I was on a Northwest flight - there were four adults and my two children flying together. We hadn’t gotten seats together. TWO of the seats were together, the other four were spread throughout the plane.
I managed to sweet talk the gentlemen in the third seat with the two in trading seats.
The flight attendants had zero concerns about putting my kids next to a strange man while I was ten rows back in another part of the cabin.
A flight in June I traded seats with a gentleman so he could sit between his two daughters (put me in the middle seat). The flight attendant had no issues with his two little girls sitting next to an adult complete stranger. (I think he was very disappointed when I offered to switch - I think he was looking for the break - but being in the middle seat was a darn site better than babysitting).
I agree that the risk of child molestation is overblown, but I wouldn’t count on the flight attendant seating a minor with a family. Granted, none of these were UM - they all had their parents with them - however, their parents were in other parts of the plane - the airline is probably more careful if you pay $75. Unless you have my aunt in law as your flight attendant.
Right, and I think that’s the thing - they’re accepting temporary custody and legal responsibility for the UM, but not for your kids traveling with you. If some kiddy diddler diddles with your kid, that’s unfortunate and all, but their lawyer is probably going to suggest you were the one lax in supervising him, no matter where you were sitting. That same layer is going to turn green and apoplectic if the kiddy diddler’s diddling an UM. Do I think that’s the way the world should work? No, not really. But it’s one of those cases where human nature and a litigious society actually works to protect me (assuming I’m the parent of the UM), so I’ll take it.
Granted, I’m 32 now, so my experiences are a bit out of date. But my son flew UM this year, and like me, found himself up front, next to another UM, under the watchful eye of not only his assigned flight attendant (“Mike” on the way there and “Steve” on the way home), but all of them on the flight. And he’s 14 and spent the whole time playing his Gameboy or reading, hardly a case where he needed to be watched to make sure he’s not causing trouble!
Well, and the whole ‘long time ago’ thing is one reason I’m hesitant to say “this is the way it will work” - different airlines probably handle things very differently. A lot of airlines have had major cutbacks and MAJOR changes in how they function. And unless you KNOW exactly what the POLICY is of the airline at the time of the flight - experience is only “well, it possibly works like it did 20 years ago, or last summer on a different flight, or…” If Robyn is going to make her decision based on "the airline will seat her kid with other UMs (assuming there are any on the plane) or another family or have an empty seat for a flight attendant - she should make sure that is the airlines policy.
I’ve been on plenty of business flights that have been business flights - there aren’t families. There aren’t kids - UM or accompanied. From a “creepy vibe” standpoint, there are always a few people sending out creepy vibes that I - as a 41 year old woman - have not or would not have been completely comfortable sitting next to.
Adding to the chorus of ‘too young’, but OTOH you’re the parent and would know the kid the best.
Anecdote != data. However: I started attending an institute for the deaf several state lines away, shuttling back and forth as an UM multiple times a year from the time I was sixannahalf to twelve. Sometimes the airline (Typically American or Delta) would hang a tag on me and send someone to make sure I got where I was going, but other times I’d just manage boarding and deboarding, and navigating the airport by myself to get to the baggage claims.
I typically didn’t have any horrific issues with communication screwups other than getting the wrong drink, ignoring people who wanted to try to talk to the cute widdle kid (the giant book usually worked a treat), or having luggage delayed on one occasion.
I had no problem with it - I think the people worst affected were my parents. Well, and I no longer view flying as an adventure due to the sheer amount of flights I’ve taken. This was all well before 9/11 so I’m sure things have changed since.
I worked for a few airlines for many many years and my UM daughter frequently flew between Kansas City. MO, (MKC, the old airport) and Washington, DC (then DCA). to visit her Dad. I never EVER had a lost child during 17 years of airline employment as a ticket counter agent at MKC (Kansas City), DEN (um… guess where that was) and as a gate agent/ticket counter agent at SMF (Sacramento). The most common mishap was when the child arrived at our airport and the receiving parent (usually the noncustodial parent) was not there to pick the child up. The child arrived with a bunch of mandatory contact numbers, addresses, etc., but we were the ones who sometimes took the child to stay with us until the errant parent showed up, if ever. If the receiving parent didn’t show, we returned the child to the originating parent after many frantic phone calls, excuses, denials, jail sentences, whatever. Sometimes the originating parent took off for a vacation after the child left…
Hijack: I’ve done some wonderful independent traveling over the past few years to China, Myanmar, etc., always traveling coach, totally miserable with that configuration. The various airlines have always seated me next to UMs traveling abroad to visit a parent or grandparent. The airlines surmise that I’m the single mother-figure and the best passenger to travel with the child. How many times can I watch “Snow Dogs?” The humiliating aspect is that at the end of the trip several agents come for the UM and look at me defiantly as if I’m there to do harm to the child. I’ve asked my frequent-flier airline to seat me as far away as possible from an UMs, but they’re always right next to me. Crap. I love kids but don’t like this assignment. Nope, this isn’t a paranoid thing but something verified by my airline friends still employed.
IMO, any child still potentially within the tantrum/screaming/crying range is too young to fly alone. Even if the kid is remarkably mature and calm, it’s unfair to everyone else on the plane to put the kid in a situation where there could be a ‘melt down’ and no parent to take care of it.
Granted, I’m not a parent and have nothing but loathing for children under the age of, say, 14, but still. I think telling Grandma ‘maybe in a few years’ is a wise decision.
This argument doesn’t fly at all. You think $75 is more than enough to pay for an extra flight attendant’s time and the lost revenue on the seat s/he’d be occupying? Not to mention the fact that the airline has to accomodate those hours in his/her flying schedule and duty hours, and might have to put him or her in a hotel on one end or the other.
As someone else said, it’s probably more accurately considered a nuisance fee. It does not pay for an airline-hired babysitter or trained flight attendant, and it wouldn’t necessarily cover the airline’s costs if they provided one.
As for the OP, my feelings are like Audrey’s. When my son was five, I would not feel comfortable relying on the airline to best meet my son’s needs if something were to come up, whether it’s him getting sick, the airplane being delayed, or whatever. He’s a great flier and has racked up a lot of miles for an 8 year old, but it’s the unknowns that bother me, and I think I’d be unlikely to do it even now, three years later.
Bubbe has been notified that it ain’t gonna happen this year. Maybe next summer, when he’s a little older and he’s matured a little.
One other thing I thought about is that Aaron is very friendly and very trusting and does not yet understand that not everyone is his friend. I know the odds of an abduction or assault are very small, but I would not want to put him in a situation that he cannot handle, nor would I be able to assume that whoever sits next to him likes or even tolerates kids.