The other day I learned about United's changes to the unaccompanied minor policy the hard way, with them leaving my son stranded at DTW and forcing us to buy a last minute $320 ticket on Delta. This is what I sent to customer support, with a receipt for the Delta ticket attached. All I got back in reply was an email thanking me for flying United and for my loyalty; what do you think is fair compensation?


Message: Dear United,

I'm writing to relay a troubling experience with my son flying on United. He has travelled unaccompanied before (and turns 16 in a few weeks), but was not allowed to check in. While we now realize that the policy on unaccompanied minors changed in December, I am shocked that we were NOT informed when we purchased the ticket for him. Had we known, we would have made the necessary arrangements.

Instead, he was denied Boarding. As he was dropped off from University of Michigan Summer School, there was no adult who could return in time to check him in. I called the 1K Agent and spoke with the check-in agent (and her supervisor) to no avail. All of whom were decidedly unhelpful.
Common sense would dictate that it is much safer to let the unaccompanied minor (15 years 11 months and two weeks old at that) board the plane then leave him stranded in Detroit. Amazingly, your agents said otherwise and mentioned something about they would have to call the police if we could not get an adult to fetch him (we live in Virginia, not in Detroit).

Fortunately, most other airlines allow a 15 year old to travel unaccompanied. Thus, we purchased a ticket on Delta and he flew home safely. However, he had to spent around 7 hours in the airport waiting for the next plane, we had to pay the last minute ticket fare of US$322.10 for a Delta ticket (receipt attached), and it was a major disruption for me at work as it took time to sort all of this out.

While I question United's change in policy, my main concern is that we were not adequately informed of the change. There is an especially high burden for informing customers (or more sensibly grandfathering them) who were previously allowed to fly unaccompanied on United.