[shayn]

I travel a lot. When I say a lot, I mean every week. I have never had this experience except for once and it was United and I have not flown them for 14 years. Let me get to the story, and perhaps someone out there can give some insight or advice how I can handle this situation.
My daughter was returning from Costa Rica with her classmates on a Spanish trip for high school. They are all 17 and obviously minors, there was 8 students and their spanish teacher. They arrive in Miami and there was lighting storms that made them cancel the flight, they were told they could be rebooked on the 8 pm flight in 5 hours. So they stayed believing their stand bye status would be okay since they were minors. That flight was delayed as well so around 11 pm they were told they were not on the flight. So they waited in line again and of course there was not flights so they were given vouchers for the hotel. They took a bus to the hotel to find out it was over booked. They returned to the airport and told to go to a Best Western close by, but that hotel didnt take their American Airlines (AA) vouchers. So they were told to stay at the airport over night. This was not going to happen so I booked rooms at the Westin for them and put them on my credit card. I didnt want them sleeping on the nasty floor of the airport. Call me a good dad I guess. By the Way, I was on hold for over 2 hours with AA trying to resolve the issue. To no avail, once I did get a person on line, they transfered to me to the department International flights that could help me. It was closed. The next day they were told that there was no flights to Denver. That is where we flew into to meet my daughter that was playing in a national tourney for softball. AA would NOT fly them on any other flights other than AA, and then they had too break all the students up to get them to the West coast, but not Portland the final destination. One had to go thru Seattle, three thru LA, two thru Reno, two thru Chicago. They had many connections, and long delays. My daughter was to fly to LA, then back to Denver, but the connection was missed (not do to weather). She had another delay in LA that would most likely be an overnighter and I had family pick her at the airport. We thru in the towel, she missed the tourney and the rest of the family is in Denver...for no reason. Two of her fellow students flew into Denver and AA would not take care of them. I sent a town car to pick them up at 11pm. to stay with us then a town car to take them to the airport at 5 am. to get them home. This entire experience was shocking, NO HELP. I was blown away that they would allow the minors to fly alone with no approval from the parents. Most of the parents knew what was going on via our kids, but still never had communication with the airline. I am out 4k out of this entire deal and DISGUSTED with this Airline. I am not interested in getting airline miles, or free tickets with American Airlines because I will never fly them, nor any of my employees. Interested to hear some feedback. I appreciate it.

[MTL]

My 15 yo son also had a horrible experience flying AA through Miami. I still cannot believe it and I am also trying to figure out who to go to.

When my son was initially checked in at another airport (California), we requested he fly as unaccompanied minor. The AA employee said "you don't need that, that is for 12 yo." As his connecting flight in Miami was the gate next to his arrival gate, and my son was now very embarressed we let him board alone. Big mistake.

His afternoon flight scheduled to depart Miami for Europe was delayed 10 - 30 minutes at a time. At 11pm. after many many delays, his flight was cancelled. My son gets in the very long line with many angry passengers, eventually AA employees pack up and leave with my 15yo and other passengers standing there.

To make a long story short, the only flight we could get for my son was 24 hours after the initial flight. 4 family members placed approximately 18 calls to AA that night trying to get my son help. No hotel would take him as he was too young. Finally, we get a AA employee at the 1-800 number who was a parent also and began to call different departments at the Miami airport to get someone to listen...no easy task as it turned out" She did eventually find someone (another parent) at AA who agreed to help put him in the minor program if my son came to her. My son was not answering his phone to get this info to him, finally at 6 am I get call from him, he is in a panic, does not know where he is, he lost his bags and he thinks he is sick (I think he was exhausted and fell asleep while trying to walk through the night).

I ask him to give his phone immediately to an AA employee so I could explain what was happening...... no employee would take the phone. I could hear them saying in the background "hey do you need a doctor or something." Finally my son finds a security guard who did take the phone. From here on, service was excellent. He was put in the escort program, slept for 6 hours, was fed and that afternoon was put on another flight.

I honestly believe my son was at serious risk. I am still stunned, minors flying alone don't have the skills to navigate such an inefficient system and end up having fewer rights than adults. I intend to complain about this but still trying to figure out the best way to do so.

[dfwgirl]

Parents of any child over 11 have the option to pay the unaccompanied minor fee and have the child supervised. When the parent waives that, the parent is basically saying their child is ok to be out in the big world alone. Consider it like buying insurance, you may not need it, but is sure it worth it when/if something goes wrong with the flight. This is a parent choice, not an airline responsibility.

[A320FAN]

Originally Posted by dfwgirl

Parents of any child over 11 have the option to pay the unaccompanied minor fee and have the child supervised. When the parent waives that, the parent is basically saying their child is ok to be out in the big world alone. Consider it like buying insurance, you may not need it, but is sure it worth it when/if something goes wrong with the flight. This is a parent choice, not an airline responsibility.

I also believe that cutoff age for unaccompanied minors is either 13 or 14.

[rubekat]

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[YouJustMe]

Originally Posted by dfwgirl

Parents of any child over 11 have the option to pay the unaccompanied minor fee and have the child supervised. When the parent waives that, the parent is basically saying their child is ok to be out in the big world alone. Consider it like buying insurance, you may not need it, but is sure it worth it when/if something goes wrong with the flight. This is a parent choice, not an airline responsibility.

The new cut-off age is only 11 yrs old for American Airlines. If the parent chooses not to pay the extra fee, the child is considered on their own.

[rubekat]

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