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January 3rd.
My children, daughters (16 and 12 years old) were left at the gate of their flight by the american airline escort! The children are supposed to be with "an escort" at all times, until they are transferred to a stewardess on thier flight to assist them in boarding the plane. The left sand diego and arrived at dallas for a 1- 1/2 hour layover. The were left for over an hour before my daughter called me from her cell phone (with a dying battery) to tell me that thier flight was cancelled. I asked where the escort was, she said that she left an hour ago. What! Oh my goodness! I called american airline right away. Stayed on hold for 17 minutes, got an agent, on hold for anoth 10 minutes, then finally transferred to a supervisor that simply stated that "they should be in an unaccompanied minor waiting room"? Exactly! That is what I tought! Well, I didn't know that gate my girls were at... Nor did they! They dropped my daughters off at 11:45 left them at the gate, and the flight was not due to depart until 1:30 pm. They would have been sitting there, without supervision for almost 2 hours before the flight would depart! I hardly think that leaving them at the gate would account for being "responsible for all paid unaccompanied minor". The supervisor thought it was okay to say that they would remain at the gate until thier next departure which was at 6:45 pm. What! I say, so it's okay to let them sit there at the gate for anoth 4 or 5 hours? Yes mam, she says. You mean to tell me that you are not going to take them to the unaccompanied minor room? She puts me on hold... Okay, somebody is going to the gate to pick them up now and take them to the room. Thank you! And says, there are also several other children waiting. Oh, now I am really worried. And so should the other parents be.
Be wary of american airlines unaccompanied minor program! They are not monitoring your children!
Will follow up with thier resolution.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
What frightens me is all these mothers who act all concerned about their kids online but have no problem dumping them off to strangers and depending on them to babysit their kids in an airport. I would never let my kid fly alone.
My daughter, 12, was left just last week at Fort Lauderdale airport alone. She was flying from Charlotte, NC to Port-au-Prince Haiti... with an escort, or so I thought. When she boarded in NC we were denied the right to pay the unaccompanied minor fee. After that, they got their info wrong and were saying that my daughter (who holds a Mexican passport, but is of Haitian descent and lives there) needed a visa to go to Haiti, which is completely false... She was taken off the flight to Port-au-Prince and left in Fort Lauderdale. I called her on her cell and ask her to let me talk to the people that were "handling" (they did nothing at all) the situation and I heard how she told her she would not talk to me. After a while, the call got cut and my daughter started texting me that she was afraid and that the people from AA wouldn't talk to her or explain what was happening. Until one man (the only nice AA employee that I was in contact with throughout the whole nightmare) passed and saw her crying and asked what was going on, gave her his number so she could text it to me and I was able to talk to her. After he tried "fixing" things, obviously te plane left without her and she was left alone in Florida without her mom. Their solution was to put her in the next flight, there was none until the next day. They had the "wonderful" idea to leave my child in a hotel room with two stewardesses (people I do not know). Thank God I have family in Miami so I called my uncle and his wife and they went to get her and the next day stayed with her until she got on the plane. I had to send a copy of my Haitian birth certificate (which I sent in less than 5 seconds through my phone) and I was never informed this was all they needed to let her in the plane to begin with. After the horrible situation, she told me she will never travel alone again, which will be a big problem since I am a single mom that works and sometimes needs to send her for vacation with family on her own. They were irresponsible and mean and all they did was give her two 100 vouchers that clearly state that by using them I can't make any claim or complaint against AA and what happened on her flight... I will of course return those tickets and seek advice. My daughter is traumatized and I felt like dying the whole time this ordeal lasted. Be really careful before sending your kids thinking the airline will be responsible enough.
Same thing happen to my sister. But the flight was cancled and rescheudld for th next day. a flight attendant was the most helpful and let my sister stay in her room for the night
This terrifies us - Our 12 year old Bonnie Henrikson is traveling from Huntsville Ala to Moline via OHare Tuesday July 19th - we've paid to have her accompanied.
Is what this poor mother went through going to happen to her? We expect better than GREAT service from you. She has a 2 1/2 hour layover at OHare - We understand she will be taken to a special room. Will there be food there? Will there be an attendant there? We expect American to pay strict attention to this youngster at all times. PLEASE.