Unaccompanied child advice please...

[Petrus1983]

I've got my son booked onto a United Airlines flight (LHR-JFK) but I can't get through to them to ask what I'm meant to actually do. Do I turn up 2 hours before and drop him off? Is there a zone to aim for? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[zedx19]

10 seconds on Google, does this help?

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/accessibil...

[gl20]

Link above has it covered and sounds very similar to when I used to fly as an unaccompanied minor in the 80s as a 10/11 year old (LHR-BOS). Hope your son loves it as much as I did.

[Petrus1983]

zedx19 said:

10 seconds on Google, does this help?

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/accessibil...

I do appreciate the link - I was just wondering if anyone had any real life experiences with American Airlines. But thank you.

[Tam_Mullen]

Petrus1983 said:

I do appreciate the link - I was just wondering if anyone had any real life experiences with American Airlines. But thank you.

Why? Your OP says he's booked on United, and the link was for United. Why would you want to hear of real experience with a different airline?

[GliderRider]

Tam_Mullen said:

Petrus1983 said:

I do appreciate the link - I was just wondering if anyone had any real life experiences with American Airlines. But thank you.

Why? Your OP says he's booked on United, and the link was for United. Why would you want to hear of real experience with a different airline?

I think Petrus means airlines from America, as opposed to 'American Airlines' the company.

[Kiribati268]

As you're departing from the outstation it'll all be done by the handling agent of the airline, rather than the airline itself. The airline will set the guidelines but apart from a couple of airline reps, it'll be the handling agent you'll deal with.

[Petrus1983]

This is just an update as I know threads are sometimes Googled and this may help.

We checked in around 2.5 hours before the flight at the special assistance area - they were mega friendly and there was an element of paperwork. The bags were then dropped off via the first class desk. After that we were told to go back to that area around an hour before the flight which gave us a chance for a snack etc.

The airline's ground agent then collected him to take him over to the gate. I had to wait until the plane was airborne before leaving the airport incase there were any issues.



He suddenly seemed very little as I waved him off - but 8 hours later I had a great FaceTime with a beaming 9 year old who seemed very proud of himself who reported they'd looked after him "amazing dad".

[Puggit]

I grew up in France and went to school in England. The number of times I flew unaccompanied

Fair do's though, JFK-LHR is very different to the puddle hop I used to do.

[Petrus1983]

Puggit said:

I grew up in France and went to school in England. The number of times I flew unaccompanied

Fair do's though, JFK-LHR is very different to the puddle hop I used to do.

Ah yes!

He's done a flight from Dallas to Austin which was fine - but 50 mins. This was LHR- DFW on a wide bodied jet and 10 hours on the plane. Genuinely I'm a happy dad.