12:35. There would be no way to make their connecting flight.
So they're still here. Even in they got a flight today, they'd be sent back to the US from China because it would be Friday there and their visas would be expired. My brother has been trying to get their visas extended (or whatever) but the only person from his company that can do that is IN China, so he couldn't even contact him until last night due to the time difference.
It has been such a mess. Living out of suitcases for 6 people is such a PITA. The only brightside to this is there is a good possibility they can be here for DD's birthday party on Sunday, but that's a purely selfish brightside on my part. If it were me in their situation, I'd probably be curled up in the fetal position sucking my thumb on the floor of the airport.