Hi friends,
My 11 year old son will be travelling as an unaccompanied minor from BLR to LHR on AI 177 (direct, non-stop flight). I am opening this thread to both document the process, and to ask a few questions.
AI webpage on this topic:
Unaccompanied children - Air India
Booking:
AI does not allow booking of unaccompanied minors through their Website/App/Call centre. We had to go to their city office in BLR to get the tickets issued. We took the filled in Unaccompanied Minor form in triplicate as per the AI webpage. Travel was in the end of September and we went to buy tickets mid-August. The booking agent was quite reluctant to issue the ticket because travel was still "quite a while away" and that they might "misplace the documentation for the Unaccompanied Minor". However, we insisted that she issue the tickets since fares might go up. She issued the ticket and we had to pay the normal adult fare. There was no demand for any extra fees for the Unaccompanied Minor service. The booking agent asked us to come "closer to the travel date" to submit documentation (three copies of each of the following: AI unaccompanied minor form, return ticket, passport copy, visa of minor, passport copy of person picking up the child, their visa, passport copy of the person handing over the child in BLR). The eTicket print out does not mention anywhere that the pax is an unaccompanied minor.
Document submission:
We went to the AI office yesterday to submit the documents. Once again there was some reluctance to accept the documents since "travel was more than 2 weeks away", but after some insistence, they collected one set of documents. The second set would have to be given at the airport on the day of travel and the third set should be in the possession of the child while travelling. The agent issued a "receipt". Only after we came back home, we noticed a few mistakes (my name was mis-spelt, my wife's phone number had a wrong digit). We will go again today to get these corrected.
Questions:
1) The booking agent mentioned that ~3 days before travel, the person picking up the child in LHR (me) would get a call to confirm that I would be able to pick up the child. Only after this "confirmation" would they give a go ahead to BLR to accept the child for travel. Does anyone have experience with this process? I would have international roaming activated in my Indian phone number while I am in London, but I am still worried that I might miss this call, creating confusion. When we go today to the AI office in BLR, we will try to get my e-mail address added, so that they can reach me through e-mail if they are not able to reach me through phone.
2) My wife would be dropping off our child in BLR - how far would she be able to accompany our son? Ideally, it would be great if she can get till the gate to see our son off, but I am guessing that might not be possible. Any experiences dropping off a child in BLR?
3) Any experience picking up an unaccompanied minor in LHR? AI 177 lands in T2, and I am assuming I will be able to get till the arrivals area. Where do I have to "report" to? Will there be an AI counter in the arrivals area of T2? I am assuming AI staff will accompany my child through immigration and customs.
Will continue to update this thread.