United "loses" 10-year-old girl on flight

Flying unaccompanied kids is commonplace, and all airlines have a provision or program for it.

www.lufthansa.com/no/en/Unaccompanied-minors

www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/family/unaccompanied-minors-pol.html

www.usairways.com/en-us/traveltools/specialneeds/unaccompaniedminors.html

 

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around allowing your 10-year-old to go on a trip which required changing planes at O'Hare, of all places. A non-stop flight, OK, because the parents can put the kid on the plane themselves and someone known and trusted would pick the kid up at the gate on the other end. But even if the unaccompanied-minor system worked perfectly, it still seems really stressful for a child that young.

I agree with all the comments about Continental's superiority to United.

I'm sitting at a friend's house right now because United cancelled my flight home. I found out via e-mail this morning, about six hours before the scheduled departure time. I was automatically rebooked... but not until tomorrow morning.

It's supposedly weather related -- which, of course, means United isn't responsible for anything -- but mine was the only flight of the day which had been cancelled when I got the e-mail. Same thing as of an hour or so ago, when the flight would have departed.

Thankfully, my friends (and my boss) were very understanding about this mess.

 

Kids are a lot more capable and resilient than some parents seem to think these days. If you have been teaching your child to be independent and responsible, why couldn't a 10-year-old change planes? What skill does it require that is beyond their grasp?

 

Traumatized? Seriously?

 

Forget the kid ... if you told me my 10-year-old daughter was missing, I'd be traumatized.

 

In the big picture -- which is, granted, not this case -- I'd guess the most common application of this unaccompanied minor practice is with divorced parents or other shared custody arrangements. And in those cases there's a legal requirement to send the child off a few times a year, and financial and scheduling realities that prevent the adult from going along. So if this is United's procedure, to outsource this important function to a group that may or may not show up, that is definitely worth knowing.

In the small picture of this case, it sounds like there are plenty of kids who make it to the camp this way without a problem. Enough, anyway, that the camp has a standardized procedure for getting to and from the airport.

Side note, however: My 10-year-old son just flew as an unaccompanied minor. Southwest, no connecting flight, only an hour and a half in the air. When I got to the gate to check in, the employees thanked me profusely for showing up ahead of time. I got the impression a lot of adults aren't there when their kids walk off the plane. Which is ridiculous.

 

1. I'm stunned bydesign hasn't shown up to explain how it isn't United's fault.

2. Being alone in O'Hare isn't what scared the girl. Having her IV yanked out by an errant guitar was the culprit.

 

I think you're severely underestimating 10-year-olds. They are capable of a lot more independence than the "traumatized" mark implies.

 

Well-played.

 

I'm guessing a large portion of those (though I'm not googling it) were some of those 911-only phones you can get kids. Used only for emergencies.