Jumper Jack

Okay, Seriously... like... seriously.. What the heck.. how does one's brain even process the logic of the statement is just...



They clearly knew at the freaking hotel!
They left him sleeping on the ground anyways because AC's natural philosophy to Y pax is "Up Yours" in the form of "Up Yours"

yulred

Not sure why this option is contentious.

Long before EU 261, when BA flew LGW-DEL-HKG on a 742, my cousin and I - as UMs - were forced to overnight at LGW due to tech issues. We were escorted to a hotel late at night and given a room and told not to open the door unless one particular female BA employee came to get us. Next morning we flew. Aside from the BA employee, my only memory is limited to a bizarre dish of boiled potatoes at the hotel. It was really wierd.

I realize this kid wasn't registered as a UM but there are ways for dealing with this if they did, in fact, identify him as a UM when they declined a hotel.

YEG_SE4Life

Like many threads, it is interesting how people tend to jump to conclusions in this thread. You know, there certainly are 2 sides to every story:
1) Although the article states that the boy could not get a room, it does not indicate who informed him of this. There is no evidence, in the article, that AC was made aware of this. If we are going to make the assumption That AC made that determination, isn't it just as reasonable to assume that AC did give him a room voucher and the hotel refused to allow him to register?
2) The article indicates that he was given a 400.00 travel voucher. The grandfather and AC disagree on the timing of that voucher.
3)Seriously, if you believe that your son or grandson is old enough to travel alone, you should also consider that, with connections, things don't always go smoothly. If it were my son, as soon as my son called to let me know what happened, I would have asked him to go to an AC agent and hand that agent the phone. There is no indication in this article that anyone made any attempt to inform AC that they had a problem with a minor until after the young man arrived back home.
4) If the grandpa believed that the young man was naïve enough to go with anyone who said he was taking him to a hotel, then perhaps he is too naïve to travel alone. Especially with a connection. It is ridiculous to send the boy off as an adult and then get upset that he was treated as an adult.

Yes, I agree that AC might have an opportunity to learn from this experience, but so do the parents.

Jumper Jack

1. Most hotel do not allow check-in <18 or 19
2. 400 voucher is an insult for what he went through
3. ????????????????????????
4. ????????????????????????

YEG_SE4Life

Your computer is broken. These sentences don't make sense.

The smallest state

That would be the hotel. When he arrived to check in.


Because they didn't care.

This was after Grandad called the 800 number and by some miracle, got ahold of an AC employee who tried to do something.

Great idea. Really it is. But lets examine the one flaw in your theory. The major flaw is the person you'd be speaking too is an AC employee. They operate in a culture of non-ownership. The smallest-state-NIGO-theory states explicitiy....the AC employee will work harder at getting out of doing something than the actual job would have entailed.



What is ridiculous is the fact that AC can say, we have involuntarily bumped you due to our mechanical issue. Here is a $10 voucher, come back in 24 hours.

Not everyone's situation fits into a neat box.

This is a 15 year old kid. You blame the parent, I blame AC, maybe it was blame lady-luck....either way, that kid is still sleeping in an airport and AC did nothing to assist.

The Lev

I'm wondering if the real issue with the hotel was that the kid probably didn't have a credit card and it was only then that his age came into question. Even if AC is paying for the room, typically a hotel will require a credit card for "incidentals".

Admiral Ackbar

In this specific case, because they look 15? Pretty easy to tell, maybe I am special. All this shows once again (and everything they have done has gone pretty much as I described earlier) is that if there is a way to make a bad PR situation worse, someone at AC will find a way to make that happen, voluntarily to sabotage or involuntarily due to not caring/incompetence/not my job/it's the end of my shift.

Plus ça change...

upgradesecret

Standard for the usual suspects

yyz_atc_qq

I don't understand why everyone (ok maybe not everyone but most....) are so quick to demonize AC in this case. The passenger was travelling alone. Parents MUST assume some liability in this. Why didn't the passenger call home when things went south? Why didn't he have a phone?

I'm not saying AC is innocent, but they surely don't deserve as much grief as they're getting.

I used to travel alone much much younger than 15 and without UM service. It all depends on the person.

Admiral Ackbar

Because taking care of the minor is the RIGHT thing to do, regardless. AC barely lifted a finger in this case. I know, so many here don't get that line of thinking.

I am harsh on AC, i am harsh on many things but I do praise them on this board when they do well.

Symmetre

Bottom line is, AC blew it.

Again.

Bartolo

Without absolving AC of responsibility, what about the hotel? Turning a young person away at night and leaving it at that? Common sense?

tbaiyun

My mistake, since I am obliged to use the agent's system to book ticket, the agent system will ask for personal information (date of birth, sex) but not mandatory.

I did try to book a test ticket on AC.com this morning, not required at all...

One thing that is sure, AC did not make everything they can to help the minor.

We may blame the parent of not informing AC the kid is a minor, we may blame AC's system for not making somewhere to put the birth date in the system. But once it's bumped, it's bumped. But what AC did to the a 15yo kid alone in YYZ is just "unacceptable".

Or put it this way, think about why this accident can come to the national headline? If AC did try everything they can at the moment the boy was stuck in the airport, will the parents/grand-parents still call CBC then make their experience national-wide? It must be that AC drove them mad, but nowhere to report, that's the last mean someone can come up with unless he/she has a best friend working as a journalist.

Forget about the hotel room, AC can still do a lot more than that: it can be simple as someone brings him up in the MLL to stay as long as he can, give him a blanket and a safe place to sleep in the airport (staff room), buy him some warm drink and food in the morning, then rebook him on the earliest next flight and a deep apology to the kid and their parents.

If AC had managed doing some of these, trust me, there will not be this thread neither this news... That's why I fully agree with you @The smallest state, AC just does not care.

Sebring

How does somebody look 15? I went to school with a girl who looked, er, three or four years older because, well, she had "matured" early, which is why the boys couldn't take their eyes off of her. And I've seen guys in their 20s who could pass for teens.

Mistakes were made here. Reading the Toronto Star story, I see another culprit was involved - a travel agent made the booking. So maybe the family didn't think of informing the airline in advance that this was a travelling minor, but the travel agent has no excuse. The family presumably paid a fee for a professional service not performed.