Fifty students travelling to Boston on J1 working visas spent their bank holiday in Limerick rather than in the US. Due to leave on Saturday, they finally got away yesterday.
The Aer Lingus flight from Shannon on Saturday was cancelled because of technical difficulties. As the students' travel agent, USIT, wanted to keep the group together, they had to wait for yesterday evening's flight.
Mr Paul Kearney, a second-year food technology student at UCC, claimed that the group had been "discriminated against" because they were students.
Other students expressed frustration at the delay, as they had hoped to get to Boston as soon as possible after finishing their exams to give them a better chance of finding accommodation and jobs before the summer rush.
The students felt aggrieved over having to pay £179 to USIT for the visa and an orientation night on arrival in the US. Mr Kearney commented: "We had hoped for better service and to be kept informed of developments and not left in the dark."
A spokeswoman for USIT, Ms Seona Mac Reamoinn, said: "We will be dealing with the individual needs on a one-to-one basis. We have flown in extra staff to help in Boston, if employers need to be called. In the case of one student, we bought him a new onward flight to North Carolina after he missed his flight due to the delay."
USIT confirmed that the students were being offered £240 compensation by Aer Lingus.
The students were accommodated in the Glentworth Hotel during their two-night stay in Limerick. A number of them had left their bags at the airport, anticipating only a one-night delay, and had had no access to clean clothes.
USIT stated: "We thought it would be best to keep them in Limerick together, rather than sending them in small groups to different airports around America and have them arriving in Boston in dribs and drabs. Our representative had to stay in Shannon Airport to look after the flight leaving on Sunday and unfortunately this made it very hard to liaise with the students back in the hotel."