America West and Unaccompanied Children

[rjemery]

America West is taking its lumps lately over unaccompanied children. The latest flap involves a 8- and 11-year old sisters, flying from HOU to SAN via PHX. In PHX, the two were mistakingly put aboard a flight for ONT.

See Airline Sends Girls to Wrong Airport (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/americawest010805.html)

I have difficulty understanding how this could happen. First of all, I feel an eleven year old should be smart enough to ask, repeatedly if necessary, if she is on the right flight or where her flight is boarding. Second, no airline personnel checked the sisters' tickets or boarding passes? I find that incomprehensible. Heads should roll.

My eleven year old brother (it was a few decades ago), was planning to take a non-stop flight from MSP to EWR on NW, but a strike intervened (the good ole Don Nyrop days), and he had to change planes at ORD. He made his connection without a hitch, without having to ask anyone. Moreover, his ticket was re-checked at ORD (by management fillins), since what he had was a single piece of paper that read MSP - EWR.

How is it that gate attendants could let a situation with the two sisters develop? How is that FAs don't also ask questions? A lot of people aren't doing their jobs at HP.

HP is now instituting a ban on children flying alone who must also change planes. Unaccompanied children can now only fly non-stop aboard HP flights. Such a policy does not speak well of HP.

[ONTPax]

I think it speaks volumes about the type of people they're hiring these days.

Every time I've flown America West, there never was a problem with the specific flight I was taking, but I've always noticed the shouting matches, pandemonium, and large number of irate passengers at the Customer Service Counter at their hub in LAS.

I heard another story about them that sounds incredible. Perhaps someone here can verify it. A year or so ago, on a flight that had just taken off from PHX, they supposedly called it back, made everyone get off the plane and then used it to protect a chartered flight for the Phoenix Suns basketball team. They had a contract to haul that team, and fulfilled that obligation at the expense of a planeload of "commoners."

Sounds to me like they need to get their act together. :eek:

[Squawk 8888]

Well, we've got a whole lot of chickens coming home to roost now and the big losers are kids with divorced parents who will have visitation opportunities severely curtailed. I predict that most common carriers will stop taking unaccompanied minors for fear of being litigated into bankruptcy should the little darlings take a wrong turn, and I can even foresee a day when kids won't even be able to take public transit to the beach without a babysitter along for the ride.

This is all part of the trend towards the infantilization of young people, and every year it seems that the concept of "child" is being redefined with older age groups being included. Barb and Jen Bush can't but a drink because they're still "children" at 19. Some commentators in the media regard Chandra Levy as a child at 24. Where does it end? Will the next generation be spending all their free time in daycare centres until they're 40? I suspect part of the problem may be education, as I've noticed a lot of people are totally incapable of following written directions.

I find it incredible that kids are no longer considered capable of getting around on their own. I'm on staff at an air cadet squadron in the middle of a major city with good transit, we've got 15-year-olds being chaffeured by paranoid mommies who think the subway is dangerous :rolleyes:. Another thread here mentions an airline that apparently doesn't think it safe to seat a 12-year-old next to an adult male. This is absurd- if anything, keeping them bubble-wrapped simply makes them more vulnerable because they never have the chance to develop their own judgment.

When I was younger (not THAT long ago) it was normal for us to go out on our own- most of us rode the subway alone at 8 years, many of us travelled to other towns alone when we were teens. Parents today are kidding themselves if they think the streets are less safe than before- most violent crimes are still ones that involve family & acquaintances, attacks by strangers are still extremely rare.

[rjemery]

Squawk 8888 wrote: Another thread here mentions an airline that apparently doesn't think it safe to seat a 12-year-old next to an adult male. This is absurd ....

I certainly understand the point Squawk is trying to make, but here is the coup de grace to that way of thinking, courtesy of CNN:

Child Allegedly Molested During Flight (http://www.cnn.com/2001/TRAVEL/NEWS/08/08/northwest.molest/index.html)

[ 09 August 2001: Message edited by: rjemery ]

[Squawk 8888]

Saw that, r, at this stage nobody knows the truth and it's doubtful anybody ever will; unless some other witnesses turn up it'll be a classic he said-she said. The only certainty about the case is that some lawyers will make a whole bunch of money off it. Whatever may have happened a hell of a lot of damage has already been done to the kid- classic lose-lose-lose-case case, either (a) she really was attacked, (b) she was manipulated into making the allegation in order to sue someone, (c) she made it up in a bid for attention, or (d) it was a misunderstanding that got blown out of proportion. Whatever happened she's in for one helluva rough ride.

[Ditch]

Like Rjemery, I am at a complete loss as to how this could possibly have happened. (HP incident ONT) As cabin crew, naturally you ask questions. Questions like, whos collecting you in---? Do you live in---? We also site UMs documentation to check for allergies, requests from parents, destination..etc. The documentation is also held in the galley as well. This ensures nothing can go wrong, and works very well, and I for one am glad my company takes such a responsible attitude towards this issue. Surely there are other carriers with similar policies... :eek: :eek: