unaccompanied minor fee
 

I don't mind paying this fee-I bring my grandkids in for visits. But it ticks me off that they won't allow plane changes for this fee-EG. I could have kids fly directly to my city but becasue they have to change planes, the airline won't allow it an I have to drive 2.5 hrs. to pick them up. Yet I'm paying the unaccomp. minor fee to get them here.

They stopped it because they lost some kids when they had to change planes. So would you like to drive 2.5 hours to get them or take the chance that they will be misplaced along the way?

I don't have grandchildren yet, but if I did I wouldn't hesitate to drive 2.5 hours to pick them up rather than have them in an unfamiliar airport unaccompanied.

Are your grandkids traveling to or from EUROPE? If not, why are you cluttering up the EUROPE travel board with this non-question?<BR><BR>I imagine the issue is re security, not fees. Children are being kidnapped from their own homes these days. The airlines simply cannot be responsible for kids changing planes.

My grandson has been flying alone to visit us every summer since he was 5. The only way WE would do it would be on a NON stop flight. I would never complain about taking a drive to pick him up. And I don't complain about the fee either, the alternative is see less of him or pay hundreds to visit him myself.<BR>

I think Bob is right about why some airlines stopped doing that, but I think it varies by airline and age of the child, so yours must be pretty young. I don't think driving 2-1/2 hrs is that big a deal myself for occasional visits, it wouldn't bother me--the alternative is having your grandchildren spending extra hours in transit if there were connections, so I guess you'd rather they spend that extra time than you? The fees are not that large and this is asking for a lot of personal service.

My nearest airport is 1.5 hours away and at one stage I deliberately booked from another- 3 hours away to avoid the scenario of changing in London Heathrow or Paris C.D.G.I wasn't even prepared to chance things going wrong.What happens with major delays which result in passengers being sent to a hotel overnight? Finnair told me that the U.M. would be placed in a hotel room alone!<BR>No its not even worth thinking about.