YULforever

This one has me baffled. Wife and I with kids are booked on a ACV flight to punta cana. Thought I would suprise her with the 300 dollar upgrade to executive and leave the kids in the back, but ACV has informed the travel agent this will trigger an unaccompanied minor charge as the children (10 and 12, not babies here) will now be unaccompanied.

So - they can split us up to be 20 rows apart from the kids (did this to us a month ago DESPITE confirmed seating booked long in advance - caused by an equipment change) but for us to sit two rows ahead of the curtain (on a A320!!!) the kids are now "unaccompanied minors". That's one powerful curtain.....

I'd say it's an opportunity for family bonding, but they just stay glued to the IFE the whole time anyhow as it's one of their only times with unfettered access to electronics!

LondonElite

The point is that the cabin are treated differently. You can be miles apart in Y and one row apart in C/Y but it will be treated differently. I don't know if an agent can override this for you, but I can tell you that a lot of airlines really frown on kids slumming it in the back, looked after by a FA - as in theory you should not be shuttling back and forth between cabins - while you are sipping champagne in the front. BA really hates this!

mkjr

please...so an FA does not have to provide service to children when the parents are present?

children are old enough to take care of themselves and should expect service from FA's just like other pax.

as to the policy, rubbish if true.

LondonElite

Don't shoot the messenger...under these circumstances I agree with you. I think the fine legal point is that the airline becomes the legal guardian of the child during the flight, which means more attention, care, etc.

This is another one of these cases of being smart enough to decide your own rules, for which I got flamed last week.

echino

Is this issue unique to Air Canada? How does Lufthansa approach this?

I am planning a mini-RTW in business with my wife, the route would be YVR-FRA-DME-Asia-YVR. I need my three kids (ages 5, 3, 3) to join us on YVR-FRA-DME sector. They would then stay in DME with grandparents, while my wife and I enjoy the rest of our trip DME-Asia-YVR.

The plan was to buy revenue economy tickets YVR-FRA-DME for the three kids. They would not fly alone in economy. I would switch seats with the 5 year old: he would fly in business with mommy, and I will fly economy with the twins.

From reading the above posts it seems Lufthansa may refuse to sell the tickets for the kids because they will be considered unaccompanied, and 3-5 year olds cannot travel unaccompanied.

What's the solution?

arf04

I think the answer for the OP is to buy the upgrade for one of the parents and one of the kids, then seat yourselves as you wish during the flight.

Any normal 10 and 12 year-old are going to behave at least as well as an adult, and sometimes a lot better.

There seems be a little silliness in this situation as in most jurisidictions in Canada it would be no problem for a 12-year old to babysit a 10-year old provided that at least one parent is easily reachable and that the babysitter has options in case there are problems (e.g., a trusted neighbour near by).

YULforever

It's even more silly - I had confirmed the kids in the second row back of the curtain - we are talking a TEN foot distance.....This is unaccompanied!

FFSaver

My family went on a mini-RTW this past March (wife + 2 kids ages 4 & 6).

We had to have 3 seperate reservations (one for me, one for wife and one for the 2 kids) due to:
* points from different aeroplan accounts
* couldn't get AC (yyz-lga & yul-yyz) legs in the same class

The agent had no problem and she reference all the reservations together. There was no mention of "unaccompanied minor"...

echino

So you had reservations for you and your wife in business, and for the kids in economy?

Maybe it's different for Air Canada, but I just called Lufthansa and they firmly refused to sell kids economy tickets if adults are booked in business. Telling them that I would switch seats and adults will sit with the kids did not help. They need confirmed ticketed reservation for an adult in economy to sell economy tickets for the kids.

mapleloaf

Could you just upgrade you and one of your children, then swap seats when boarding?

FFSaver

For the yul-yyz leg, yes, we booked the 2 adults in J and the 2 kids in Y. In reality, I sat with one kid in Y and my wife sat with the other kid in J.

In fact, my original reserversation for this mini-rtw had both kids in F on one of the legs (BKK-MUC on TG) and the 2 adults in J (the AC agents just booked it that way and told us to arrange it once we got on board... I even called TG to get seat assignment for all 4 of us and the TG agent didn't complain. Due to changes in the plan, I changed this leg and got 4 F on TK instead.

LH may be different. Does any one know if LX is as strict as LH?

stinger

[QUOTE=arf04;16448696]I think the answer for the OP is to buy the upgrade for one of the parents and one of the kids, then seat yourselves as you wish during the flight.

Any normal 10 and 12 year-old are going to behave at least as well as an adult, and sometimes a lot better.

QUOTE]

This should work fine on your flight and I doubt as long as the kids are well behaved anyone will even notice. I just wouldn't make a big deal about it.

YULforever

Thanks all - the one kid/adult upgrade occurred to me but they could only confirm one way and I wasn't paying 300 pp to upgrade a single leg so let it die. I was just impressed by the illogic of the whole encounter....

Guess it might be a caution for others to make sure you book the one/one approach if you want to split the kids and adults in the future.

And I COMPLETELY agree about 10 and 12 year old kids. In all my flights I've never been bothered by a kid in that age range, but have had my share of trouble with individuals whose IQ, hygiene and respect for others has declined sharply with age.

ciana

Maybe I have been unlucky but I have had several negative experiences with kids in that age range..even with the parents sitting close by. Mainly it's been them squabbling with each other then pinching, hitting and pushing ensues. I can only imagine the chaos if the parents were ahead of a closed curtain and couldn't see the kids at all! I would also expect a recurring trip by a child into biz class to "tell" on their brother or sister. The OP's kids may be fine but I don't think you can make a blanket statement that ALL kids 10-12 years old are either very well-behaved or little hellions. I, for one, can understand why an airline would classify them as "unaccompanied minors" when the parents are unable to see them and therefore, are unable to supervise them.

arf04

I don't think it is reasonable that what would be acceptable in most jurisidictions as a suitable babysitting arrangement (12-year old looking after 10-year old) is not acceptable on an airplane, especially when the parents are only two rows away.

I can't say that I have ever encountered any children of that age that have behaved in the manner that you describe, though I have encountered younger that were incapable of controlling themselves and that the parents couldn't control. It is often the younger kids sitting right beside mom or dad that make a racket and misbehave and the parent sits by oblivious to it all. I have also encountered more than a few unpleasant adults.

The notion that a 12-year old can't sit apart from their parents is silly, and who amongst us hasn't seen a family split apart due to seat assignment issues?

And for the record, I don't have kids and have no desire to defend their behaviour necessarily!