Taking 14yo son on Intl trip??
 

My 14 year old is on spring break and wants to come with me on an INTL trip with me. There are plenty of D1 seats going and a few coming back but plenty of seats both ways in back.

What do I need to know from those who've done this? Will he get a D1 upgrade if he's listed as an unaccompanied minor (Is 14 considered UNAC?)

My biggest concern is something cancelling a day before coming back, or same day to another city and my flight fills up. It's making me a little sick to my stomach imagining a scenario where I have to leave him behind, however unlikely.

Has anyone done this and would you do it again?

Thanks for any advice. E

Before they’re old enough to go to a hotel by themselves, check in, check out, get to their next flight alone might not be worth it. Even with a positive space ticket I guess there is a risk that you could get re-routed or something. Maybe not as likely internationally.

As an aside, I heard somewhere a captain got fired years ago from somewhere for refusing cargo in Asia because the flight was payload optimized and she needed to get her kid onboard. Anyone else hear that story? Maybe at NW?

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more nervous I get. My flight has a history of payload optimization too. That would really ruin my day.

Depends on the kid, but sounds like a grand adventure. Compromise - Once you are on the outbound leg, buy him a ticket home.

Dont you have to be 15 not to be considered an unaccompanied minor? I’m pretty sure the FOM prohibits jumpseating while you have an unaccompanied minor with you in the back. I’d think the same would apply for a working crew member.

I was about to say "give it a shot. It'd be an epic story for your kiddo." My nerd side looked it up on Dnet under the HR>travel drop down. These quotes apply to kids 5-14yrs old.


May not travel unaccompanied on any international flight, including flights to Mexico, Central America or South America.
Keep the following in mind:

• On-duty employees cannot be the accompanying adult for a minor child pass rider.
• Jumpseat riders cannot be the accompanying adult for a minor child pass rider.

...next year it will be epic

Buy a fly confirmed for less ticket or wait til he's older if you want him to Nonrev.

what if he gets sick and can’t fly home? Or if he gets bumped to to an oversell? Or the pilot gets rerouted? Any number of scenarios where he gets stuck and the only real solution is to take your self off the flight? Then what happens?

14? I was too chicken. 17 is about the youngest I took mine, it wasn't quite that far. And there were other options to get him home if plan A fell apart

​​​​​​Can you drop the trip and just non rev it together? Built some amazing memories with my kids with one on one trips.

Good points. Might be wise to have another adult tag along and both Nonrev

The 1% risk of it all falling apart is significantly worse than the 99% chance it all works out fine. Either go with him on days off, or wait until hes older and can fend for himself if it all falls apart.

I've actually done that before.

Nonrev outbound (wife would have driven to the airport to pick my kid up if she didn't get on or I got re-assigned).

I bought her a ticket home on my return flight. If something happened to that flight I would have tried to get her on another airline solo. Conveniently, the OAL flights in question went to large towns where we happened to have family.

Fairly low risk, it was out and back with long layover and not much else they could assign me to after departing base. But I was prepared to call the company and tell them they either needed to get my kid on my flight or I would have to stay until I could get her out. Having bought a revenue ticket would have hopefully mitigated the pain of that conversation.

Kid in queston is mature for her age, and had previously done solo domestic nonrev from a young age (obviously with family/friends waiting to collect her at the destination).

Still feels 1 reroute away from a colossal mess, as unlikely as that might be. Murphy's Law and all that. Glad it worked out!

cool story, but flying internationally (the original post) is completely different than flying from Seattle to Cleveland.

I took my 13 year old daughter on an AUA trip last year. I bought her FCFL roundtrip tickets on the flights I worked, and she was listed as an unaccompanied minor. It worked out perfectly, but in hindsight I wouldn't do it again. We dont know anyone in Aruba or New York, so this could have gone poorly fast.

who did you list as the adult picking her up in AUA because I’m 99.99% sure company rules say a working crew member can not be the receiving adult at the destination.

Dont know if it’s against the rules but Ive done it before. My neice was on a flight that I operated and when we landed I walked up to the gate house showed my drivers license and took her home.

FOM 3.6.4 says on-duty employees and jumpseat riders can't be the accompanying adult for a minor child.

On Delta's website for unaccompanied minors, there is some language refering to the dropoff/pickup people as accompanying adults. I can't find a direct relationship, but if the FOM definition is also intended to refer to the dropoff/pickup person(s), could be a problem.

The company appreciates you building thier case for them. Unaccompanied is different and those rules don't cross reference the FOM. I'd take that as my mulligan. YDY I'm not saying your wrong just a Karen.

BTW THIS^^^ is how you troll. Don't worry some mod will take it down.

Eh, you make a fair point and it's not a great troll. I am guilty of having a preference for understanding both sides of an argument though. Not sure that makes me a Karen.

For what it's worth, my initial post above was trying to make the point that an unaccompanied minor doesn't HAVE an accompanying adult. Then I read delta's UM policy on their website, and presented my findings with an edit of my post (which is what you quoted, after said edit.)

I did expect that to be taken down but since you memorialized it in a quote... I admit I'm not great at trolling. We, as pilots, tend to overthink things and respond overly conservatively was my point.

We agree on something!

Did I read that right? You would refuse to fly your assigned trip home if your kid's plan didn't work out? That kind of extortion sounds like you could get yourself fired don't you think? That's exactly why our company policy forbids working crewmembers from accompanying minors.