Parents reconsider sending kids flying solo

Tension has now faded to laughter, but recently the Drake family “went to war.” Their two-week standoff fueled a covert plot on one side, and a power play on the other — all over plans to jet a little girl alone across the country for vacation.

Battle lines were drawn between KeJuana Drake and her mother, Burnice. Too swamped with work and school to travel, KeJuana wanted to fly her 9-year-old daughter solo from Washington, D.C., direct to the West Coast to visit a favorite aunt. The kid was on cloud nine. But grandma Burnice balked, arguing it’s harmful to send children unescorted on airliners.

Schemes were hatched. KeJuana decided to secretly buy the ticket anyway — “ask for forgiveness later rather than permission up front,” she figured. Burnice countered, purchasing a round-trip ticket for KeJuana to coax her to accompany her granddaughter.

“Mom,” KeJuana later admitted, “trumps all.” KeJuana will sit next to her daughter on June 27 as a Northwest Airlines flight carries both to Los Angeles. The next day, KeJuana will return to Washington. And after hearing how Continental Airlines mistakenly placed two different unaccompanied girls (aged 8 and 10) on the wrong Continental Express flights to the wrong cities last weekend, Burnice is truly savoring her victory.

“Yes, I am!” she said. “I don’t like for children to be put into adult situations and, in my opinion, flying alone puts a 9-year-old in an adult situation. It can be stressful and traumatic for a child to be alone on a plane. Stuff can happen.”

Parents, grandparents reconsider
In the wake of the Continental errors — and on the cusp of summer, when thousands of unattended kids zoom across time zones en route to camps or to see divorced moms and dads — many parents and grandparents are re-thinking how and when children should go it alone.

Every major carrier accepts and offers special attention to unescorted flyers starting at age 5. On United Airlines, solo-flying kids must wear red-and-white buttons so flight crews can identify them. On Southwest Airlines, unattended children are introduced to the flight attendants. Still, parental nerves seem more frayed over the issue, experts say.

At the Family Travel Network, an online magazine and trip-planning hub, many parental e-mails are this week tinged with vapor-trail jitters.

“This is peak season for unaccompanied minors and what happened with Continental is every parent’s nightmare,” said Nancy Schretter, the site’s managing editor. “You know, some parents won’t even let their 5-year-olds play outside alone. And with those two Continental flights, the parents looked like they did all the right things, had everything set up.

“Now a lot of parents are asking: is my child old enough to do this? A lot of parents are re-evaluating that. It’s a critical question,” Schretter said. “Are they mature enough? Can the child ask the right questions (while onboard)? There’s no excuse for these (Continental) situations, no way. But parents should be asking themselves: am I really comfortable with my kids flying alone?”

For New York City-area mom Molly Gordy, Continental would have been “the more convenient choice” on which to transport her 11-year-old daughter, Sophie, alone to Milwaukee to visit her grandparents.

“Instead and fortunately, according to the latest news, we went (with) Midwest Airlines” for her daughter’s June 26 solo flight, Gordy said. And she paid more to do it. She felt a smaller airline and more intimate service would be a better fit for Sophie. “What I care about is a human being who cares about my child.”

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