When 17-year-old Kyryl Pavliuk stepped off a plane in the United States this past August, he had already spent more than 40 hours in transit. His journey from Kyiv to Perry County was supposed to be simple — a bus ride to Warsaw, two connecting flights, and a final landing in Harrisburg. Instead, the trip stretched into days, cancellations, airport overnights, misplaced luggage, and a crash course in navigating American air travel.

“It was terrible,” Pavliuk recalled. “Sixteen hours on the bus to Poland, then Warsaw to London, London to Chicago. When I got to Chicago, my flight was canceled. I didn’t know what to do or how to get my luggage back.”

Weather delays triggered a second cancellation, leaving him stranded overnight. Staff eventually placed him in a room until a new route opened

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