In case you have to be told...

If you don't want your 7 and 9 year old traumatized by one of a bazillion things that could go wrong when attempting to catch an airliner from Iowa to Florida... DON'T send them unaccompanied.

This should become a STICKY NOTE.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/art...another-state/ar-BBLHAg7?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp

'I think there needs to be set policies and procedures put in place,' he said. 'I think they probably escaped this incident with very little damage, but that may not be the case if it happens again.'

He said that staff should have been 'overly protective of these children' - making sure that the kids were comfortable and that the parents were aware of what was happening.

Chad said that this was the first - and would likely be the last - time his children had flown unaccompanied. And he had a warning for other parents thinking of putting their children on flights by themselves.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
What Southwest used to do when my kids traveled unaccompanied 20+ years ago was assign a flight attendant to them. This was their babysitter in the sky, and she made sure they were happy and not being jerks. If anything went wrong, she had my number - we didn't have cellphones back then, so it was my responsibility to be home until I got the call that their dad had them in his possession.

American Airlines, on the other hand, pretty much abandoned my daughter, then age 12 or so, when she got grounded in Atlanta due to weather on her way back from San Diego. We went to National to pick her up, only to find that her flight had been canceled. We called the airport and had her paged, and by then she was smart enough to call her dad, get her uncle's phone number, and have him come get her (he lived about an hour away).

It's pretty bad that Frontier doesn't have an unaccompanied minor policy in place. If I were those parents I'd be super pissed.
 
What Southwest used to do when my kids traveled unaccompanied 20+ years ago was assign a flight attendant to them. This was their babysitter in the sky, and she made sure they were happy and not being jerks. If anything went wrong, she had my number - we didn't have cellphones back then, so it was my responsibility to be home until I got the call that their dad had them in his possession.

American Airlines, on the other hand, pretty much abandoned my daughter, then age 12 or so, when she got grounded in Atlanta due to weather on her way back from San Diego. We went to National to pick her up, only to find that her flight had been canceled. We called the airport and had her paged, and by then she was smart enough to call her dad, get her uncle's phone number, and have him come get her (he lived about an hour away).

It's pretty bad that Frontier doesn't have an unaccompanied minor policy in place. If I were those parents I'd be super pissed.
Based on info in this article, it looks like the kids were not abandoned, just not coddled. That the two were separated makes me think they put boys in one room and girls in the other. My point is that flying is a nightmare for adults these days so I'm stunned as to why parents would leave their 7 and 9 year olds to the mercy of the airliners. If parents seriously have no choice they why wouldn't they chose airliners that have a clear "unsupervised minor" policy. I put this incident primarily on the parents and obviously they know they own it because they are publically making other parents aware of their mistake. Secondarily, yes this airliner sucks.
 

lucky_bee

RBF expert
Also, in this day and age, how/why would you send them unaccompanied without a cell phone? My 11 year-old step son doesn't have one yet (he does have a smart watch though) but if we had to send him unaccompanied somewhere we'd be buying him a cheap-o cell from walmart specifically for that occasion.

I think 7 and 9 is pushing it for unaccompanied age, I think it would depend on the kids, but I definitely wouldn't be using an airline without CLEAR unaccompanied child guidelines.
 

frequentflier

happy to be living
For the record, I don't have children...

But why should airlines have to babysit and be responsible for young people flying without an adult?

A lady that works with me recently flew with her two daughters (9 & 11) to Atlanta and dropped them with their Grandmother at the airport. She turned around and flew back here. The girls flew back with their Grandmother; who had planned to turn right around and fly back (though the weather caused delays and she had to stay in MD for a day).

Financially, this may be difficult for people but I personally cannot imagine handing a child over to a stranger to fly someplace -and hold them responsible if anything happens!
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
The parents should have been contacted with any schedule changes and been made aware of their kids' whereabouts and circumstances. Although, honestly, the parents sound like wacks looking for their 15 minutes.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
For the record, I don't have children...

But why should airlines have to babysit and be responsible for young people flying without an adult?

A lady that works with me recently flew with her two daughters (9 & 11) to Atlanta and dropped them with their Grandmother at the airport. She turned around and flew back here. The girls flew back with their Grandmother; who had planned to turn right around and fly back (though the weather caused delays and she had to stay in MD for a day).

Financially, this may be difficult for people but I personally cannot imagine handing a child over to a stranger to fly someplace -and hold them responsible if anything happens!

When it was my kids flying, I paid extra for the "unaccompanied minor" service. I don't know how they do it these days, though.
 

lucky_bee

RBF expert
When it was my kids flying, I paid extra for the "unaccompanied minor" service. I don't know how they do it these days, though.

https://www.cheapflights.com/news/kids-flying-solo-guide

^^this is just an overview, and dates 2017 but just to give an idea. Policies for age, location, non-stop vs. connecting, and cost all still apply. All fairly reasonable, but it doesn't say what happens when flights are delayed or rerouted, etc. like in the situation above.
 
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