johna

Has anybody else run into this?

Friends of mine were checking in for their trans-Atlantic flight on British Airways, when the counter agent noted that "You'll be seated next to a young person today." Carol at first thought, "Obviously - my 20-year-old daughter is right here checking in with me." But when the agent repeated the comment, Carol asked for clarification. It turns out that British Airways has a policy that when unaccompanied minors are traveling, they are not permitted to be seated next to men! What's more, "next to" turned out to be "across the aisle from"!

Perhaps there was an airline molestation case in Britain that gave rise to this policy? And who said that only men could molest - Carol's daughter thought it so ridiculous that she commented it was tempting to touch the kid just to show that women could molest, too. (Before I - or she - gets flamed here, let's agree that of course molestation is no laughing matter.) At least they seemed to apply the policy to boys and girls, ignoring the old canard that men are more likely to molest boys.

The policy also raises some simple logistics issues. For example, lots of couples would simply book two seats, and worry onboard about who sat where. If a child had the window seat, would the wife be required to take the middle so the husband wouldn't be next to the kid? Indeed, it turned out that there was a man in the window next to Carol and her daughter; he preferred the aisle and they preferred the window/middle combination, so the child ended up sitting "next to" (across the aisle from) a man after all.

The whole situation reminded me of my TWA flight from New York to Tel Aviv. Half the passengers were observant Jews, who are forbidden by religion from touching a member of the opposite sex that they aren't married to - even shaking hands would be a no-no. It was Bedlam as passengers boarded and insisted they couldn't sit there because of the sex of the person next to them (accidental touching is just as bad, and probably inevitable on a long overnight flight). Finally the lead flight attendant announced that everybody could take their seats or get off the plane, but the door was closing in five minutes.

Back to unaccompanied minors, can anybody shed additional light on British Airways' policies? And does anybody know of other airlines with similar restrictions?

tmorse6570

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Austman

See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/000135.html

Clearly, SAS which promotes its service for children, do NOT have this policy.

Jailer

Perhaps I am jaded because some of our “guests” are child molesters, but I would not want my 10-year-old daughter to sit next to a male if she was flying unaccompanied. And, given the atmosphere, I would probably ask my wife to switch seats with me so she would be the one to sit next to an unaccompanied child on an airplane.

tmorse6570

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Jon Toner

Sign of the times.

Men simply are not trusted. 11 years ago (wow - 11 years already!) when I started coaching Little League (without having a child on the team), I was viewed with an incredible amount of suspicion. I was positively neurotic about "proving" I wasn't a sicko. The least fun day was standing in the rain while a kid waited in a storage shed (it didn't click with mom and dad that downpours is not conducive to baseball - they came an hour later) to stay dry - no way in the world I was going within 20 feet of that storage shed.

Me? I'd never send my kids unaccompanied. It is well worth the adult fare (even without a Saturday stayover) just to make the journey easier on THEM! After all, kids can get spooked easily. Having the security of mommy or daddy only a few inches away is so important.

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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Punki

tmorse6570, how dare you accuse all women of being gold-diggers. Why on earth would we get our hands dirty digging when there is all that lovely gold (set with sparkles) just lying around in Tiffany's waiting for men to buy (for us)?

kokonutz

I'm a little surprised by the lack of understanding over unaccompanied minors.

An example: My sister is a divorced single mom. Her lout of an ex-husband decided that the best way to avoid paying pesky alamony in addition to child support would be to take a transfer to London. My (saintly) sister, not wanting my eleven-year-old niece to grow up not knowing her father thus nevertheless allows her to go see her father in London up to twice a year.

Without commenting on my ex-brother-in-law as a father, it seems perfectly reasonable to expect that my niece ought to be able to fly her, as she says, "Virgin Shagic Carpet" across the pond without her or her mother being judged negatively for doing so. In fact, she finds such trips thrilling.

As for the BA policy, once that child is in the custody of the airline, the airline has a duty to see that child safely delivered. If the lawyers at BA think keeping children surrounded by women on the airplane reduces the the airline's potential liability, well then there you go...

opus17

Wonder what people say if a policy like this (written or unwritten) were based on race, not sex?

Anyway, maybe the motivation is the exact opposite of what the speculation has been -- the airlines figure that males (all of whom must be businessmen) would object to a child nearby, while the females (all of whom must be mothers) would not object, and maybe would help look after the youngster, as per their biological programming.

Is that even more offensive?

[This message has been edited by opus17 (edited 10-17-2000).]

essxjay

The notion that UMs are poorly parented is a preposterous over-generalization.

Parents who deprive their children of the lessons of independence and self-control end up with kids who don't know how to manage in a world outside their micromanaged lives.

I began flying as a UM at the age of 8 in the early 70s, due to my parents' separation. I was, as now, well-mannered and expected to behave as if I were a guest in someone's home. Thirty years later, I pity my peers who missed the travel opportunities that I had as a child, not to mention today's youngsters - unaccompanied or not - who don't have a clue about how to behave on a plane or in the world in general.

TribeFlyer

I'm a perfect example of the "all women are mothers" mentality. A couple years ago I was waiting to fly Southwest on a full flight one Friday afternoon. I struck up a conversation with a 10-year-old boy wearing baseball insignia of my preferred team who was traveling with his father. When I found out their boarding pass numbers were so high they wouldn't be able to sit together, I volunteered (with the boy's consent) to save a seat for him next to me in the front of the plane. During the safety lecture the FAs asked me to assist my "son" with the oxygen mask as needed. We continued to chat on the plane, and at the end of the flight we waited outside the jetway together for his dad to deplane. I doubt many men would be allowed to do the same thing if they were in my place.

PerrySSoCal

To me this is another example of Gender Discrimination against men. As johna & her daughter suggest women can molest also, look at Mary Kay Letorneau. She was the school teacher in Seattle that molested one ofe her students & had a child by him. Then when she was out on parole, she molested him again & got pregnant 2nd time!!!! She basically got off with a slap on the wrist. If it had been a man with a consenting 13yr old (which they say the boy was) then he would be in jail for life.

I am not saying I support child molesters (my sisters were molested by a step father), but these rules should be applied evenly. It seems equal rights have become equal rights with a little extra for women.

PerrySSoCal

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joyfully subversive

heart of asia

British Airways is not the only airline with a policy not to seat UMNR next to male pax....Qantas also have that policy...with the safety of the young person being the reason.

hfly

If you take intercity buses in Turkey (which believe it or not are quite luxurious), they will not sit single women next to men, ever. They will let seats go empty rather than do this.

cc

I feel compelled to reply here. I am the friend of johna who had this happen. It is not just unaccompanied minors who are the issue here. The minor next to us was with his mother! And BA still seemed to find it unacceptable for a man OR another minor (their term is YP for young person) to sit next to him (across the aisle). The attendants did not, however, say or do anything when we rearranged our seating so that the man was next to the "YP"!