UM Placed on incorrect flight at EWR
 

As the title says, United Unaccompanied Minor was placed on the wrong flight and it wasn't noticed by the airline (Eurowings) until the plane left the gate and was taxiing. I've not sent any of my kids as a UM but surprised me that the mother's communication plan to United was via Twitter. Maybe that was one of many ways she was trying to contact them. I sort of guessed there would be some dedicated phone number for UMs but honestly have never looked into it.

https://simpleflying.com/united-unac...minor-mistake/

If the boy was supposed to be on SK904, operated by SAS from Terminal B at EWR, not sure why United was involved here? The article provides little facts to piece the story together. Maybe the boy was on a United flight arrival into Terminal A or C, and connecting to the SAS flight from Terminal B? Eurowings (for LH?) also flies out of Terminal B, where UA has no presence other than arrivals.

Another article I read was that the actual itinerary was RDU-EWR-ARN. My guess is that it's equally SK's fault and UA's fault for this. The articles don't state that the teen had special needs, but shouldn't you be able to figure out, at 14, that (Dusseldorf != Stockholm) prior to boarding?

I don't know. Maybe a US kid would not know the difference.......It's not like World geography is a big thing in this country. I once met a 19 years old University student who wanted to become a reporter who thought that Egypt was in the South of South America.

And how did the kid board that flight? Was the kid just following a family with many kids?

What's odd is that he figured it out after boarding, at least according to the story he alerted FAs he was on the wrong flight.

Seems like another "I got on the wrong plane" types of stories, with the UM twist. How did the gate agents allow him on the flight, and did his assigned seat on the SAS flight just happen to be empty on the Eurowings flight? One would thing, especially with heavy Europe loads over the summer, you'd have a seat squabble before pulling back from the gate.

The parents probably purchased two tickets - RDU - EWR on UA and then EWR - ARN on SK. They then purchased the UM service for RDU - EWR incorrectly thinking it applied for the whole trip.

There's something funny going on here, because UA doesn't do connections for 14 y/o UMs at all, much less interline.

Our unaccompanied minor service is for children who are 5-14 years old and traveling without a parent, legal guardian or someone who is at least 18 years old. These young travelers also need to follow certain requirements for their safety:
- Unaccompanied minors can only travel on nonstop United or United Express® flights. They can’t use our unaccompanied minor service on codeshare flights and other flights operated by our partner airlines.
- United does not offer unaccompanied minor service connecting to or from other airlines' flights.

The article says "so booked United Airlines’ unaccompanied minor service at New York’s Newark Airport" which doesn't make any sense since the flight departing EWR was not on UA. Are the parents and "journalists" just massively confused about SAS UM service?

Or, you know, not:

Source: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...wrong-country/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ht/1616641001/


This article and another one I read explains that United made them purchase a UM service at check-in even though it was on a codeshare. They the agent messed up and didn't check the flight details properly due to some prior gate change, etc and rushed him onto the wrong flight. It was the kid who noticed the incorrect flight details once he was put on board.

The boy must have (inadvertently) sneaked on. Wouldn't the bar code reader beeped or not sound at all when (and if) it was scanned?

It should have beeped. But sometimes GAs give people the benefit of the doubt. Last week a man in front of me had a BP beep. The GA almost let him on the flight, thinking that he had simply handed her a BP for one of his other segments that day. Luckily, she quickly corrected that. "Wait, let me see that again..."

The UM agent walked him onto the plane

I disagree, when the org (UA) has said these are the limits we've planned for (taking into account all factors - cost, competitive market, safety, PR, process maturity, etc), a random agent shouldn't go "oh this kid will be fine let's violate policy today because mom couldn't be bothered to read the readily available information."

there's a lot more to this story than is being told here. I've tried to get my kids on UM flights with a domestic connection and was told no, a thousand times, no. Plus, this kid is supposedly smart enough to not need UM, but manages to get on the wrong plane, with the wrong airline, and doesn't realize until he's been seated? Lastly, the TweetMom (and sister[!?!] knows for certain his boarding pass was never scanned, and he received a duplicate? Huh?

Something they were not expected to do; delivering inbound pax to random foreign airlines in another terminal is completely out of scope. They should only be delivering from the UA inbound flight to the person waiting for the kid landside.

I think we have a photo of the incident. As of right now, I am calling it a Home Alone 2 type mishap.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...44ef779b97.jpg

Wonder if they can claim EU 261 compensation?

UA press release claims the UM fee has been refunded.

So...question. How is the kid going to get home? United doesn't offer the service connecting FROM another airline's flight either. I guess given the media scrutiny they'll find a way, but.

Two people were really at fault here: The mother for not understanding that it impossible to fly a child to an international destination via a connection (United or otherwise), and the agent at the origin who didn't simply reject the booking because there was no way to accommodate it. The policy requires a designated person for the child to be handed off to, presumably this was entirely missing since SAS doesn't require it.

What I also don't understand is, how is this not surfaced well before the mother gets to the airport? United has the ages of everybody who flies, so why don't they flag this earlier than check-in?

What about all the other pax on the Dusseldorf flight who ended up delayed 1+ hour because of the need to return to the gate? It's like all the pax on the flight where one of two brothers boarded the UA flight LA-Tokyo instead of the ANA flight, leading the plane to turn around after 2+ hours in flight.

I have no idea how you can make that assertion.

Possibly mom booked through SAS, with the UA flight added on as part of code share (and SAS didn't prohibit booking based on UA policy). Or mom booked two separate tickets, creating appearance of no connection. FWIW, UAM is optional on SAS for 12-17. https://www.flysas.com/en/fly-with-u...panied-minors/

My guess is that the mom knows her son is more than capable of flying alone, figured UA-SAS was best routing, and found some way to evade the restrictions initially, and then UA decided to "ensure the minor's safe passage" by enforcing its policy.

I don't doubt there are 14 yo. who need UAM treatment. But I'd guess that a much larger number don't need it, and UA's policy ends up with bad outcomes like this one.

SAS policy (https://www.flysas.com/en/fly-with-u...panied-minors/) only requires UM for children under 12, and will actually let 5+ year olds fly without the service if they are traveling with someone over the age of 16 unlike UA which requires 18+. Many airlines are similar to the SAS requirements which make sense to me. UA is simply following an american mentality of CYA that these restrictions have been tightened in the past 10 or so years. UA also charges twice the amount so they definitely don't see this as a courtesy service.

SAS policy is completely irrelevant when the mother chose to book a UA flight.

UA knows they can't deliver on a more complicated UM situation, they wrote their policy to reflect what they think they can do. The agent in RDU took it upon themselves to put an out-of-policy obligation on the EWR staff; it's fine if the RDU agent wants to go above and beyond themselves, but they shouldn't be putting obligations on other stations to deliver something out of scope.

Maybe the teen turns 15 during the trip? You are technically supposed to book the child at the age on the return flight. Maybe the mother also booked him as an adult.

ETA: on SAS's website, I just tried booking a single youth ticket (ages 12-25), and it only allows me to book from one of their US gateways, not from places like DEN or RDU.

While that is true, most major OTAs I have tried won't allow you to book anyone 15 and under as a single ticket.

Glad the kid arrived safely at the destination, when all is said and done. The airlines involved here should definitely review their UM policies at a high corporate level and make immediate changes.

One thing I want to highlight - the brother's sister commented on the View From The Wing blog,
If that's true, then he should not be flying solo in the way he did. There are so many things that could go wrong (the thing that did go wrong being one example) that a non-outspoken 14-year-old should not be flying alone on a connecting international itinerary, period. There is no shame in not being outspoken; in many cases it's a virtue, as our society has too many aggressively outspoken people. But I digress.

One could argue the mother was irresponsible putting her son in this situation. Of course nothing here is the mother's fault; I am only speaking of the mother's responsibility. She may be very upset to read these words. However we all have the same goal: we want her kid (and all kids) to be transported safely and correctly. While we wish all airlines were perfectly competent in all services provided (especially those forced on you), the best way to ensure the ultimate goal may be to personally accompany her kid.

While UA did screw up, SAS is the party that ACTUALLY PUT HIM ON THE WRONG PLANE.

It depends on the stakes. I imagine most Americans won't ask to return to the gate to pick up shaving cream they left behind in the airport lounge. But to ask to return to the gate because they are on the wrong flight? I'd definitely do that. As for the candles and flowers, the border agent at the incorrect international destination won't bear those either....

UA messed up no doubt.

I really don't know why Americans are so up-tight when it comes to UM. I did my first solo international trip when I was 13 and we were always very careful to avoid any of US based airlines.

Many parents in Asia send their 13/14/15 year old kids unaccompanied to the US or Europe all the time.