[Barry Cohan]

My 13 yr old son was just supposed to board a return flight from Honolulu to New York. As he tried to board crew members would not allow him to board because we had supposedly not paid for an unaccompanied minor charge. We were told of this charge when we booked the flight and we told the airline reservation clerk to charge us for his return flight as we were only dropping him off to Hawaii, but not bringing him back. They issued the ticket at that time. We would have thought that all was taken care of until just recently when I received his frantic phone call whereby they would not allow a 13 yr old on unaccompanied. I would have been glad to pay the fee at that time, figuring that if it had been previously charged, I would have my credit card company refund the money. They would not take a charge card saying that they could not keypunch in a credit card. Don't they keypunch charge cards 24/7 when taking phone orders for tickets? I asked to speak to a rep but they refused at first, saying they could not take a phone call. Eventually a rep named Mimorie Phoma picked up my son's cell, saying she would see what could be done, but she was not sure if he could board the flight. My son was very upset, but remembered he had traveler's checks, and he offered to pay using them. We asked Ms. Phoma for a number to a supervisor, but she could not locate one. We lost touch at this time with my son.
I hurried home from dinner with my wife, and then tried to find a number for American Airlines to help with a crisis. While they have plenty of numbers to take money for you with regards to selling you a ticket, they have no crisis numbers. We had to go through ticket sales and eventually to an agent named Nola Burgess (burgos?) who simply lacked any ability to handle any problem. I had to scream for a supervisor and after about 5-10 mins (it felt like an eternity) a supervisor named John Emerson took the phone. I was extremely upset which I am quite sure is a reasonable response to not knowing what is happening to your child when he is 3000 miles away from home. Mr. Emerson felt it was much more important for me to tone my voice down than to help me find my son. He told me he was in Dallas and could not tell if my son was on the plane. He explained all he could do was possibly find out was if my son's ticket was read. (wouldn't this mean he had gone past the ticket agent and gone to the plane?) I than asked if they read the ticket would it not mean he entered the plane and was told that it could mean he gave the ticket and turned around. All I know is, once you give your ticket and enter a plane, no one is allowed off even if you have to sit on the plane for hours at the gate without permission to get off. This airline should be ashamed of itself for hiring people unable to handle situations.