November 2006

Children Flying Solo
How Airlines Accommodate Unaccompanied Minors

by Ruth White

It’s Christmas time, and your family wants your child to visit for longer than you can stay with your few remaining vacation days.

Your ex-wife has relocated out of state, and she has a custodial schedule that includes frequent access.

It may be time to consider having your children fly without an adult. They will not be wanting for company and neither will you. There are enough children flying alone that most airlines have policies regarding unaccompanied minors – children who are flying without an adult.

My 9-year-old daughter, Maya, flies from Seattle to San Francisco to see her father every long weekend, including Thanksgiving, and for extended school vacations at Christmas and in the summer. No matter when I go to SeaTac Airport to drop her off or pick her up, there are many other parents waiting at the gate until the plane leaves the ground or watching for their children to arrive home. On Labor Day weekend, there were six mothers and one father waiting to receive children. By the time the children had disembarked, they had made friends on the flight and were asking to see each other again for “play dates.”

My ex and I had concerns about having Maya go off into the air holding the hand of a flight attendant, hoping that all would go well. Making the decision was not easy, even though Maya was no novice to flying: She had already flown to Europe, Africa and the Caribbean and throughout North America with us.

What made us finally say yes? For us, as for most parents, it boiled down to time and money. The financial savings, along with Maya’s maturity and experience with flying and the positive stories of other parents, helped her father and me to make the decision to have her fly without us. The success – and her enjoyment – of the first flight led us to do it again. And again. And again.

On her first trip, the flight attendants took her into the cockpit to meet the pilots and see the instruments, but she was the only child on the plane. She had that happen on another occasion. Most of the time, there are other children flying solo on her flight, and this makes it more of an adventure for her and more comforting for us as parents.

How Old Is Old Enough?

Each airline has its own policies regarding unaccompanied minors, but the larger U.S.-based carriers accept children without parents as young as 5 years old. That may seem young to some parents, but many children do it without a problem. A cousin of mine has a daughter who has flown from Toronto to Jamaica every summer beginning at 6 years old. And she is just one of hundreds of unaccompanied children – including my sister’s 8-and 10-year-olds – who travel to Jamaica from the United States, Britain and Canada to spend the summer with grandparents or other extended family.

Each parent has to make the decision about when his or her child is old enough. When I first broached the subject with my then 6-year-old daughter, she was scared. We talked about it many times, and about a year later, she thought the idea was “cool.” She was happy to assert her independence by going it alone for 90 minutes.
“A combination of financial feasibility and scheduling conflicts” helped Paula Bradley, a fifth-grade teacher in Atlanta, make the decision to have her three boys visit their grandparents without her for an extended period in the summer. She had her eldest child take his first flight from Atlanta to Toronto at 9 years old, but she was adamant that she would not have done it if there were a layover involved. The airline’s policies seemed to be consistent with her instincts for keeping her son safe. And she completely trusted the people who were picking him up.

Airport/Airline Procedures

Most importantly, the airline needs to know that the child is flying alone at the time you purchase the ticket. Call and let them know if you book online. Secondly, both the receiving and sending parties must have valid picture identification because they must go through airport security to drop off and meet the child. Because you are going through airport security, the same rules apply for you as for someone boarding the plane.

Airlines usually require the delivering adult to complete a form with information on the child, the escort and the receiving adult. That information is placed in a pocket around the child’s neck with his boarding pass or kept by a flight attendant. The adults are given escort passes to take the child through security to the gate or to pick him up at the gate. An airline staff member takes the child onto or off the flight prior to general boarding or deplaning. The delivering adult must wait until the plane leaves the ground before leaving the gate, in case the plane needs to return to the gate for any reason.

On arrival, airline staff chaperone the child off the flight and the receiving adult signs that he has taken custody. He must show identification that proves that he is the designated receiving party. He should be at the gate at least 20 minutes prior to the flight’s arrival in case the flight arrives early.

Some airlines, like Delta, will not administer medications to an unaccompanied minor, so other arrangements must be made if your child requires medication she cannot administer herself.

Most airlines provide a transparent plastic carrier that is hung around the child’s neck and contains all of her relevant documents. Make sure you have a copy of any document you send with your child, including the ones requiring signatures from the drop-off and pick-up adults. You should also include her health insurance card (or a copy of it). If she is traveling internationally, many countries require a notarized letter signed by parent(s)/guardian(s) that provides permission for the child to fly alone.

Cost

Airlines require parents to sign up for “unaccompanied minor services” (although the age cutoff for the requirement varies). There is a large range in cost for these services, and the charge for connecting flights is greater than the charge for nonstops. Although Southwest has no cost, most airlines do, but there seems to be little or no difference in service to the minors. Southwest seats the children in the front of the plane while Alaska places them in the back.

One 8-year-old told his mother, “I don’t think it’s fair that my daddy had to pay $100 for us because they (the flight attendants) don’t do anything. No one did anything for us.”

Service is usually limited to escorting the children onto the plane and waiting with them until the parent arrives. You are not paying for a babysitter. Some airlines do have activities for children, especially if there are many on a flight, and flight attendants may pay special attention to them.

Preparing Children for Flying Alone

“I was a little bit scared, but I still wanted to go,” my daughter Maya says of her first flight alone, when she was 8. “I knew it was going to be fun.” Asked what advice he would give to other children flying alone, Omari Bradley, now 16, says, “Believe in your heart that you are safe and everything will be okay.”

“Always bring snacks because sometimes what they have, you don’t really like; and you get pretty hungry, and they only give you one snack,” Maya suggests. “And always bring something to do.”

Like children child going to camp, children flying alone should have some of the comforts of home, such as a stuffed toy or favorite pillow. Make sure these things can be attached to their luggage or put in a backpack so that they will not be forgotten on the plane. Their carry-on bag should include a book or game, small snacks and a bottle of water (or a lunch if the flight will be more than three hours). Discuss the airline procedures with them and give them a picture of the receiving adult if they do not know that person well. Also include a list of important phone numbers (including yours, the receiving adult’s and another person at the destination), in case the receiving adult is late.

Nonstop tickets are best, but if using connections, give your child detailed instructions about what to do if there are cancellations or delays, along with some emergency cash.
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Ruth White is the Seattle-based parent for 9-year-old Maya – a solo flyer. A social work professor at Seattle University, she spends a lot of time on airplanes with and without her daughter.

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Northwest Parent Media
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