Airlines Offering Unaccompanied Minor Services

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At the end of February British Airways announced, somewhat suddenly, that offering an unaccompanied minor service was simply too much for them. They used the excuse of “a decline in demand” but they may as well have said that offering an unaccompanied minor service wasn’t a major profit center for them so they couldn’t be bothered to offer the service any more – at least that would have been honest.

At the time I thought that the sudden closure of the service showed a lack of judgement by British Airways (not something new for this management team) but, as I didn’t really know who else offered the service, I couldn’t be sure just how much of a backward step the British Airways decision was. Now I know.

Quite a few people have been in touch to ask about their options now that British Airways has closed down the Solo Flyer program and, as I openly admit to knowing absolutely nothing about this, I did a bit of research to see what I could find out.

I wrote down a random list of major airlines and then proceeded to see what (if anything) they offered in terms of an unaccompanied minor service. I picked a total of 14 airlines that I thought would cover routes that British Airways offers and, to my great surprise, all 14 airlines provide an unaccompanied minor service.

Note: this isn’t an exhaustive list so, if an airline you’re interested in isn’t in this article it doesn’t mean they don’t offer the service – I’ve just aimed to capture the more popular international airlines. The name of each airline in the list is a link to their unaccompanied minor page.

Airlines Offering Unaccompanied Minor Service

Air Canada

• Service available to children between the ages of 8 and 17
• Service is mandatory for children between the ages of 8 and 11 unless traveling with someone who is 16 or over.
• No connecting flights allowed (non-stop services only).
• Not available on codeshare flights
• Eligible flights:
  • Non-stop services on Air Canada & Air Canada Rouge
  • Non-stop services on Air Canada Express (flights operated by Jazz, Sky Regional, Air Georgian GX – Flight series 7350-7499, and Exploits Valley Air 8K – Flight series 7615-7649).
• Cost: A service fee of $100 CAD/USD each way per child per flight applies, regardless of fare.

Air France

• Service available under the following conditions:
  • Within metropolitan France for ages 4 – 17
  • To or from a French overseas department or territory for ages 4 – 17
  • Other international flights for ages 5 – 17
  • Within the Caribbean network for ages 4 – 17
• Costs: Between €50 and €75 each way depending on the distance traveled.

Air France has a host of different rules depending on the age of the child and the routing of the trip so it’s best to check with the dedicated Air France webpage to see which rules will apply to your situation.

American Airlines

• Service available to:
  • Ages  5 – 7 on non-stop or direct flights.
  • Ages 8 – 17 on any nonstop or direct flight, or any connecting flight through Charlotte, Washington Reagan, Dallas Forth Worth, New York (JFK and LGA), Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago (ORD), Philadelphia and Phoenix.
• Service is optional for those aged 15 – 17.
• Children 2-14 years old can travel as an ‘accompanied minor’ with someone 16 years or older.
• Service not available when:
  • A connection to/from another airline, including codeshare and oneworld® partners is required.
  • A ground / co-terminal connection is required
• Costs:
  • The unaccompanied minor service fee is $150 (plus tax) each way
  • 2 or more unaccompanied minors from the same family, traveling on the same flights, will only be charged $150 (plus tax) each way.

British Airways

Surprisingly, although British Airways has done away with its Solo Flyer Service, the unaccompanied minor service isn’t completely dead.

According to British Airways:

• Flights with a BA flight number, operated by Openskies, Comair and Sunair will continue to offer an Unaccompanied Minor service.
• Flights with a BA flight number operated from Heathrow Terminal 5 by Iberia or Iberia Express, will continue to offer an Unaccompanied Minor service.

If you need to use the unaccompanied minor service on a flight operated by any of those airlines you should head to their specific websites and go from there.

Cathay Pacific

• Service available to children between the ages of 6 and 18
• Service is mandatory for children between the ages of 6 and 12 unless traveling with someone who is 18 or over.
• Children aged 12 to under 18 years can travel as an unaccompanied minors only at the request of their parent or guardian. If no request is made, there will not be any special arrangements.
• Cathay Pacific will not accept unaccompanied minors with any itineraries that involve a transfer exceeding 5 hours; and connecting flights must be arriving / departing from the same airport.
• Unaccompanied minor may check in earlier; however Cathay Pacific will not assume responsibility of the minor until 90 minutes prior departure.
• Not all flights are eligible to accept unaccompanied minors. Check with local Reservations Office for availability of UM service and ticket purchase.
• Costs:
  • Between Hong Kong and all destinations in Africa, Europe, Middle East, North America, South Asia Subcontinent and Southwest Pacific: HKD500 / USD64
  • Between Bangkok and Dubai: HKD500 / USD64
  • Other routes: HKD200 / USD26

Delta

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 17
• Mandatory for children aged 5 – 14 who are traveling without someone 18 years or older.
• Ages 5 -7 routing restrictions:
  • Permitted on non-stop flights on Delta, Delta Connection, Air France or KLM only.
  • Excludes domestic non-stop red eye flights greater than 2 hours in duration departing between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m with the exception noted below.
  • Permitted on non-stop red eye flights departing to/from Alaska or Hawaii or international non-stop flights.
• Ages 8-17 routing restrictions:
  • Permitted on non-stop flights on Delta, Delta Connection, Air France or KLM only.
  • Not permitted on last flight of the day
  • Exceptions:
    • Permitted on connection flights – Markets with only one flight option which is the last flight of the day or a red eye (Note: If qualifying connection flight available, last flight of the day or red eye would not be permitted.)
    • Permitted on non-stop red eye flights departing to/from Alaska or Hawaii or international non-stop flights.
• Service not available if the itinerary does not include a flight operated by Delta, Air France and/or KLM.
• Delta may not accept unaccompanied minors on itineraries that include other airlines even if the itinerary includes a Delta-operated flight. This restriction applies to all itineraries ticketed on Delta 006 ticket stock, including tickets issued using miles from a SkyMiles account.
• Delta has a dedicate phone line for unaccompanied minor enquiries: +1-800-325-8847
• Costs: $150 USD / CAD / EUR each way
  • Only one service charge applies for up to four (4) children traveling together on the same itinerary and who have the same contact information (i.e same person dropping all of them off and same person picking them all up).

Emirates

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 15
• Mandatory for:
  • children aged between five and 12 who are travelling alone
  • children under eight years old travelling in a different cabin class to their parents or guardian
  • children over eight years old travelling in a different cabin class to their parent or guardian when they have a child under eight with them.
• If a child is transferring to another airline as part of their itinerary, the maximum connection time allowed at the airport is four hours – check if other airline will accept a child before booking.
• If a child is transferring to another flight in Dubai, the maximum connection time is eight hours.
• Costs: Emirates’ unaccompanied minor service is available only when you pay for an adult fare. Otherwise children under 12 will not be able to travel alone.
• Unaccompanied minor service must be arranged via the local Emirates office.

Etihad

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 15
• Mandatory for children aged 5 to 12
• If transferring between flights, the maximum length of time between flights is 4 hours.
• Where travel on another airline is involved, the rules of that airline must be complied with.
• Unaccompanied Minors up to the age of 14 years shall not be accepted when journey involves interline travel with American Airlines.
• Children (accompanied minors) travelling with adults in different cabins shall be treated as Unaccompanied Minors.
• Costs:
  • Ages 5 to 11: Adult fare must be paid, no other costs.
  • Ages 12 to 15: Adult fare must be paid and additional fees are applicable too.
    • Journeys to/from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE – USD 60
    • Journeys between the UAE and the rest of the world – USD 100
    • On connecting journeys, the highest rate will apply for the whole trip. Example: Bahrain to Abu Dhabi to London will cost USD 100.
• Child’s flight can be booked online here

KLM

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 17
• Mandatory for children between the ages of 5 and 14
• The service cannot be booked independently of the flight and can only be booked via KLM Telephone Reservations or your travel agent.
• Costs: Regardless of the age of the child, the cost for the unaccompanied minor service is the price of an adult’s ticket, plus a service surcharge:
  • Surcharge for non-stop flights: €50 for flights within Europe or €80 for intercontinental flights
  • Surcharge for flights with a transfer: €80 for flights within Europe or €100 for intercontinental flights

No specifics are given on the website with regards transfer times or transfers to/from other airlines. Contact the airlines in question for more information.

Lufthansa

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 17
• Service is mandatory for children aged between 5 and 11 who are not traveling with someone who is at least 12 years old.
• Tickets for unaccompanied children cannot be booked online, but only by calling the Lufthansa Service Centre, at your travel agency or at the Lufthansa ticket desk at the airport. To be sure of receiving the service, you must book no later than 24 hours prior to departure.
• Connecting flights are allowed but the website is unclear on specifics – check with airline
• Costs:
  • Flights within Europe: €60/$90
  • International flights:  €100/$150
  • If the itinerary contains both a European and an international sector then both fees apply.

Qantas

• Service offered on selected Qantas connecting flights and domestic flights
• Age restrictions:
  • Qantas Domestic/QantasLink: Ages 5 to 15 where any transit time is less than 4 hours
  • Qantas International Flights: Ages 5 to 15 where flight time is less than 6 hours otherwise ages 6 to 15.
• Mandatory for All Qantas/QantasLink flights where child is between 5 and 11
• Costs: $50 for domestic flight and $90 for international flight per unaccompanied minor per booking for bookings made online or through a travel agent. Unaccompanied Minor for bookings made at the airport will incur an additional service fee of $50 for domestic flights and $90 for international flights per unaccompanied minor.

Qatar Airways

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 15

There is almost no useful information on the Qatar Airways website regarding their unaccompanied minor service. It definitely exists….you just need to contact Qatar Airways for all the information you need.

Singapore Airlines

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 18
• Service is mandatory for children aged between 5 and 12
• If the unaccompanied minor is connecting to a non-SIA operated flight, the operating carrier’s unaccompanied minor policy applies and the child/ward may not be accepted as an unaccompanied minor or otherwise on such flight.
• If the unaccompanied minor is transferring to a non-SIA operated flight at the final SIA destination, Singapore Airlines are unable to provide special handling after disembarkation of the SIA-operated flight.
• No costs mentioned on website so contact airline for more info

United Airlines

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 15
• Mandatory for children aged 5 – 15 if traveling without someone aged 18 or over
• Service only available on nonstop flights operated by United or United Express.
• United does not offer unaccompanied minor service to or from other airlines’ flights.
• Travel can be booked through united.com or the United Customer Contact Center.
• Costs:
  • Children traveling unaccompanied pay the regular adult fare
  • An additional service charge of $150 each way is payable to cover extra handling required when an unaccompanied child travels.

Virgin Atlantic

I went through the Virgin Atlantic unaccompanied minor service in detail in my post about the demise of British Airways’ Solo Flyer service but here’s another brief overview.

• Service available to children between the ages of 5 and 15
• Connecting flights allowed providing the connection is to another Virgin Atlantic flight
• Service unavailable if there’s a layover of over 4 hours
• Extra paperwork needed for travel to South Africa
• No costs mentioned on website so contact airline for more info

Bottom Line

This should be more than a little embarrassing for British Airways as they seem to be one of the only major airlines that doesn’t offer an unaccompanied minor service.

Out of interest, after checking all the airlines above, I also checked easyJet and Ryanair and finally found a couple of airlines that share British Airways’ lack of unaccompanied minor service – seems like BA has taken another step towards aligning themselves with low-cost carriers.

As far as the major carriers listed above are concerned, there’s quite a lot of difference in what each airline offers and how much each airline charges – some require adult fares to be purchased for children while others don’t offer an unaccompanied minor service on anything other than non-stop flights.

Once you know when and where your child is flying, be sure to check all your options – more than one airline may provide an unaccompanied service that meets your needs and one may be a lot better than others for your specific needs.