BRITINJAPAN4

In what language are you making this assumption ?

sjc2679

With the greatest respect, probably in the language the child speaks? Although it is a stupid request nonetheless.

Dave Noble

I would suspect that there are not many 9 year olds that would be unable to confirm their name and confirm that the adult is either their parent , guardian or legal caregiver

The OP did not indicate that the child was his child and that he should have access to the booking

I would however have thought that the airline would have procedures in place to handle dealing with young children on bookings. I would have expected that the child's booking would at least have been cross referenced to the adult , so that it identified that the child would not be an unaccompanied minor and that the adult in the linked booking would be able to address issues

Children have just as much right to data protection as adults do and it is good to see that BA is attempting to do so - albeit in what may not be a perfect method

BA6501

Furthermore if the OP is the credit card holder then that settles it, BA should be willing to speak to them.

flatlander

I would definitely put the BA phone agent on the phone to an infant if I had one handy. Especially an infant at the "mash all the [noisy phone] buttons! gurgle all the syllables!" stage of development.

eefor jfp

Even if you are the child's parent or legal guardian, you may need to have a notarized letter from the child's other parent giving you permission to travel or a notarized letter saying that the child's other parent is deceased or that you are the sole custodian. If you are an uncle or another relative or a friend, you will almost certainly need this if you are crossing a border. However, it is still strange that BA wants to talk to a nine year old and not the parent/guardian.

Dave Noble

i can believe that BA would require details to access bookings, however I would not agree that border crossings will almost certainly need this.

In the last 2 years, I have been to Auckland, Sydmey, Kuala Lumpur (2 times), Doha, Colombo, Paris, Singapore, London ( 3 times ), Geneva, Cairo and Muscat with my foster son - only once ( at LGW on arrival ) did anyone question about him at all - this is despite different surnames and different nationality passports

FAA1996

She is not my kid, but we travel fairly often as she is a family member and we bring her along on family vacations at least once a year. We do have all the necessary paperwork as no minors are allowed to leave her country of origin without this notarized paperwork. I am the one who booked her ticket after mine was booked and its cross referenced to my booking. Wonder if the email has something to do with purchasing a seat for her? Everyone else is able to choose seats in advance because of our status, but because she is o a separate booking I had to pay about $280 so hard be sitting next to us on our preferred seats (upper deck).

Dave Noble

Given that she is not your child, the agent not being prepared to discuss the booking with you without confirmation that you should have access to it, seems perfectly reasonabe

BA6501

Do you mean you're the credit card holder?

FAA1996

Yes, I called and booked her ticket using my credit card. Called AA and they were able to speak to their BA liaison and get everything worked out. Had to do with the seats I had paid for (63K) for her on both transatlantic legs. The other 3 of us on the same flight are in the other row 63 seats.

Ldnn1

HIDDY

Well whether they were right or wrong I think when there's a non family member child involved it's better to err on the side of caution.

Everyone can make a mistake...I'd tend to be a bit more forgiving.

TWCLAM

From a position of understanding, although no expert, this comes under Human Trafficking Legislation. I imagine that in this case the fact it was made via AA so theres a chance that data didn't have the chance to tie up with that held by BA there is and never will be any exemption to the protection stance that any airline takes. You need to understand that there are substantial financial, not to mention the more important consumer repercussions and most importantly the protection of those being sold into slavery of any kind, of any airline not doing the checks they are required to carry out ( in the UK at least I can't speak for elsewhere) legally to establish the validity of you travelling with a minor who is not your child.

I 100% understand how in a legitimate case like your own you would feel this is stupid and to a degree insulting. All you are doing is taking away a loved family member on a holiday that maybe they could never have via mom & dad for whatever reason( rhetorical statement no need to answer as it's private business). To give you an idea of just how strict the legislation in the UK is regarding this subject I took one of my nephews away a couple of years ago. We flew from our home airport of LGW and my partner is a senior member of the security team there. We had a letter formatted correctly giving us permission to take him out of the UK from both his parents however we got pulled, were separated ( myself and my partner) and questioned by the police to just make sure. If it can happen to somebody who knows the police on a personal level at the airport we were flying from & meets with the security services at least once per shift then, imho, it's reasonable to appreciate that you are given some extra hoops to jump through. It's not a personal slight it's to comply with legislation and again imho VERY important legislation. I wont deny for a second that "we need to talk to the 9yo travelling with you" is, to be frank, moronic as no boxes would be checked as said child at that age could easily be coerced to answering the way they were told to by a trafficker & wouldn't protect any airline from prosecution for exactly that reason.

BA being a British airline has to comply with any legislation of their home nation regardless of where pax board or alight( if it was found that somebody was trafficked then for penalties to be imposed they wouldn't need to have ever stepped foot in the UK BA would still be liable for allowing it to happen). Taking into account the scale of human trafficking nowadays it's an unfortunate but necessary step to ensure that any child moving from one country to another is safeguarded properly.

bluemoon68

I thought CAA guidelines require that the 9 year old should be sat with you. Not sure it was necessary for you to pay.