Grog

I really don't understand why there's even a conversation about it being okay for anyone underage to have to spend a night alone in what amounts to a public space. How low we've sunk if we collectively think it's perfectly fine.

The smallest state

That was another kid.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...love-1.3695893


He got bumped and AC ignored him, claimed they didn't know he was a minor which we know is pretty hard to believe..........funny you mention it though, an AC spokesman said this...


In a subsequent email Wednesday, Air Canada said its policy is to take care of younger customers in need of special assistance.

'We have backup plans'

"This includes arranging for a hotel room, subject to availability, with a chaperone," wrote John Reber, Air Canada's director of media relations.

"In the event hotel rooms are not available, we have backup plans involving staff who stay with the child."

He added the airline only became aware the next morning that Levy was a minor travelling alone.


Hey John Rebar.......you might want to tell you GA's in Toronto about your cryptopolicy about hotels and chaperones and staff staying with the underage persons. See, they don't think there is anything they can/should do. Just sayin'

28isGreat

Nitpick... from AC web site: "Important: The Unaccompanied Minor service cannot be purchased for connecting flights or codeshare flights."

vernonc

None of this applies. OMW does not apply to this trip. Nor would a 15 year old have a CC. And even if the parents had CC insurance you need someone on the ground to be able to execute, not a 15 year old. And he would not have been able to check into a hotel. And several times in the last few weeks every hotel room in a one hour radius from Pearson was sold out. I know this personally as I tried booking one for a stranded pax who did not speak Eng very well.
So from your post were you expecting a 15 year old to have a CC, with insurance, book a hotel and travel unaccompanied to a hotel that could be more than an hour away ?

ffsim

Victim blaming is a sport 'round here

whyfseeguy

In another news, Air Canada has the lowest score in the most recent J.D. Power survey of all North American carriers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/j-d-...tjet-1.4093884

The smallest state

It happens a lot with the types of people who this board naturally attracts, ie- people who collect, hoard or chase frequent flyer points, towards people who don't fly a lot.

I think we forget the gulf of information between FT.com regulars and people who don't fly but once a year.

These inexperienced flyers usually have the temerity to, you know, expect to go from Point A to Point B when they have booked, paid for, received a confirmation for, had money deducted from account/credit card for, given a boarding pass for going from Point A to Point B.

eigenvector

The fact that parents "should" know better doesn't excuse the airline from taking care of one of its customers stranded in an unfamiliar place, whether that person happens to be 15 or 50.

To suggest that parents should sit at home refreshing AC.com every 5 minutes to monitor for missed connections, with a spreadsheet of alternate routings whenever they have a kid travelling... c'mon. The mom lives in Geraldton. She may never have been on a plane in her life. Not everyone on earth is an FF or even an occasional traveler. Yet these people and their families from time to time need to travel for major events like medical treatment, education, weddings, funerals, or sure, going to visit Dad in Denver.

Rather than expecting all 7 billion people on the planet to know the intricacies of airline travel, I expect the employees of airlines to be available and willing to assist when a passenger encounters trouble at said airline's flagship hub airport. That's basic customer service.

When the passenger is a minor who can't get in touch with his mom because she's driving from her home in Northern Ontario to pick up him, it becomes a matter of basic decency.

expert7700

This article makes me want to do a test booking for 8yroldsuperelite.

Should he arrange unaccompanied travel by calling the concierge? (I guess that would be one way to help ensure Toronto VIP service!). He can do Global Entry and Nexus forms or kiosks on his own.

I would need to show him how to use expertflyer in case there are irrops...

jc94

I'm not sure how much of this is sarcastic, but we should remember:

1) UMS is not available for connecting flights.

2) OMW is essentially useless for a hotel when the person travelling is < 18

3) OMW doesn't actually guarantee you go on the next available flight, it just increases the odds of putting you onto one that leaves sooner than if one hadn't purchased OMW. In addition, to make use of OMW one needs to be able to make a 20+ minute call to a number, probably a cell phone, potentially in a different country, and most assistance is "we'll refund you xxx" but you gotta pay now how many funds do you have access to. I personally did not have access to much money aged 15. Certainly not a credit card.

My earlier points about how capable a 15 yr old is of taking care of oneself... AC should have the ability to take care of a very inexperienced traveler as per their policy. Whether the kid is or is not experienced is an interesting but actually unimportant point. He asked for help, AC policy is to provide it, it was not given.

ensco

Airlines see this as a marketing opportunity. They secretly love these stories.

The business model is to make the experience so potentially unpleasant, that you are desperate to buy your way out.

Surprised there isn't a banner ad on this thread somewhere promoting this

https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...on-my-way.html

CZAMFlyer

Mine (and I assume, others') position is not victim-blaming at all. My stated disclaimer as to who I thought was at fault was pretty clear. Nobody has disputed that AC dropped the ball; some of us have attempted to shine some perspective onto the alleged severity of the situation. My point was with the teen's hyperbolic claim that he was being "held prisoner" and was "very tired, very hungry and very scared".

Tired? Tell that to the person who just stepped off a Delhi or Dubai flight from a middle seat in economy. Every airport is full of fatigued travellers and staff.

Hungry? Eat, man. Pick any one of a hundred outlets perfectly willing and capable of serving nourishment. Did he have no cash at all?

Scared? OK, I get it, sort of. Unfamiliarity breeds discontent, especially in one's youth or formative years. Heck, I don't trust those Centre of the Universe people myself. But I'd hazard a guess that mother and/or son hadn't considered the possibility of what to do if the flight connection was missed. How well thought out was this solo trip?

And what exactly is the mother's end game with taking this story to the media?

I'll say again: AC can do much better in dealing with IROPS, with travellers of all ages. The likelihood of cascading YYZ delays is not exactly an unforeseen possibility. Similarly, airline passengers are not exempt from some level of personal responsibility and contingency planning whenever leaving their house.

smallmj

Don't underestimate the fear that many small town folks have of the big city. Lots of people in my town are scared of going to the small city of Halifax. When all that you hear on the news is big city crimes, then a safe place like Pearson can be a scary place, especially when the people that are supposed to help you don't do squat.

KenHamer

Indeed. The excuses would have come from the executive level instead.
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flyquiet

I consider myself pretty resilient. I've been through a lot of adversity of various kinds. But being a vulnerable person (by age, gender, disability) and on top of the normal "stuff goes wrong", getting no information from the airline about what you are supposed to do, not understanding jargon and what resources there are, the tendency for the agents to speak dismissively in the face of someone who is clearly worrying instead of looking them in the eye and speaking with compassion, then combined with the whole getting-through-the-night plan, worrying about "bad people" preying on you, wanting to steal your phone or money or whatever, as a kid maybe worrying about being blamed for doing something wrong or the right thing incorrectly.

Reflecting on my own multiple strandings at ORD where the experience was so scary and unnerving that I will pay a premium to stay far, far away from that airport. You don't have to be 15: as a 25 year old married executive with 600 employees, it was unnerving and scary. As a 40-something international Board of Directors member on an F ticket, it was unnerving and scary. And any of the other times against my better (phobia) judgement I have tried to connect or visit and instead have misconnected or had flights cancelled there, as a deaf person, I felt as vulnerable as a baby. And nobody likes feeling like that, and nobody likes the people and institutions that make them feel like that.

So, the last thing that comes to my mind is that the kid or others are exaggerating how unnerving and scary it was for the kid. However, it's not anyone's place to judge if someone was the appropriate amount of scared. If the passenger did what they were told to do, then the ball is in the airline's court and it seemed that they did not uphold the commitment to take care of vulnerable travellers first and foremost when things go sideways.