Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/23/parents-furious-as-delta-strands-kids-around-the-country.html
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I read so many horror stories about US carriers I wonder why anyone flies anywhere in the US anymore
I suppose in the throbbing heart of world capitalism, you have no choice.
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Yeah, we should just take trains instead.
Oh, wait…
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Minors can take public transit without a chaperone. Why not a plane?
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Technically true, but perhaps most parents wouldn’t let their kids do that. And it is a service the airlines offer and was taken up in good faith by parents who then found the contract had been arbitrarily nullified mid-service, leaving their kids stranded.
No idea if some airlines actually insist on minors being accompanied or at least monitored rather than flying like the rest of us. if they do, that makes what they did worse.
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It’s unclear here what the policy change was since the summary doesn’t actually say. NYT wants me to pay them so that’s too bad.
My 10 year old flies alone as an “unaccompanied minor” to her grandparents house with WestJet and Air Canada. This is a paid service where the airline takes kids aged 8-11 and is responsible for them between security and the baggage carousel (single flights only, no connections). There are many rules about who picks the kid up on the other side and how long you need to stay at the airport after dropping them off (until the plane is in the air) so I’m shocked if kids in this kind of program are ever left without an available guardian.
Kids 12 and up seem to be able to fly as adults and so my older daughter does that instead. I can see things getting dicey with this age group if things start getting cancelled.
Alternative sources indicate that Delta isn’t letting minors that are flying as adults check in without an adult without actually telling anyone ahead of time. This is madness.
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Man, I wish I was stranded in Montreal.
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I agreed to attend a coworker’s wedding halfway across the country in a few months. Along with another family member, I’m a full time Alzheimer’s caretaker for my father, so driving simply isn’t an option- even flying, getting just a handful of days free is a tremendous favor the family member is doing me, and a massive burden on her while I’m away. I’ve had to give up all semblance of a social life or leisure activities ever since becoming a caretaker, so attending an important event in a friend’s life that only comes once means a lot to me, and will be the closest thing to a vacation of any sort that I’ve had in over six years.
While choosing a flight, I tried to avoid all the airlines I’ve heard particularly bad horror stories about, only to realize it’s literally all of them. Worse than that, most destinations aren’t served by all those airlines, so even if I had a “safe” airline, chances are it wouldn’t be one of the one or two options available to get to that specific place at that specific date. I ended up with Delta, and like you said, I had no choice. The entire US airline industry is utterly fucked. Yay capitalism.
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Remember the gangster movie they did with all kids? Bugsy Malone?
The same thing, but they remake Tom Hanks The Terminal.
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My kids have flown solo using the unaccompanied minor programs on a few different airlines (including Delta) to visit aunts/uncles/grandparents, and as teenagers without the unaccompanied minor service.
Different US airlines have different policies, but Delta requires kids 5-14 to use the UM service, and makes it optional for kids 15-17.
I agree it’s unclear exactly what is happening here. The NYT article suggests they’ve suspended all unaccompanied travel for passengers under 18. But Delta’s website is ambiguous as to whether it’s just the UM program or whether they’ve actually banned unaccompanied minors altogether.
It makes some sense to me that they might be forced to suspend the UM program, as the details about who is authorized to pick the kid up are all stored in the Delta computer system. Plus it’s not THAT terrible for them to turn away those passengers, because a responsible adult is supposed to wait at the departing airport until the flight takes off anyway, in case the flight is canceled or something. So they have someone to take them home if they’re turned away.
Turning away 15-17yos who are traveling like normal passengers would be a little worse, since those kids might have arrived at the airport by themselves (my kid at age 15 once stayed home by himself a couple days after the rest of us had left, then got himself to the airport for a flight to meet us on our vacation). I still think the article overstates the issue, though, since those kids should still have a contingency plan for a flight cancelation, which can always happen.
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My 16 year old daughter was due to fly unaccompanied from Vancouver to Seattle, Seattle to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Tampa starting on Sunday evening through Monday morning, following a 3 week study abroad program. When we first read the news about the “pause,” a Delta employee said it didn’t apply to her as she wasn’t 15 or under. While she was waiting to depart Vancouver, her Seattle to Atlanta flight was cancelled and they offered to rebook her on a later flight, warning it would involve waiting “a few hours” in Seattle. Only after going through security did they tell her “a few hours” meant 15. Luckily we had a friend in Seattle who was willing to pick her up and let her stay the night before getting her back to the airport for her 10am flight that was subsequently delayed til 1pm, and then again to 3pm (all times local.) We were also informed that Vancouver shouldn’t have let her on the plane to start with due to the pause on minors flying but that they would let her board in Seattle. Thankfully she had a seat number because the plane had about 250 people on standby and working through that list delayed the flight another hour. She made it to Atlanta around 11pm last night and rather than trying to find a flight out of there, her mom drove 9 hours from southwest FL to pick her up & they are on the way back now. One last twist, before the flight to Atlanta took off, they removed her checked bag and put it on a plane to Salt Lake City.
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My boarding pass said “unaccompanied minor” and it wasn’t a big deal. But that was 30+ years ago. Boomers didn’t really worry about safety or well-being of kids back then, we were basically raised to be feral.
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Don’t they kind of have to honor tickets that they’ve already sold?
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Well, you’d think so. Once upon a time, maybe. Perhaps today, in the rule book. But not these days, in reality. Fuck the customers if they inconvenience the airline, and if the regulatory authority says there is compensation to pay or even fines, well… it’s just the cost of doing business their own special way in a rigged market where choice is somewhat illusory.
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Yeah, the unaccompanied minors thing is a real minefield. My story:
My son, roughly 12 at the time, was flying from the east coast to the Midwest on SW airlines to see his grandparents. He’d done it many times before. Non-stop flights. Easy-peasy.
Until, that is, standard-issue Midwest summertime thunderstorms. They reportedly circled the destination region for a while but couldn’t put down. So, they went to the next closest major-ish city and landed there, ostensibly to refuel. While on the ground, somebody made the call not to fly to the original destination that evening (it was the last flight of the day).
The first we learn of the issue is a call from my son saying that he’s in a different city from the one he’s supposed to be in and will be staying the night at a local hotel. The real kicker was that he’d be sharing a room with a flight attendant! I asked to be put on the phone with one of the airline attendants and explained, in no uncertain terms, the liability they were accepting should anything go wrong during this unplanned stop.
A short while later the airline magically decided that they could, after all, make it to the original destination that evening.
My take-home lesson was to never book the last flight of the day for an unaccompanied minor. Also, check the weather at the destination airport and get somebody on record as to the backup plan for your kid should landing there prove untenable.
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I traveled cross-country by myself at least twice a year in the mid to late 70s and early 80s. I was born in 70. I was registered as an unaccompanied minor, but after the first few times I knew what to expect and mostly took care of myself.
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