A Haughton couple on a trip to Europe will be headed home to our area tomorrow after several frightening days of feeling stranded.

plane at Fort Lauderdale airport
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They were planning to make stops in Belgium and Paris and return home on Tuesday, but the Presidents new travel ban threw a wrench into that plan.

We were asked to help connect them with one of our Louisiana Senators which we did.  The immigration specialist with Senator Bill Cassidy's office has been in constant contact with them to help them arrange for flights home from London.

KEEL News got this message from the couple on Thursday night:

We were able to reach American Airlines and they switched our flights to Saturday afternoon for a nominal fee ($180.00). I spoke with Lynn in Senator Cassidy’s office a few times today and she is working to get the questions answered from a policy side from someone in their Washington office. We are not leaving the UK in hopes of not facing any of the restrictions placed on the other countries. Thank you for your assistance words can not express my gratitude.

Though the couple (they have asked to remain anonymous) did have to cut short their dream vacation, they will be able to make it home safely to be reunited with their 3 young children.

ORIGINAL STORY:

A Haughton couple feels stranded in Europe. They have reached out to us to get some help as they are hoping to be able to travel home next week.

This comes after President Trump announced a travel ban from Europe.

My wife and I reside in Haughton and are currently in London on vacation. Out of respect for our government's leadership and the reports that were presented about the COVID-19 virus and traveling my wife and I did not cancel our European vacation to London, Belgium, and Paris. We do not fear the virus but we do fear being away from our three young children for 30 days until this ban is lifted.

We are scheduled to fly back to Shreveport out of Paris, France Tuesday, March 17th into DFW. I have not been able to reach our airline (American Airlines) due to the fact that when we call their message says there is a long hold time and they then immediately disconnect the call. I've reached out to our travel advisor and they are quoting a one-way ticket out of London around $4,800. We have already paid for this vacation so we prefer not to have any stress added to our family budget.

Please provide clarity to the President's proclamation issued on restricting travel from the EU? Will we have to rebook our return flight to fly out of London? Will we be able to fly out of Paris on Tuesday, March 17th, as scheduled? How do we qualify for the special circumstances the President mentioned in his address?

We contacted Senator Bill Cassidy's office about this case and they quickly responded telling us they will be in touch with this couple.

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