BillScann

Hi. Pull up a chair.

All I wanted to do was to take my 8 year-old son on a trip to see his godfather in London. We're Alaskan, so getting anywhere takes time and money, so when I had a business trip to WAS, I thought I'd combine a little pleasure with business and book myself onward to LON. The difference was only a few hundred dollars.

AT ANY RATE just for fun I took a peek to see if there were any mileage seats available to would allow my son to meet up with me in DC and we'd continue together to LON and then back to our strip mall subarctic wasteland home of Anchorage.

I found a seat. I booked it. And I was quite pleased with myself.

AND SO I called UA to sort out the Unaccompanied Minor business (cost: $150) only to find out that kids are not allowed to fly Unaccompanied on a connecting flight. He was booked to fly ANC-ORD-WAS-LON, so rather than me meeting him in WAS and us traveling together, I had to leave WAS and pick him up at ORD. I wasn't happy about the additional time and expense, but I had promised my son a visit to his godfather.

I used AA miles to come in the night before into ORD and UA miles to put me on the same WAS segment he was traveling out on. For those keeping score, I'd paid 60K and $200 for the original award ticket; and now had to pay 10K UA and 12.5K AA plus $120 for a hotel in order to meet his flight.

TO MAKE a long story longer, I fly to ORD to meet his flight and my wife takes my son to ANC. Surprise! UA refused him boarding! Why? Because he was on an international itinerary and his passport was with me, not him. The fact that I was meeting him at ORD was of no consequence, nor did they understand why we wouldn't want them to ship him overseas without a parent.

United Airlines made my son cry.

My wife was beside herself, and as an infrequent flyer was at a loss. I called Alaska Airlines, who for 30K miles and an Unaccompanied Minor fee of $50 put him on a flight to PDX connecting to WAS, where I now sit writing this, wait for him to land in just a few minutes.

I'm out 50.5K miles, $120, a trip in vain, and a day in DC with my son. What do people recommend? How do I go about getting compensated?

noah

That sucks, seems like a breakdown in communication, misinterpretation of the rules and logistics getting in your way.

I hope that his ongoing ticket from WAS is okay and that they didn't cancel the whole thing when he didn't board in ANC - fingers crossed.

I would ask for 50K in miles as compensation. You probably won't get it, but its what I think is reasonable. That said, there are errors here on your behalf -- I'm sure it seemed reasonable for you to carry his passport AND the gate agent could probably have made it work (despite the computer insisting for travel information) but you were carrying his documents.

good luck!

GBadger

You're not going to want to hear this, but you should have left his passport with him. It is SOP for UA to collect passport information at check in for an international itinerary. No passport, no boarding. Unfortunately, that's where you went wrong here.

While I'm sure it's really frustrating, unfortunately I think this one indeed will fall under "the expensive lesson" and I doubt that you'll get compensation since this was all ultimately the result of your actions.

WineCountryUA

Understand you are unfamiliar with the rules but you need the travel documents at the start because if you have issues UA is responsible to return you to your point of origin at their cost.

There is no grounds for compensation because you were not aware of these rules.

Important issue --- make sure your son's ticket to UK is still active.

Also see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ec-2013-a.html -- the non-stop limitation is common among the majors.

BillScann

The res supervisor recommended I buy a one way ANC-ORD ticket for him so it would be on a separate ITIN. There was no way to split the PNR. She said that the UM rules were new and they were still working out the kinks.

Say what you will, this is all a bit Kafkesque.

theddo

Yes, because you don't need a passport for a domestic ticked. You didn't book a domestic ticket, you booked an international tickets where they do require some documents proving citizenship. They are a bit vague about that on their website but most of us know that you won't get far without a passport.

UA didn't make your son cry. You did. United airlines followed their published protocols which you should've inquired about beforehand.

IADDCA

I'm surprised that an agent at the counter at (DCA or IAD?) couldn't have had a look at your child's passport and faxed a copy to their counterpart out west.

DeaconFlyer

Not really. United followed all its published procedures. You didn't plan well. The end.

mduell

Did you call UA to drop the ANC-ORD-WAS segments from his reservation? Otherwise you're going to have a nasty surprise when they've cancelled his entire trip because he skipped segments.

flyingnosh

Agreed. This is bureaucracy at its finest. If the airlines want passengers to take risk for IRROPS except when MX, then surely they should be willing to let passengers take risk for getting stuck at a connection point without a passport. Checking passports at the original departure point is helpful, but shouldn't be completely rigid.

jmastron

I do sympathize, and hope the rest of the trip is uneventful. However, I'm

1) The policy on unaccompanied minors did change as of tickets purchased last December, and is clear that only nonstop flights are allowed. Unfortunately airlines are constantly changing long-standing rules and policies on things like this (a few years ago I got surprised when "infant fares" for purchasing a seat at half price went from universal to "what are you talking about, crazy person?" in a span of 6 months)? So we need to check and recheck these things every time.

2) All airlines, AFAIK, want to check your passport/documents at the primary checkin at the originating point, even if there are domestic flights at the start. I'm sure they can't actually get the system to do the checkin without it. They do usually visually check at boarding of the actual international leg, but that's not a full check of passport number and data, visas if required, etc.

I'm far from an airline apologist, but in this case unfortunately I don't think you're going to get any compensation -- be glad and hopeful that they are able to modify the ticket to drop the initial legs and keep the London flight, etc.

Kacee

BillScann, I hope the rest of your journey proves uneventful and that you and your son have a wonderful time in London. Then this whole episode can become family lore that you just look back on and share a laugh about.

channa

It's much less work to say no.

gengar

A few years back on PMUA, a relative had her passport stolen but was allowed to fly the connecting domestic leg of an international itinerary after she told UA that she was picking up her replacement passport at the passport agency in the connecting city during the layover (no passport agency in the origin city).

What has changed so much that a minor is refused boarding when the guardian who will be traveling with the minor physically has the minor's passport at the connecting airport?

As flyingnosh mentioned, this is bureaucracy at it's finest. UA had the opportunity to do the right thing and failed.

craz

A few yrs ago my brother didnt realize his PP had expired and needed it to fly TATL to my fathers funeral. PMCO said no way will they let him fly into EWR and go into NYC for a PP, I had arranged with someone who has connections if you have the $$. Since XXX-EWR-XXX was all on 1 tkt and an Intl tkt either he had a valid PP when boarding his 1st seg or he wont be allowed to fly.

So what PMUA did is long gone, its what was and is PMCOs policy that seems to be in place today