When reader Anayah booked a ticket for her little sister to come visit her in New York, she specifically asked Delta if there would be a fee for an unaccompanied minor. They told her (twice) that since her sister was 14, there would be no fee. When Anayah’s family got to the gate Delta informed them that there would be a charge of $100 each way. Anayah’s mother could not afford to pay this fee and, since Delta would not allow Anayah to pay the fee in person at the ticket counter in New York, there would be an additional charge of $100 to pay by phone. The confusion caused her sister to miss her flight, and now Delta wants another fee to rebook her.
Here’s Anayah’s letter to Delta:
To Whom It May Concern:
I have never felt as hustled by an airline as I have been on this day. When I booked the fee for my younger sister to come visit me in New York from Chicago, I called in to Delta to find out what the procedure is for a minor to fly on Delta. I was told on 2 different occasions by customer service representatives that if she was 14 or older, she would be able to fly without paying a fee in addition to the $306 plane ticket… only to have my mother and sister embarrassed at the ticket counter when they were told she would have to pay an additional fee that our mother (who accompanied her to the airline) cannot afford.
When our mother tried to arrange to have me pay it at the ticket counter, she was advised that it COULD NOT be paid in person, only over the phone. When I called to make the payment over the phone on her behalf, we learned that there was an ADDITIONAL $100 fee for paying over the phone to the already additional $100 unaccompanied minor fee on a $306 TICKET!
In speaking with a representative over the phone, we also learned that a previous representative had already entered that they advised us about the fee when they DIDN’T! Instead of telling us that we would have to pay the fee so we could make arrangements for that sooner, the person noted her age in the account and told us we WOULD NOT have to pay a fee.
In all of this confusion, my little sister has missed her flight and we’re being made to PAY ANOTHER FEE to rebook her. In the past 12 years, I’ve missed countless flights in at least 5 countries – some missed flights were my fault, others the airlines’ – never have I had to pay to be rebooked for them.
I am absolutely shocked and disgusted that at a time when our country is in an economic recession and people are choosing to travel by air less and less that Delta would see fit to discourage another customer from ever flying with your airline by extorting a series of irrational (at least irrationally priced, notified, and collected) fees. I know that they are irrational because the final representative with whom I spoke did not charge the ridiculous additional $100 fee to rebook by phone. While I greatly appreciated his gesture, I see that it was all a game to hustle as much money as possible from the beginning, or else I would have been able to make all of the changes by phone without the additional $100 phone fees (x2 for 2 different “services”) and [my sister] would not have missed her original flight.
Sincerely,
Anayah
We looked up Delta’s unaccompanied minor policy and they do indeed charge $100 each way, for anyone 14 and under. The fees are collected at the airport ticket counter when the child checks in.
We also took a look at some other airline’s policies about unaccompanied minors. United Airlines and JetBlue do not charge unaccompanied minor fees for 14-year-olds, but many other airlines do.
Delta’s policy is not unusual or unclear, and their customer service representatives should have advised you of the fee when you asked them about it, especially if they noted your sister’s age on the account, and they should have waived the $100 “phone” fee before your sister missed her flight — not after.
What a mess!
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While the misinformation was ridiculous and worthy of a stern letter, UM fees serve a purpose. As a former airline agent, I’ve had to babysit a 10 year old for 3 hours when a parent/grandparent/aunt has just “forgotten” or been confused about the arrival time. The fee covers the extra paperwork, hand holding and occasional excessive babysitting hours put in to transporting, with all legal liability, a young child. The age varies, but it’s hard to set a good universal age as one 14 year old might be perfectly mature while another would wander into a bathroom with a pervert. With the stuff I’ve seen cheap parents can’t be left to make that decision. I’ve been lied to on numerous occasions about the (unprovable) age of a child t get around the fees. One even got on the wrong plane when the parent lied and said he was 15 (he was a tall 12). This is why UM fees/paperwork are necessary. The original phone agent and $100 pay by phone fee? Wrong. Flying these days alone without UM status at the age of 13? Kind of scary.
Normally I’m not a “blame the OP” type o’ guy, but something that really raised my eyebrows is this -
“I’ve missed countless flights in at least 5 countries – some missed flights were my fault, others the airlines”
If someone misses “countless flights” because of their own negligence, I can’t help but to think that someone is a few cans short of six-pack in such matters.
Um, I have never in the history of airlining ever heard of an airline NOT charging a fee for an unaccompanied minor. That just doesn’t happen, period. That would be like them volunteering to take full responsibility for someone else’ child, rather than providing a service that is being requested by the consumer for “accompaniment.” Sorry, this sounds like an unfortunate shakedown for $ by someone who thinks flying is a right that they shouldn’t have to pay much for.
@MyPetFly: Yeaaaaahhhhh….I hope you’ll be ready to pay a LOT more than the low-cost-of-even-operating-the flight fares currently in place. Can no one see that there is a problem when it is cheaper to fly (even with the price of gas skyrocketing) than to ride the Greyhound? Airline service with increase exponentially when the fares raise CONSIDERABLY and the COST to operate, with a bit of profit as well is covered. Don’t expect good service in an industry that has slashed its employees wages to SUBSIDIZE “customer” jaunts to Orlando & Vegas. No one OWES me a vacation flight, especially not from some airline employee wages, so their bosses can keep the place afloat for longer than the next guy, regardless of lack of covering costs.
I gave my 14 year old a cell phone & told him he was now 15. If he had any doubts, to call me on the phone. He never called and was picked up at the other airport without incident or added cost.
Screw ‘em! I only fly Amtrak. No BS. Gimme my own sleeper berth, my own toilet, steak dinner, some beer in my carry on for the ride, a nice bed with turn down service, morning paper with coffee in bed, breakfast, you can’t beat it. My biggest worry the first time I did it was crashing through the wall at Chicago’s Union Station like at the end of the movie “Silver Streak”.
@lalaland13: $200 menses fee? Don’t give them any ideas! Could also be a $200 fee to fly any male from ages 16-24: “raging hormones/sexual prime fee”.
@MercuryPDX:
Fuck Delta (quite literally, despite being a frequent flyer on them for several years for reasons I won’t get into, I would not shed a tear if they suddenly went bankrupt.)
However, I fail to see how your post is relevant to air travel. “You are now free to move around the country?” Southwest cherry-picks the most profitable routes, and those who happen to be served by those routes (and don’t mind the unassigned cattle-call boarding) are sometimes happy with them.
Why do you think that Southwest doesn’t fly into many major airports in many major cities? Or, perhaps, anywhere overseas? Much as I hate most major airlines, my miles on them do let me fly nearly free (well, that’s going up, but not as much as ticket prices) to most anywhere in the world. Southwest’s world is the US, and for any major city, alternate airports at that. LAX? ORD? DCA? JFK/EWR/LGA? (Oops, we can’t do any of those, let’s just do ISP!) BOS? DFW? ATL? Nope. SFO/SEA? Sorry, go to OAK/GEG for many flights, as with many other airports (and you’re lucky we service the major airports there at all and not just the secondaries!) They may be friendly, but they will not get you where you want to go unless where you want to go is in a fairly restricted range.
At least you don’t need a passport to ever fly on Southwest! It is indeed such a pain trying to travel to foreign lands to see other cultures than our own, so it is perhaps quite nice that Southwest accommodates that.
@MorrisseyTheCat: There’s a difference between an Unaccompanied Minor, who receives special services and pays an additional fee for them, and an unaccompanied minor, who is simply a teenager traveling alone and is treated the same as an adult passenger.
Let’s see… if I decide to fly to Florida with myself, my wife and my kids, the tickets come to about $1500, probably not including extra luggage costs. We get up at 6 or so, get to the airport by 9AM and we wait to board for (let’s say 11AM). If I’m lucky, we got a direct flight so potentially we get to some place like Orlando by 3PM. Deboard and get luggage, it’s now closer to 4PM and then we wait for a car rental shuttle. By 4:30 we’re at the rental building and oh! look! there’s a line-up. 1.5 hours later (if we’re lucky, I once waited 2.5 hrs for my turn at the rental roulette in Orlando) we’re hitting the road at 6PM. The rental for a week’s gonna cost us a couple of hundred bucks. So we’re close to $2000 for a family of 4 and we’re at my final destination (east coast) at 9-10PM (if there are no delays, lost luggage, quick rental car and/or flight transfers). One whole day gone on air travel and basically we can hit the beach the next morning.
Contrast that with “get in the car at 6am” and drive. If I drive straight through it takes anywhere from between 18-24 hours (if Pennsylvania construction traffic is ok with that) and I’ll get to my destination at 6am and guess what — I can hit the beach at the same time as the flight. Total cost: roughly $350 not including shopping along the way and wear and tear on the car.
So, not only is driving cross country obviously much cheaper, it’s not much longer, to boot.
Any wonder why I don’t fly as much any more?
I dont fly a ton (about once a year), and of the airlines I’ve traveled, Delta is the worst – hands down. Their equipment was shoddy, their stewardesses were rude and they were really late getting out of New York (by like 2 hours).
British Air, on the other hand, treated me like a king. Oh, I’m sure they have problems of their own – but I didnt see it when I few with them.
I’ll never do Delta again.
@psychos:
Psyhcos, Southwest does fly into LAX, SFO and SEA. They may not have as frequent service as they do to other locations, of course, due to slot constraints or other issues. They also fly into BWI or IAD to serve the DC area. DCA is *heavily* slot controlled.
@lalaland13: Liability insurance in case one of the ground crew kidnaps her (etc.), and the parents decide to sue.