I can offer an anecdote based on personal experience. We live in Greenville, North Carolina. One time a few years ago we took my two stepkids (then aged 11 and 13) to visit their grandmother in Florida, with the understanding that Grandma would make the arrangements to fly them home. (Greenville, NC and Ft. Meyers both have small airports, and American Airlines promised to put them on the plane and take them off.
About an hour before their plane was due to land in Greenville, the phone rang. My wife picked it up. The voice on the other end (which apparently belonged to somebody who hadn't been properly trained for such episodes - or maybe he was just a doof) said, "Mrs. Tilley...uh, this is American Airlines...uh...uh...there's been a problem...uh...uh...[you can imagine what went through my wife's mind at that point]...uh...uh...your kids are ok...but...uh...they're in Greenville South Carolina."
Under my wife's strong urging, the airline agreed to pay for a hotel room and have one of its staff members sleep in it with the kids. And fly them to North Carolina at no charge. But sheesh....
We never did figure out who screwed up. Maybe Grandma (though she vociferously denied it) or maybe American Airlines.
This wasn't the first time this had happened. One time the great Flamenco guitar family, The Romeros, was scheduled to play a concert at East Carolina University (my former employer). The crowd (including me) had already started arriving at the hall when the concert was abruptly cancelled. We found out the next day that The Romeros had gone to South Carolina. (They rescheduled and performed a wonderful concert a few weeks later. As an encore all four of them played a Flamenco improvisation that I'll never forget.)
Things could have been worse. I've been told that virtually every state in the union has a town called Greenville. The kids could have ended up in California.
Dirkpitt, you're doing the right thing.