Flights, logistics cause stress for families trying to reunite

Rafael Juliá Jr. worries about his aging father in Puerto Rico, who is battling cancer and whose home has no electricity. He’s using a generator to power his oxygen machine.

Juliá faces two challenges: First, he must find an affordable plane ticket for his father to escape the island that was hit hard by Hurricane Maria. Perhaps even more difficult, Juliá must also persuade the 78-year-old, stubborn and resolute, to get on a plane and leave the island where he has always lived.

“I’m fighting with him,” said Juliá, a Lake Nona resident who works in sales and marketing for a Hispanic food wholesaler. “My wife and I and my kids, we’re pushing hard. We have the house ready to welcome him.

Many Puerto Ricans living in the Orlando area are filled with

worry as they try to reconnect with family members back home after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island. But it’s difficult. Inside San Juan’s major airport, some passengers are stranded as the Federal Aviation Administration prioritizes and decides how many commercial flights are allowed to operate.

The FAA said Tuesday about 36 flights are flying in and out every hour, which is almost back to normal. Those flights include a mix of military, commercial and humanitarian flights carrying supplies.

Some U.S. airline carriers advertised ticket prices that cost well beyond $1,000 and many, including Juliá, expressed outrage.

“I cannot believe how a company can do that to people who are suffering,” Juliá said. “I have no words in English to express how angry I am.”

Pop singer Ricky Martin posted a photo of American Airlines prices topped at $1,501 and $2,249 for a round-trip flight from San Juan to Miami, which is typically a three-hour flight.

“THIS IS NOT RIGHT,” Martin wrote Monday on social media in all capital letters. “WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS.”

For flights further into October, American Airlines prices dip down. For instance, a round-trip ticket to Orlando from Puerto Rico on Oct. 7 was advertised at $309 Tuesday morning.

The Florida attorney general’s office has received 12 complaints in connection with the Puerto Rican airline prices, a spokeswoman said Tuesday, but had no details. U.S. Department of Transportation, which handles airline consumer complaints, also received complaints after the hurricane but a spokeswoman did not say how many.

The price-jumps for the earlier flights didn’t surprise George Hobica, who founded the flight booking site Airfarewatchdog.com.

“They always are going to have higher fares closer to travel,” Hobica said.

When asked why some tickets cost more than $1,000, an American Airlines spokesman declined to comment.

American’s $99 cap covers main cabin seats and $199 for premium cabin seats through Oct. 8 on nonstop routes, the airline said.

JetBlue Airways capped prices for direct one-way flights in and out of Puerto Rico to the mainland for $135 through Oct. 31, a spokesman said.

Regularly waking up in the middle of the night, Jeannette Rivera-Lyles worries about her 72-year-old mother, whose health scares come unexpectedly and often. Her ailments include diabetes, a surgically repaired back and high blood pressure.

Her mother is safe for the moment; her house is undamaged by the hurricanes, and there is food to eat.

But if something happens, Rivera-Lyles wants her mother in Orlando with her and easier access to medical care.

But the plane tickets are so high to leave Puerto Rico, RiveraLyles can’t afford them on a whim.

“I don’t have a choice. I have to wait,” said Rivera-Lyles, executive director of a public-relations firm and a former Orlando Sentinel reporter, as she looked to buy a later flight for her parents.

She is stressed, she said, “But I think every Puerto Rican in this town is.”

Meanwhile, Juliá and his three siblings keep persuading their father to leave Puerto Rico — to no avail.

His father, Rafael Juliá Sr., is a tough man. He grew up from humble beginnings to become a marketing director at a pharmaceutical company without a formal college education. He already battled cancer once.

And now the elder Juliá refuses to leave because he fears becoming a burden for his adult children on the mainland.

“When he takes a position, that’s his final position,” his son said.

The younger Juliá feels desperate. His final idea is to call his father’s doctor, a friend, to ask him to make one last-ditch plea to leave the island.

“This is not looking good,” Juliá said Tuesday.