Unaccompanied Minor Adventures

By Gailen David, The Sky Steward

Have your kids traveled solo?

I remember my first flight alone when I was 6 years old. My parents had brought the idea up to me about taking a flight to visit my Grandparents in South Carolina. I wanted no part of it and expressed my lack of interest in anything to do with airplanes by rolling my eyes. So my parents launched a vigorous campaign to get me excited about the idea; starting with a dinner out at The Flagship, a Washington area seafood restaurant just off of the Potomac River directly along the flight path of Washington National Airport. I was moderately impressed by the variety of aircraft twisting and turning as they followed the river approach,  but I was mainly interested in my fried shrimp and hush puppies. BTW, I was a fat but adorable child.

Since wining and dining did not do the trick, they began taking me to picnics at Gravely Point, just North of the main runway of National Airport; a small grassy area offering an amazing view of the airport’s activity. My mother finally cracked the code! She got me to agree to fly alone by telling me that she had spoken to the pretty stewardesses at the airport and they had expressed how excited they were to have me on board. Well, since I always had crushes on older women (yes, it’s true), I was ready to fly and to flirt!

My flight was on an Eastern Airlines DC-9 nonstop from Washington National (DCA) to Columbia, South Carolina (CAE) when Eastern was “The Wings of Man”. In those days the airlines allowed parents to board the aircraft with their children to kiss, cry and say goodbye. Since this was a nonstop flight, there was no chance of me being misplaced by Eastern. I was in love with fly from the moment I sat down in my first class seat (upgraded by the stew) and would have welcomed the adventure of being lost in the Eastern Airlines system, forced to bunk up at the layover hotel with the flight attendants!

Child traveling on Swiss Int'l

For many years there was no nonstop service from DCA to CAE which required a connection through Atlanta or Charlotte on Eastern. The airline personnel always made a point to take extra care of me and my sister, who sometimes joined me on this regular summer getaway. There never seemed to be a shortage of staff at the airlines back then and personnel just seemed much less stressed and able to be available to us as unaccompanied minors. Our connections were fun and easy and I actually enjoyed the extra take-offs and landings!

With the growth of the hub and spoke system at most airlines in the 70′s and 80′s and the full exploitation of the concept  since then; children traveling alone have become very accustomed to making connections. As an airline employee, I have witnessed several mix ups in which children are left sitting in a waiting area while their flight taxies away or are boarded on the wrong flight altogether. This happened recently to a child traveling  on Delta to visit his Grandfather in Boston that was sent to Cleveland by mistake. The airline explained that the incident was due to a switch of unaccompanied minor paperwork.

My first solo flight on Eastern Dc9

The best airline for children traveling alone as unaccompanied minors?

It’s a fact that airlines have less staff than in the past and the personnel used to escort children from one flight to another are usually outsourced. Of course the quality of the service offered varies from domestic to international and from airline to airline. Some airlines such as Gulf Air provide “Sky Nannies” to look after children on flights and during connections but you would be laughed at requesting a Sky Nanny at most airlines. Try it on American and let me know what happens. OK?

Do you have tips for parents of children flying solo?

I think it is absolutely safe for children to travel alone, but here are some tips to help avoid having your kids end up in Kalamazoo when they were actually destined for Kansas City:

• Ask your child to call you when they are at the gate of connecting flights. Once on the phone with them, ask to speak to the agent to verify that they are at the right gate and confirm their arrival time at the final destination. If they are traveling with a cell phone, ask that they turn it on once they land at their connecting city so that you can check in on them.

• Remind your child to pay extra attention to airline personnel and to follow their instructions such as waiting to be escorted off of the plane. You’d be surprised how many kids try to make a break for it; slipping by the flight attendants as they deplane with other passengers only to be lost in a crowded terminal.

• Monitor your child’s flight status as they travel on the Internet or even set up alerts on the airlines website to be continuously updated automatically.

• Wait at the departure airport until the flight departs just in case there is a delay or a cancellation.

I want to hear your tips?