After traveling down to Brazil to attend a wedding, Vienna Skye and her mom found themselves with unexpected extra time in South America. They didn’t spend their extended stay exploring or sightseeing, but after four days of flight delays, the mother-daughter duo did become thoroughly acquainted with the Rio de Janeiro airport.
Skye, 25, detailed her experience “living at the airport” in an Instagram Reel that reached 3.5 million viewers on the app. She showed footage of her and her mother, Donna, on their fourth day passing time in the terminal as they waited for United Airlines to finally clear their flight back to Newark, New Jersey.
“I didn’t sleep because United Airlines continuously canceled my flight for four days in a row. So I’ve just been stuck at the Rio de Janeiro airport with absolutely nowhere to sleep,” Skye began in a voiceover.
The New York-based model and content creator tells PEOPLE that they arrived at the airport on a Sunday afternoon. She and Donna didn’t land in the U.S. until the following Thursday around 1 a.m. EST.
As Skye explained in her viral video, their prolonged journey home was made all the more frustrating by a series of resulting inconveniences. She and other travelers boarded and deplaned the same aircraft multiple times over the course of their multi-day delay, and they had to actually exit the airport each time they were ushered off the aircraft, meaning Skye had to retrieve her checked luggage three different times.
She and her mom also went through Brazilian customs six times when, normally, they would’ve only passed through twice — once upon entry and once again when leaving the country.
Skye tells PEOPLE that United put them up in a hotel on their first extra night in Rio since their flight was originally canceled and rescheduled for the next morning. During the following few days, however, it became difficult to find times and places to rest because United continuously delayed the flight, meaning the mom and daughter had to standby and wait for updates in the airport.
“There was ultimately no explanation,” the Instagram star says. “They just kept saying maintenance.”
Skye also claims that the plane crew was less than sympathetic to their passengers’ plight, but she understands they were stuck under the same trying circumstances.
“There was one older person with either their wife or daughter, I’m not sure, who needed medication, and [the flight attendants] were not being sympathetic at all,” the social media star says. “My mom also has thyroid issues and didn’t have enough medication, because one to two days, yes, you should pack that. But four days, that’s a lot.”
Skye continues, “People were obviously very overwhelmed and freaking out about that. Attendants weren’t that helpful, but again, they’re also stuck in that position, they can’t get home either.”
Their harrowing trip home actually bookended a full itinerary of travel troubles. On their way down to Brazil, Skye and Donna endured an uncomfortable overnight between flights.
“We had a layover in Houston, and United also canceled that flight, and there were no hotels. They wouldn’t put us in a hotel, so they gave us cots to sleep on,” Skye tells PEOPLE. The cots — which she showed in one clip from her Rio airport recap video — were less than ideal, says Skye.
“I was stuck in some horror film, that’s what it felt like,” she recalls of her Texan airport accommodations. “Imagine laying on a piece of plastic with 50 other people, and every time someone moved, it would wake you up … The lights were blasting all night, and they were playing ’80s music the entire night.”
Looking back, Skye says the Houston airport was preferable to those sleepless nights in Rio. “At the time, I was like, ‘This is been a crazy experience.’ But then on the way back, I wish I had a cot,” she adds.
In her video, Skye recalled her final attempt to leave Brazil on her original United ticket: “At around 9 p.m. on my third day, I got ready to board the flight that I should’ve known was not going to take off. I got on that plane and there was about six other people on it,” she explained in her Instagram vlog.
Sharing more details with PEOPLE, the Instagram creator claims they were informed of several issues with the plane’s lights and engines during her final wait on the tarmac. Eventually, Skye says the pilot stated that he didn’t “feel comfortable flying,” and crew members advised passengers to look for options with other airlines since there were no longer any plans to reschedule the flight.
“There just were two seats left on another flight that took off the next day. I booked that right as soon as they told us … they had canceled it,” says Skye. Her and Donna’s new tickets home — a Delta flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York City — cost nearly $4,000 in total.
“I knew that was insane, but that’s what we were advised to do,” the model tells PEOPLE. According to Skye, the airline did refund half of her original $2,000 round-trip flight ticket to Brazil, but despite her extensive communications with United employees, she hasn’t been compensated for the new flight tickets.
A representative for United Airlines issued a statement to PEOPLE, writing, “We’ve apologized to the customer for their frustrating travel experience and provided a refund for the unused flight. The customers accepted our additional goodwill offer of travel certificates and we look forward to welcoming them back.”
Skye ended her video looking for advice from her followers, asking, “Does anybody know what I am supposed to do in this situation? This is unheard of, right? I am at a loss for words and I don’t even know how to handle this.”
Prior to her recent experience, Skye says she was a frequent United flyer, but many Instagram comments suggested she avoid the airline going forward.
“I always fly United. I mean, I do have issues with them a lot, but I was a [Premier] 1K member, which means I have flown a lot in the past year,” she tells PEOPLE. “But now I’m afraid to fly with them again.”