Delta [Gate Agent] Gives Unaccompanied Minor to Wrong Person

Derg said:
There are people that send UM's overseas.

We had 15 individual UM's to CDG once.

Sadly, I keep thinking how did the mother know the child was arriving at the airport, where was the person who was supposed to receive the child? How did the person, not on the list, gain entry to the gate area without the proper paperwork and, of course, wouldn't it have still been a story if the airline didn't release the child to the mother in spite of whatever the restrictions were?

This leave me more questions than answers.
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I know nonrev UMs AGES 5-14 can only travel on non-stop domestic flights (including Canada and Caribbean) and can not travel on redeye flights greater than two hours with a few exceptions. Of course they don't get the same accompaniment services as a paying UM does, hence the non-stop and red-eye restrictions. Still trying to figure out how the mother got a security pass from ticket counter, since the person meeting the child is entered into the UMs PNR.
 
H46Bubba said:
Still trying to figure out how the mother got a security pass from ticket counter, since the person meeting the child is entered into the UMs PNR.
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Hate to assume, but we've all probably met a gate agent or 5 from RandomCo or 3rdPartyCo that made you stop and think.."How did this person get hired?"
 
Mike Wise said:
Hate to assume, but we've all probably met a gate agent or 5 from RandomCo or 3rdPartyCo that made you stop and think.."How did this person get hired?"
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Gate agents in HOU are Southernjets employees. I say that on a daily basis around here!;)
 
Pretty simple when I was a gate agent. For outbound flights, United agent would check in the kid, fill out paperwork which anyone responsible for the kid would hold, and then call AirServ. AirServ would take the kid thru security and then pre-board with them and hand them off to the flight attendant. On arrival, flight attendant would hold onto the kid until AirServ picked up the kid and brought them to meet the parent. If all the AirServ agents were tied up with other pax escorts, I would take the kid to my counter and wait for the parent. The parent would get thru security on a gate pass, and show me their ID. If it all checked out and the kid didn't act like they'd never seen the person before, they were quickly on their way. It was rare, in about 3 years as a gate agent I only had to hand off 4 or 5 UMs to parents. United took keeping track of them very seriously, that's why they had contracted pax escorts do it rather than burden gate agents who they knew couldn't keep a solid eye on the kid.

There were 2 times I had to stay all night until the morning people came in because flights canceled and minors were stranded at the airport until the AM(why connecting is a bad idea). It was actually fun, we took one of the kids on tours of all the UA and Skywest planes parked at the gates over-night. @DPApilot was lurking around one of those times and probably scared the kid for life, though.
 
That's funny. How did the mom know her kid was a UM on a flight if she just got out of prison? Surely she wasn't the only person that showed up!
 
You always check the id.....I had a pro baseball player show up to pick his kid up who I obviously recognized, still had to verify his license as embarassing as it was.

It's shocking the number of parents who show up late to pick up their young child...I'm not talking a few minutes, hours, and in many cases they go to the wrong airport. We always make the best of the situation letting them hang out in ops watching cartoons and eating junk food.
 
Derg said:
There are people that send UM's overseas.

We had 15 individual UM's to CDG once.

Sadly, I keep thinking how did the mother know the child was arriving at the airport, where was the person who was supposed to receive the child? How did the person, not on the list, gain entry to the gate area without the proper paperwork and, of course, wouldn't it have still been a story if the airline didn't release the child to the mother in spite of whatever the restrictions were?

This leave me more questions than answers.
Click to expand...
I flew as a UM to Italy when I was 13 to stay with an aunt. But then again...I was 13, not 7.
 
When I was very young my brother and I would fly as UM from JFK-LAX and back. Apparently on one red-eye we decided to take off all of our clothes and start running around, there was a nice lady named Candy who got us to calm down and behave. My dad told me many years later it was Candice Bergen. True story.
 
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