Spirit Airlines made international news by sending a 6 year old first time flyer to the wrong airport while his family panicked. But what was the family doing sending a 6 year old off alone, as an unaccompanied minor in the first place? Spirit Airlines messed up, but I bet they also regretted offering the service in the first place.
The low cost carrier is not alone in messing up with young children. For instance,
- United sent an unaccompanied minor to the wrong country in Europe. They apparently left another one alone in the Charlotte airport. They also involuntarily denied boarding to a 13 year old on the last flight of the night.
- Virgin Atlantic booted an 11 year old unaccompanied minor off of a flight to London because they inadvertently had too many unaccompanied minors onboard. They decided it was better to leave one behind in Shanghai than to fail to meet regulations for crew to unaccompanied minor ratio.
The service details vary by airline, but in general expect that:
- Children 5-14 years old flying solo have to be registered as unaccompanied minors, where airline staff escort them to the plane and meet the guardian picking them up on the other side. (The escort service is optional for children 15-17).
- For $150 each way (no matter how many siblings are traveling together) unaccompanied minors get:
- early boarding
- a kids-only room in hub airports to wait for connections (children under 8 must fly non-stop)
- escort to the gate and to meet the designated adult at their destination
- early boarding
They aren’t really going to be watched non-stop. Flight attendants have other jobs to do. They’re going to be seated next to random other passengers. Some people on planes are creeps. Others are creepy.
Specific numbers of unaccompanied minors aren’t disclosed by major airlines, so we can’t get exact revenue figures. However they certainly earn millions of dollars in unaccompanied minor fees, but not multiple tens of millions of dollars. In other words, it’s immaterial to their overall financials. And managing the program is costly, cumbersome, and carries significant public relations downsides.
There are no specific federal regulations I’m aware of regarding unaccompanied minor services. I’ve been unable to unearth a specific DOT or FAA rulemaking. And airlines aren’t required to offer the service as far as I can tell. Allegiant, for instance, does not offer unaccompanied minor services. Neither does Breeze or Avelo.
Should an airline actually have to take responsibility for children traveling alone at such a young age? Should a parent putting a 6 year old on a plane by themselves waive any right to sue the airline? Isn’t whatever happens to their child kind of on them? Why do airlines offer the service at all? (HT: Enilria)
[A]irline workers are not your babysitters. They have enough to do, before, during and after the flight, to make sure everything goes smoothly. In some cases and on some flights, there are literally dozens of passengers per flight attendant.
…The case can be made that since the airline was willing to sell the ticket they share in the responsibility. …I find it disingenuous that parents and guardians are willing to turn their children over to strangers in a metal box, but they would not do so, and rightfully so, to strangers on the street. Moreover, that airport and that airline cabin are places of business. Would you like it if someone showed up to your place of business and ceded responsibility for a child to you?
It seems to me that,
- Accepting unaccompanied minors, perhaps under 8, may be a bad idea if you’re an airline? Many kids can travel solo at 12.
- These programs are probably more trouble than they’re worth. Parents who use the programs should be grateful they’re offered, even at an extra $300 roundtrip.
- Given that it’s $300 to send them alone, if you think they cannot travel solo, then consider traveling with them and dropping them off.
My parents divorced when I was 3. My dad lived in California, and I lived with my mother in New York. I flew to the West Coast often. At first my father would fly from LA to New York to pick me up – a ‘straight turn’ that made for an incredibly long day. I think he did this until I was 8 years old. I remember flying as an unaccompanied minor when I was 11. Somewhere between those ages I started traveling alone.
I had to dress up in a collared shirt and jacket in the early 1980s. I once met my father in Cincinnati when he was doing a short stint there, and after a bit of a delay I was one of only three passengers on the plane. While I’ve been alone in a cabin I’ve never had a whole commercial flight to myself.
Traveling as an unaccompanied minor was fine. I had a lanyard with paperwork and the airline checked the identity of the person picking me up on either side. Nobody entertained me during the flight, or even looked after me really. There wasn’t anywhere I could go while inside a metal tube!
- Avoid sending kids on connecting flights, even where it’s allowed.
- And avoid sending them on the last flight of the day, or connecting into it.
- Make sure to stay with them at the gate until they board the aircraft. You should leave them before they are on board. Get a gate pass! Even buy a refundable ticket for a later flight and refund it once they’re on the plane if need be.
- Meet them at the gate when the aircraft arrives. Get a gate pass! Even buy a refundable ticket for a later flight and refund it once they’re on the plane if need be.
@AmericanAir My son 14 years old is alone at the @MIA_Airport Miami international airport since yesterday morning. The crew member gave him this for sleeping at the airport, just snacks for food. The attention of this airline @aaair is the worst. pic.twitter.com/iid0qhhUkw
— Dora Ángela Hoyos Ayala (@dorangelah) July 28, 2022
Don’t send kids on their own that cannot entertain themselves, or whose behavior is questionable. Give them a cell phone to use, even with prepaid service, if you can. And give them some cash for snacks if possible.
And bear in mind that with often a $150 fee each way, unaccompanied minor costs are generally a savings compared to two roundtrips accompanying a child but maybe not as much of a savings as you think. The service is more saving you time. But think about it this way. By the time your child is 18, you’ll have spent the vast majority of the time you’ll ever spend with them in their lifetime. Maybe it’s an opportunity to spend just a little bit more, in fact, at a time where it’s tough for even a budding teenager to ignore you. They’re stuck with you!
If you’re part of an acrimonious divorce, refusing to go along with sending your kid as an unaccompanied minor is a way to stick it to your ex, too.
This is really well said, thanks Gary ! You are correct, it would seem as though the potential liability far exceeds the annual income that any given Airline receives for offering this. You also offer a good perspective from the parents point of view (what were they thinking !). It’s possible that I’m a bit too narrow minded, I’ve never traveled as an Unaccompanied Minor, nor have I ever had the need to send a child this way.
What happens when the flight is canceled or diverts and the hotel needs to put the minor up in a hotel room?
I’m sorry but it should be criminal child abuse for a parent to send a 6-year-old on an airplane alone.
You *shouldn’t* leave them before they are on board.
Proofread your stuff Gary!
FNT Delta Diamond,
I’ve dealt with this. My airline did not accept UMs on connections, but a diversion could always happen (and my station seemed to be the catcher’s mitt for the northeast). Or, you would have parents send their children alone at age 15 on a connection (did not pay for the UM fee) and then they miss a connection or a flight cancels, and it’s late at night. We didn’t have a great policy on that, but locally we couldn’t in good conscience leave a minor alone in the airport to fend for themselves, whether we were legally obligated to do anything or not (just another paying passenger if no UM service).
Obviously they can’t check into a hotel. When I worked for an airline that did accept connections, we had a room in the hub where UMs were taken like a lounge and given snacks/drinks between flights. They had cots and pillows/blankets (which did get washed by Cintas) if needed for the night. In my case, a field station with a minor stuck overnight whether UM or not, we would arrange a hotel room or two even if weather-related. I would have an agent or two of the same gender occupy the adjacent room (or in some cases sit outside the door like a guard all night). At one point out of about 80 customer service agents on staff total, I only had about 5 males. So often this meant calling and trying/begging someone to come in to play babysitter at a hotel. I had one supervisor who was gay and wouldn’t do it, saying he’d seen too many news stories about accusations and he didn’t want the personal liability. That caused me one night to leave dinner with my girlfriend and spend the night sitting in a desk chair in a Hampton Inn hallway.
What was amazing was all this would go on, and you’d still have parents scream and yell about how we wouldn’t take their child to where they wanted to go for dinner. Seriously, one time someone cussed me out because I wouldn’t take their 15 year old to Olive Garden! Buy them Doordash or something, or better yet, send them with money to buy food, just in case, in the airport or from the hotel.
I witnessed a lot of reprehensible behavior from parents/guardians. It really was sad how it impacted the children. We would frequently, and I mean like at least once every 6 weeks, have a UM come off a flight – typically a redeye from the west coast – and nobody is there to pick them up at 5am. We call and call… And get a parent who says something like “I don’t get off work until 4pm, so I’ll pick them up then.” Excuse me? This isn’t a childcare service and I don’t have anywhere to really put them but the break room or sitting in an office. I’d let them know that I’ll have to call the state police, and they’ll probably get a call from a social worker. Harsh? Yes. But don’t send your 6 year old across the country knowing nobody is going to pick them up. In one case, the parent who had sent the child, upon our call saying nobody answered for the pick-up guardian, bought them a ticket right back home and had us put the kid back on the plane (and said that their divorce attorney would LOVE this).
If the guardian doesn’t leave gate area until the airplane has taken off and the flight is a non-stop, most of the worries about staying overnight are taken care of. I would like a program that had half of the fee go to a selected flight attendant on the flight with that flight attendant looking after the minor and with the family meeting the flight attendant before the flight. This would not be the purser who has too many other duties.
Every child is different but for me, looking back I think I can travel on my own by age 10. I live in New York City and I know kids who ride the subway/bus on their own to go to school starting at age 8!
During my 31 years as a passenger agent for airlines, I dealt with many unaccompanied minors…They were never out of my sight…Occasionally when a flight was canceled we would call an agency that took care of the UM until they could be boarded onto another flight..If it was only a matter of a few hours they remained with me..only once did I turn a UM over to another agent (female) because this little boy was crawling all over me and as a gay male I felt uncomfortable with this behavior. We had regular UM’S as well..a little girl who regularly traveled from Buenos Aires, Argentina..to Toronto and Vancouver on her way to Hong Kong…a sad situation…
With today’s technology, there is really no excuse for not having any aged kid. Carefully monitored and prepared for. There are so many tracking options available to parents. Angel Sense is one of them. If you have a kid who is going to be on their own and might not be old enough to take care of themselves, or may need to reach you, devices like this can help you. See you the kids GPS location constantly. I used this when my son was younger and would want to play outside in the neighborhood. Once kids get older, a smartwatch using a SIM card so it has constant GPS. Awareness is a good help.
They can check into hotels on their own as well. Most modern hotels have digital keys downloaded to the hotel app. So you never have to see somebody at the front desk. The whole situation of the movie Home Alone 2 could be done easily now days. At that point, you can also order doordash or Walmart grocery delivery or stuff like that directly to the hotel. When the kid answers the door to get it, nobody is going to question whether they have an adult there because why wouldn’t they? You even don’t have to have somebody present for checkout either. The only complication would be Uber or Lyft going to and from the airport, and that really depends on the kids age and the driver you get. If they are in one of those cities with driverless taxis, then that’s even less of a problem because again nobody will notice.
You can also work around the unaccompanied aspect of it by using a babysitter service. Just make sure it’s one where people have been screened and give them some kind of code, word or number, and just video chat with them when they pick up or drop off the kid. Of course, some additional training of what to do in different circumstances will help the kid too. It will build confidence because they will be able to take care of themselves, and further show them how much work you are doing behind the scenes for them. At the very least, they can always call you for the next step. As for the airlines, yes I think this is a great service that they should keep, but maybe just require some safeguard instructions of what to do if things don’t go perfect, such as what hotel to take the kid to or even a permission to take them, stuff like that.
Don’t send your kids flying across country on their own. They. Are. Kids….. YOUR kids.
Yes, I know, some of us have great stories about flying alone on intercontinental flights across 10 time zones with half a dozen connections, a teddy bear, and AX Platinum card when we were 4 years old (i.e., the modern version of walking to school 10 miles barefoot in the snow). Yes, some kids can handle it. Others can’t. You won’t truly know until the sh*t hits the fan.
And when it does, as @NedsKid points out, you’ll blame everyone except yourself.
And to think my parents put me on a Greyhound bus at the age of 11 with a sandwich and sent me 10 hours and 25 stops to visit my grandparents since we were too poor to fly in those days. Although I won’t fly American because I don’t fly ULCCs, they did a great job with my niece (10 years old) a few times who came to visit us. I would get a gate pass and be waiting for her. She would run off the plane and run up and give me a big hug. The FA would always ask her if she knew me (I found that funny) and ask for ID.
I flew as an unaccompanied minor at age 9. The connecting flight cancelled. The airline gave me a hotel voucher and the hotel accepted it! A woman passenger asked if I wanted to stay with her but I declined fearing sexual assault but not knowing specifically what acts constitute sexual assault.
Each of these cases involved multiple failures in the system that is supposed to prevent mishaps. Events like this will continue if airlines keep trying to use as few employees as possible, and use contractors to do jobs that used to be done by airline employees.
Daniel – you’d be surprised how many adults don’t know how to make a hotel reservation and check in. Everything you say I agree with, in theory, but in the words of Larry David, “The customer is usually a moron and an a.. h…..” At 13 or 14 I called TWA to make reservations, buy a ticket, and got dropped off to fly myself to go watch airplanes at O’Hare for the day (in the 90s). The equivalent exists today, but after dealing with the traveling public for a couple decades, the ability to figure it all out like you’ve outlined is not the prevailing capability.
I once was flying when 15 with my 12 year old brother on Northwest and our connection canceled in MSP with rebooking the next day. The agent asked me how old I was, I said 15, he said okay you don’t get anything, you’re an adult as far as we’re concerned.
JS – Don’t be so quick to jump on the contractor vs airline direct employee bandwagon. That’s not so true anymore. Just this last weekend flying on American out of CLT, with a mainline agent scanning boarding passes to board the flight, someone ended up on the wrong plane (but realized it, fought their way back upstream before boarding was over saying “I got the wrong boarding pass scanned” and got off). Same with an agent with American at ORD a few months ago where someone ended up on the plane to the wrong city with someone else’s boarding pass (that the agent printed and handed to them). The agent and the flight attendant couldn’t figure it out and I (thanks to us being already delayed) interjected and sorted it out for them – you have a male standing at row 1 saying someone is in his seat, you say person in that seat has a boarding pass for that seat, he says he’s an Exec Plat so he should get his seat. Woman sitting in the seat who doesn’t speak english is holding a boarding pass saying her name is “Roger” and an Exec Plat, and is holding a boarding pass with a female Chinese name to another city under it. Wouldn’t think it’s very hard…. but that’s some direct airline employees for ya.
Honestly, if I was running an airline today that airline would not accept unaccompanied minors as ticketed passengers. With the state of air travel being what it is these days, the inability of the under-18 set to legally book a hotel room, and the litigious nature of our modern society, it’s not worth the legal risk to the airline.
I enjoyed reading this article while sitting at YHZ airport waiting for my two teens (16, 13) to arrive home from NZ: a 4-flight-connection, unaccompanied. I agree with your perspective, small children shouldn’t be flying unaccompanied, and if I was the CEO of an airline I’d discontinue the airline service due to liability and brand risk.
In my own case, I chose not to let my children fly unaccompanied until my eldest was 13 – and only direct flights within Canada back then. That said, since the kids could walk and talk, I trained them on the checkin/security/gate/boarding/ flying/connection/etc processes, knowing they’d have to do it alone at some point.
Today they return from their first international unaccompanied experience. Their connections (both ways) were in locations where I have friends/family able to help if necessary.
I get that it’s not for everyone, but I measured the risks and mitigated what I could. Fortunately, I have two mature, responsible, and intelligent teens, and felt they could handle it; and they did.
Cham – Bravo to you and your kids. The fact that you are even at the airport on time and waiting puts you ahead of at least 40% of parents I’ve dealt with. And that you’ve taught them or given some explanation any different than dropping them off at a mall puts you ahead of 70%.
I always did a dry run with my parents of things once upon a time. And that was the days of using a pay phone and a calling card.
I flew UM trans Atlantic back in the day from 10 years old to 14 (when my parents just let me go on my own) and I remember always being taken care of by the airline
But things have changed since then. I’d be absolutely terrified if I had to send my 8 year old across the country by himself. He flies a lot with me but these days it seems that so many things can go wrong when traveling and airline staff is stretched so thin that I would not trust them to make sure my child is safely delivered to his destination. Maybe when he’s 14…
So to clarify. Gary, who travelled as an unaccompanied minor for years thinks people shouldn’t do so and signs off with a ‘Hey. If you’re still bitter at your ex then why not use the child as a weapon and add to their trauma’s and all the associated impacts kids suffer in divorces & deny them access to/ time with the other parent just to give yourself a smug feeling of getting one over on your ex’
Now I’m not saying it’s not a minefield littered with issues but even for you this is a new level of scummy ness.
“Don’t do the thing that my parents and I did coz that’s bad. Coz it’s you doing it now & not me & don’t forget to screw your child up more for your own self satisfaction”
I traveled unaccompanied many times between SFO and central America. One year either my flight was early or my mom was late. They stuck me behind one of the agent ticketing counters. I happen to be peeking out when I see my mom and brother walking by. They told them that I wasn’t on the flight and not returning until the next day. I saw them as they were leaving. Had I not been looking I probably would have been reported to CPS as abandoned or something. This was before cell phones.