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Is it just me or should parents probably not let their 10 year old children fly alone? Especially when it is not a necessity of life. She was flying to go to a summer camp. In my opinion, either you have the money to fly along with your child or you simply send your child to a summer camp with in driving distance of your home.
Yeah, who knows what might have happened to her, she might have gotten abducted and raped to death. Parents should never let their children out of their sight. Crossing the street is dangerous! Don’t let your kid go to a McDonald’s lest she choke on a chicken McNugget. And a child taking a bath by herself might slip, hit her head on the faucet, and drown. Sleeping is downright scary, never know when sleep apnea might cause her to croak. And let’s not forget insect bites, an allergic reaction could be deadly.
Plus it gets real cold down there in the hold. And the baggage handlers just toss the cages in.
Was she in an appropriately sized cage? Were the doors properly secured?
How DID she get out?
I’ve checked out the Emirates unaccompanied minor service, and it seems excellent. My 5 year old could probably manage the long-haul back to the UK by herself right now, so long as she had enough Toy Story movies to watch. But I’ll probably wait until she’s older, say about 10 
. Seems that the United service just dropped the ball here, and took a while to pick it up again. Poor Pheebs.
I am absolutely opposed to the whole idea of unaccompanied minors on airplanes, and the airlines are greedy idiots for pretending to accept responsibility for them. Bi-coastal divorced parents or whatever reason kids fly alone is sad, but there are too many cracks to fall through in the process. Flight attendants are busy, airports are chaos. Unless you are paying for a full-time escort whose undivided attention will be on the child, it’s a bad idea.
I saw a 10 year old girl on my last flight home from Taiwan. It was also on United and the flight attendant just got off the plane and didn’t take care of the girl. She had also misplaced her passport.
I dunno, something doesn’t sound right. My kids fly UM 2-3 times a year to the US and Europe, mostly on United or other Star Alliance airlines, not including AsiaPac non-stop flights and never had any issue. They’ve been taken care even when flights are delayed and the paper-trail is pretty tight. I think my kids described it a mickey-mouse themed rendition …and they are very happy to finally be old enough to NOT fly UM on direct flights because the airlines keep a such a light leash on them.
I’m glad that you’ve had such good luck. However, I worked in travel 20+ years, 5 of which were in an airport, and I’ve seen/heard it all.
I’m glad that you’ve had such good luck. However, I worked in travel 20+ years, 5 of which were in an airport, and I’ve seen/heard it all.[/quote]
I’ll take luck over skill every time - but I found that you need to be more organized than the airlines - you don’t just pay your 100 bucks and drop your kids off.
But think about it. Can $100 buy someone’s undivided attention on your precious child, not just during routine operations, but during diversions, cancellations, disruptions and everything else? No matter what, those flight attendants and airport agents are juggling dozens of different responsibilities and shit happens.
Is it just me or should parents probably not let their 10 year old children fly alone? Especially when it is not a necessity of life. She was flying to go to a summer camp. In my opinion, either you have the money to fly along with your child or you simply send your child to a summer camp with in driving distance of your home.[/quote]
Apparently others share your belief, but plenty of people disagree with you including me.
Our girl is 8.5 and she’s approaching the age where we would let her fly without us, provided we receive satisfactory assurance from the airline, first, that they’ll accompany her properly. Since my wife and I both get very little vacation time and our girl gets the whole summer off, we thought it might make sense to fly her to grandma and grandpa’s house, where she can attend summer day-camp two blocks from their house.
She’s flown to the US once or twice a year for the past 8 years, so she’s perfectly familiar with the routine on the airplane. It’s just a matter of getting her to and from the plane. Of course we would take her to the security gate in Taipei airport and wait to be sure the attendant got her on the plane. She would fly direct, so the only issue would be the attendant taking her off the plane in San Francisco. My parents would be waiting for her there.
It doesn’t seem very risky, and I’ve seen plenty of other little kids doing the same without apparent difficulties, but of course the thought of BOTH of us relinquishing control of her to strangers is a little heartwrenching and terrifying (even more so after reading about those idiots with United). In the end, though, we never did try it largely because we’re not sure my 80 year-old parents are capable of caring for her alone for that long.
Shit should NOT happen. It should NEVER happen, when you’re entrusted with the care of a child. I don’t care if the attendant has other duties or responsibilities or will miss her flight if she has to stick around and watch the kid – UNTIL the authorized adult arrives to relieve him/her of her responsibility he/she should stand right there with that child, ensuring the kid’s safety, security and comfort. There’s no excuse. If that kid was abandoned heads should roll.
You assume nothing goes wrong. What if there is a mechanical or weather problem causing the flight to divert? What if there are delays or other things that cause the airport staff to shift their attention to the resulting problems? What is your definition of “satisfactory assurance” and '‘accompany properly’"?
Good points. Well, in any event, a direct flight with family on each end SEEMS pretty simple and straightforward, but I confess we didn’t let her fly solo yet and – as I said – the thought of dropping off the most precious thing in the world and hoping it works out ok is a little terrifying. . . although lots of folks apparently do it without incident.
Just one story about a "direct"flight I had the nightmare of being involved in that had a UM.
It was from Miami to Central America and 3 nights in a row, it had to turn back to Miami due to bad weather conditions at the destination. The parents were never at the airport when the flight got back, so we had to babysit until they arrived. They wanted us to pay for their transportation, or pay for a hotel for their kid, including 2 non-male attendants or they would sue us for child abuse. I am not saying you would do that, but even direct flights are not always so direct.
Other problems with direct flights include diversions to other airports, often due to weather conditions. Sometimes the flight actually makes it, and sometimes it has to be the next day, depending on how long the delay is.
CraigTPE, your story sounds like a parents issue, not an airline issue. It’s an airline, not a baby sitting service where you chuck your kid in and they just appear at the other end.
We’ve had delays (mostly domestic US), missed flights and even a diversion (France). Most times the kids get locked into the “Mickey Mouse Detention Center” where they are forced to watch cartoons and eat McDonalds and might have to sleep on a cot. Now it is easier to follow them with cellphones and flightracker.
Incidentally the policy is now changing, (probably due to idiot parents,) where you can’t UM on code shared flights unless you go through the UM process with each airline. This makes it more of a logistical challenge getting kids from let’s say SFO to a second tier city in the EU.
And sometimes they get lost in the shuffle, especially in the case of off-schedule operations.
And sometimes they get lost in the shuffle, especially in the case of off-schedule operations.[/quote]
I’m sure it does happen. But it’s less of an issue for me since my kids are now getting too old for the program.
Why do my posts keep getting deleted from this thread? Nothing that I wrote – certainly in the most recent – was in the least offensive.
Elegua, 1 question I always had about the UM program is flight seating - do they ensure the child is seated next to same-sex passengers?
I wouldn’t particularly want my daughter squashed in the middle seat between 2 guys, both travelling alone, for example.