As a kid, I used to make intercontinental flights frequently as an unaccompanied minor ... maybe 6-8 a year between the ages of 8 and 16? Airlines make this all OK by offering an Unaccompanied Minor service where where a member of aircrew is responsible for the kids, the kids need to be deposited (and signed for) at both ends of the flight, etc... In this case, the airline screwed up, but the concept is pretty straight forward...
Are you me? :) I used to do this exact same thing in the exact same age range.
This was in the 90s though - what I still regard as the Golden Age of Flying (tm), and the Unaccompanied Minor service offered by most airlines was absolutely fantastic. You would be under constant supervision in the airports, get access to the nicer lounges.waiting areas, have priority for boarding/disembarking, and be generally treated like royalty.
Even if you were flying coach/economy.
It was totally brilliant, and I was heart-broken about losing this aspect of flying when I turned 16. (IIRC that's the age limit)
Come to think of it, the reason that UA screwed the pooch so badly on this could be because of the death of the Golden Age of Flying.
Chiming in from Sweden, I also loved flying as a young kid. These days I'm a parent myself and have sent my kids on flights (domestic only) using Unaccompanied Minor services several times, and it's always worked out well.
BTW, in Sweden the age limit for using this service is 12 - if you're 12 or older you're considered old enough to fly (again, domestic) alone, something my 11 year old daughter who turns 12 in a few months looks forward to as the last time she flew alone she felt that she was too big to've been "babysat" on the flight.
Yeah, you're right, I just looekd it up as well it would appear that "12 or older" is the cut-off now for most places. Ah well, those were just better times for air travel.
This makes it seem more reasonable to me. If you drop the kid off at a secure area of the airport, they are accompanied to the plane and accompanied again as soon as they get off the plane until a relative (or someone prearranged) collects them there is little that could go wrong. Obviously, as the article proves, their is still a risk that the airline screws up which I'm not sure I'd be comfortable taking but I can see why many other people would be. Explained like this it seems like sending a child across the world alone would be safer than sending them on a 30 minute bus ride downtown alone.
