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Unwilling to settle for just losing baggage, Continental now losing children

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by 2muchcoffeeman, Jun 17, 2009.

  1. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Count me in with that sentiment. I'm not letting my 8-year-old go the bathroom by herself or himself in a Target, let alone fly on a plane alone.
    And if putting a kid on the wrong plane isn't bad enough, isn't it borderline child abuse that the wrong cities were Fayetteville and Newark?
     
  2. Del_B_Vista

    Del_B_Vista Active Member

    Doesn't it seem remarkable, just too good to be true, that, oh, $75 is what it takes to pay all the attention to a child traveling alone it would take to make sure that child arrives safely? Do the math, people.
     
  3. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    And not only do they lose kids, but their pilots die during the flight...

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/06/pilot_dies_aboard_continental.html
     
  4. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Air France wants to know what's so unusual about that.

    (Too soon?)
     
  5. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    kinda
     
  6. Iron_chet

    Iron_chet Well-Known Member

    The $75 does not even begin to cover the added cost of looking after a UM on a flight.

    As a parent I empathize with what they went thru in that I would be flipping out if something like this happened to my child, however as an airline employee there is no chance I would put an 8 year old on a flight by themselves.

    With all of the things that can go wrong due to weather, mechanical issues, etc I think it is too much of a crapshoot to send a child alone.

    The unfortunate reality is that a lot of parents expect the airline to act as daycare for their child as they shuttle him/her between the parents.
     
  7. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The kid that went to Fayetteville would feel right at home. They serve underage all the time.
     
  8. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Entire flight should be free.
     
  9. Pilot

    Pilot Well-Known Member

    What could possibly cost so much? I flew by myself when I was 11. Surely that's a big difference between 11 and 8, but still, every time I had to switch planes some woman would walk me from the plane I just got off to the plane I was going to get on. They checked in on me once or twice a flight and that was that.

    I can't imagine I put anyone out very much at all.
     
  10. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    If airlines don't want that, they shouldn't offer the service.
     
  11. EE94

    EE94 Guest

    do you have children? Kids that age don't exactly relate to what are fairly complicated situations. You probably could have told her she needs to take a space shuttle and she would have believed it.
    Flyign is overwhelming for some adults, let alone a kid.
     
  12. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    No, I don't. I have flown as an UM, though, and I never found it to be that overwhelming.

    I'm pretty sure most airlines don't allow UMs to change planes; they'll only do it with direct flights. You also usually can't put an UM on the last flight of the day, in case anything happens.

    I wouldn't expect a child to be dropped off at the curb and able to find her way. But she should be able to listen to the announcements on the flight and understand them. And an 8-year-old should know where she lives and where her dad lives.

    I wouldn't send a kid who had never flown before as an UM. Never in a million years. But if I knew I was going to be doing that, I'd make sure that when we flew together, I helped her understand what's going on.
     
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