Spirit Airlines issued an apology after putting a six-year-old unaccompanied minor on the wrong flight.
The child was set to fly on Thursday from Philadelphia International Airport to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Florida, to visit his grandmother, WINK-TV reported.
Instead, the boy was “incorrectly boarded” on a flight to Orlando, Spirit acknowledged in a statement on Saturday.
The statement did not address how the error came to take place - during a busy holiday travel day.
So yeah this can’t happen. The parent has to hand the kid to an escort, who is with the kid until they are put on the plane and handed off to the flight attendant. Not to mention the kids ticket has to be scanned on boarding. This was not just one person making a mistake. This was more than one person making more than one mistake. Including the escort, the gate agent, and maybe the flight attendant on the plane the kid was boarded on. Not to mention the gate agent on the flight the kid was supposed to be on. Their computer should tell them they have an unaccompanied minor on the flight who has been checked in at the counter. They would know the kid wasn’t on the plane and as they board very first.
So how did this happen. Well Spirit contracts most of their labor. So the ticket counter, the escort and the gate agent were all contract labor. Probably for the same company but maybe not. And all of them were probably fairly inexperienced, as soon as most people get experience they leave spirit contractors and get hired with a real airline with real benefits.
I was an escort many years ago (phrasing deliberate) and yeah. Some safeguards we had off the top of my head:
Parents stayed with the kid at the gate for their first flight. They were also told to stay at the airport until the plane left the ground, not just when the kid boarded or the plane left the gate (I only worked with kids on layovers and arriving from international flights who needed to go through customs)
When kids had an extended layover, they had a supervised play room we’d take them to. When it was time for their next flight we would call their name, check their wristband to make sure it matched the paperwork (oh yeah, they got wristbands with name and flight info) and we would ask them where they’re going (not “are you going to St. Louis?” but “where are you going?” and make sure they say St. Louis, Missouri, or something to that effect)
At the gate, talk to the gate agent. Tell them you have Kevin, the UM (unaccompanied minor) going to St. Louis so everyone knows they have the right kid going to the right place, especially if there was a gate change and she thought you had Blake for the new flight at this gate going to Denver
Board the plane with the kid, and introduce them to the flight attendant. Same deal: name and city. When they take the kid from there, they should sign the book and check the wristband just as we did
When the kid is handed off to the parent (or whatever) on the other end, make sure the name and address matches their ID. This was typically only done on international arrivals (otherwise parents would meet at the gate and gate agents would do the handoff) but if anything didn’t match we had to get in contact with whoever dropped the kid off at the beginning of the trip and get authorization. But I’ll admit I bent that rule when a deaf teenager was going back to her boarding school and Mom put the school’s address which of course didn’t match the ID. The girl knew the woman picking her up already and was old enough to trust a little vs some 8-year-old who doesn’t understand that Aunt Suzy has a restraining order