Children and Flying – Unaccompanied Minors

Other posts by MudslideMama

By now most of us with an interest in air travel have heard the news about that 10-yr-old unaccompanied minor who was put on the wrong plane at Logan Airport. This was due to errors and miscommunication of Continental Airlines staff at the gate, and you don’t have to be a parent to imagine the heart-stopping fear that the child’s parents must have felt before she turned up in Newark.  After the sympathetic anxiety resides, though, parents should consider that this sort of complete mess-up is incredibly rare. After all, unaccompanied minors fly every day. How do we decide when our children are ready to fly without us?

Children Can Fly Solo on Airplanes (swiss_a320 via Flickr)

Kids have varying degrees of independence, needless to say. One 10-yr old could happily skip aboard a plane, while another may cower and cling.  The major guideline is simple: No child under 5 years old can fly as an unaccompanied minor. Airlines wisely have age restrictions with types of flights allowed broken down by age group. For example, United Airlines clearly states that 5- to 7-year-olds (the youngest age group allowed to be unaccompanied minors) may only fly on nonstop flights. Southwest doesn’t delineate age groups in such detail as United, but has a policy for children age 5-11, with kids 12 and up having aged into their Youth Fare. Most airlines have additional fees for unaccompanied minors.

Now, I can’t imagine having a 5-yr-old child of mine fly unaccompanied, but that may speak more to the relative dependence – and whine factor – of my kids when they were that age. Other young children may be capable of much more! …And other parents too; a big element of “being ready” to fly as unaccompanied minors has to do with parent readiness. My 10-yr-old may feel ready to fly solo, but me? Not so much. As a matter of fact, I’m hoping that someday in the distant future, her husband will agree with me that living in her childhood bedroom as a married couple is a TOTALLY awesome idea.

In the meantime, Continental Airlines made a huge mistake, no doubt about it. It’ll be interesting to see the fallout, if any. After all, the policies regarding unaccompanied minors are already pretty straightforward. We can’t ever eliminate the chance of human error, either…so, what do you think? Are people going to change the way they let their children travel?

(Bob Richards, via Flickr)

UPDATE – Maybe it’s just Continental Airlines: The Associated Press is reporting that the same day that the 10-yr-old girl got on the wrong flight, another unaccompanied minor was also misdirected by staff at Continental. In this case, an 8-yr-old girl intending to fly to Charlotte, NC, ended up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The AP quotes her mother as saying, “I’ve never seen so much incompetence in all my life.”

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June 17, 2009 | Filed Under Family Travel, Flying High, Travel News 

Comments

7 Responses to “Children and Flying – Unaccompanied Minors”

  1. pligg.com says:
    June 17, 2009 at

    Children and Flying – Unaccompanied Minors…

    After a 10-yr old unaccompanied minor was put on the wrong plane (to the wrong destination), are parents going to change how they let their kids travel?…

  2. MountainMama says:
    June 17, 2009 at

    Honestly, I would still consider sending my 7- and 9-yr-olds alone (together) on a direct flight.

  3. Elizabeth Sanchez says:
    June 17, 2009 at

    My mother sent me and my three siblings, ages 11, 10, 5 and 4 (I think) to Mexico. It was an exciting, if uneventful experience, and I think it’s hard to make a blanket statement. I would say the age depends on the children. We traveled alone at that age, but I would never send my 12-year-old cousin unaccompanied anywhere.

  4. wandermom says:
    June 17, 2009 at

    I was totally stunned when I heard this story. Continental completely dropped the ball imho.
    When I researched this topic earlier this year (for this post: http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/wandermom/2009/02/23/unaccompanied-minors/), I got a lot of feedback from people who work (or have worked) in the industry and/or had traveled as unaccompanied minors themselves warning about the dangers of connecting flights.
    This story proves that point!

  5. Eva says:
    June 17, 2009 at

    Hadn’t heard about the Continental case yet! Wild. I wonder how they managed that?

    I flew as an “official” UM once, I forget if I was 6 or 7, return from Saskatoon to Toronto via Winnipeg. It was awesome, apart from a well-meaning flight attendant forcing me to eat my fish! (My mother would never force me to clean my plate when the meal in question is airplane food…) Anyway, after that (starting from about 10 yrs old) I just flew alone, without the big UM button on and all that.

    I think one major factor to consider is how familiar/comfortable kids are not just with independence generally, but with planes and airports. I’d been flying that same route with my parents a few times a year, so it was familiar territory.

  6. Airline Food and Airport Restaurants says:
    June 18, 2009 at

    [...] happen to a child during air travel, but that can of lemon tuna at American Airlines really has to go. Nasty stuff. And it’s (at [...]

  7. April says:
    July 15, 2009 at

    My friend that is 11 years old is gonna fly over here to southwest Texas from Denver.
    She said she’s fine with going by herself.

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