‘I Lost My Patience’: Sheinelle Jones Reaches Her Breaking Point After Major Airline Leaves Her Separated from Her Twins in Chicago
Sheinelle Jones brings the energy as co-host of “Today” alongside Jenna Hager Bush.
But life off camera can be just as hectic.
The TV personality recently found herself in every parent’s nightmare after her children ran into trouble while traveling.
Jones shares 16-year-old son Kayin and 13-year-old fraternal twins with her late husband, Uche Ojeh.
Ojeh died in May 2025 after battling brain cancer.
Now navigating life as a single mother with the support of a close-knit village, Jones refused to stay silent when a major airline left her twins stranded.
Instead, she used her platform and took the airwaves to put an airline on blast.
During the June 18 episode of “Today With Jenna and Sheinelle,” Jones vented to Bush Hager about the ordeal.
She spent more than an hour on hold while trying to get her twins home from Chicago to New York.
Jones herself experienced flight issues, which caused her to get back to New York late — missing her Monday taping.
“I was trying to change my flight,” she explained. “I got stuck in Chicago this weekend and the twins stayed there. So I need them to come home.”
She said that posting on social media like this is not part of her normal routine. Each minute she was placed on hold only added to her frustration.
Jones called the airline on Wednesday, June 17, but spent nearly an hour on hold.
She couldn’t keep her cool any longer, taking to her Instagram Story to show proof. She shared screenshots that reveal she had been on the phone for 56 minutes and 57 seconds.
On the show, she said, “I was on hold, and 56 minutes was when I lost my patience by posting.”
Though she did not reveal the company’s name, her photo showed their phone number, and when I called it, it connected to American Airlines.
She went on to tell Hager that she finally talked to “a human voice after an hour and 14 minutes.
Jones said that during that time, she walked around and even had time to get “sushi” while keeping the phone on speakerphone.
When Hager suggested using the airline’s callback option, Jones replied, “I don’t trust it.”
“You don’t want to miss it, and I needed to change the ticket,” she added.
Ultimately, the airline refused to switch her children’s flights, forcing Jones to buy new tickets.
“I feel like when they cancel your flight and you have a credit, that you should be able to use the credit for the new thing,” she said. “But no, you can now only use the credit on a new flight. So I waited for an hour and 16 minutes.
One supportive response read, “Well, she know knows how the ‘average Joe’ gets treated by big businesses. It’s just nobody cares how we’re treated.”
A second person responded, “Welcome to the real world of the US citizens. Did she expect special treatment living in her bubble? Lesson learned on how most people live.”
American Airlines has yet to respond to Jones’ claims. She did not go into further detail about why her children did not return on the same flight as she did.
But reports confirm bad weather delayed her Sunday flight back to New York City.
Jones said at the time she did not see any visible issues with the weather in Chicago that should have delayed her.