To put DC, aged 8 and 9, in Economy while I fly in Club with a 2yo and the nanny

[firemansamisnormansdad]

OK, so it wasn't actually me. But I boarded a flight from the USA yesterday and was shocked that this Mom did this to her own children. I have heard that people do this. Is there ever any real justification? My DH was sitting next to them and the little girl was getting quite scared at the turbulence. The Mom said that she would send the nanny down and swap places with DD during the flight, but she never did. I could never do this - I want my precious ones near me during a flight, especially an 8 hour one!

when we travelled as unaccompanied minors, there was often 20 or so of us at the back of the plane, all heading out for the school holidays.
There was an air stewardness assigned to look after us, no extra staff on the plane, and we were horrendous. Food fights etc.

why pay £4k/child for a flat bet for a child no larger than an economy seat?

What a waste of money.

And er, thousands of children fly unaccompanied, from age five, on flights across the globe. No parents 50 yards up the plane, just on their own.

An unaccompanied minor will be the responsibility of someone. If they arse around or are unwell or frightened then someone will deal with it as part of their job. They may be sat next to a 'nice' fellow traveller, who may be asked if they mind being seated next to an UM and be told to contact the steward if there are problems. If you are unofficially unaccompanied then dealing with any problems becomes everyones job, aka nobody's job and you will be seated with a random passenger who may not be nice or even sober.

How can you be unofficially unaccompanied if you have been booked in to Economy alone? The situation is hardly unusual. It's not as if they have been dumped there mid-flight. BA, for one, permit/encourage parents to do this, from age five.

If anything had happened one of the children would just have walked down the aisle and alerted the mother, surely?

DS and DP took a 12 hour flight this summer and couldn't check in online for the second leg of the trip, so when they re-boarded after the stop over, there were no seats together. DS was seated away from DP. He was fine.

Maybe this group couldn't get seats together, maybe the kids like being independent and grown up.

..my DH did this once (and just the once) to me - admittedly it was only on a train - he had a 1st class ticket (as he got regularly discounts or something). I was with our son and we were going out on a "family" outing - he came back to cattle class during the journey to talk to us - I was not amused... I made out that he was "hassling" us...

He has not done this again - not that this is a problem as he is retired now - but we ALL now travel in the same class or not at all - I'm a bitch when I try !!!

I think this woman's behaviour is outrageous, as is the behaviour of anyone who puts their kids in economy class and swans off to business class themselves. Apart from being selfish and unfair on the children to abandon them in less comfortable surroundings, I loathe the assumption these people make that other adults will take care of their kids. OK so they're only a few metres away, but the parent would probably only be fetched if there were significant problems, not for the endless smaller issues that kids will have on long flights (how to work the headphones, pass my hand luggage down etc).

These are the kind of parents who sit chatting in the park while other people rescue their kids from the climbing frame and so on, then pat themselves on the back for having such independent kids - conveniently failing to acknowledge the army of unpaid carers who do their job for them!

Am I the only one horrified at the idea of unaccompanied minors? Particularly young ones.

As per the topic, I think its totally unacceptable op. Way to make your children feel less worthy. Disgusting attitude.

Maybe the children liked being away from their irritating toddler sibling? Maybe they really didn't mind sitting in a different part of the same plane?

I fail to understand the outrage.

The children may like it Jenai, but it's the other passengers seated near those children that are subjected to dealing with that child while the parent is drinking up the front of the plane. Children are generally going to find some sort of mischief, they spill things, they make noise, they kick seats, they get bored, they get hungry, they get thirsty, they want to go to the toilet, they want to get up and walk around, they want to sit down, they want their bag from the locker, they dropped their toy on the floor, they don't want to have a sleep, on and on and on. Dealing with that is the job of the parent, not random strangers who are unfortunate enough to be stuck next to someone else's little treasures for hours on end.

I prefer to sit with my kids where possible but sometimes airlines force this situation. if you travel a budget airline like easy jet where there is no system of ensuring children can sit with their parents you might find yourself next to a small child whose parent is somewhere else. So some airlines obviously couldn't care less if kids are sat on their tod. so it's not that unusual.

It's crap. At the very least the two year old and nanny should have been with the children. Heaven forbid lady muck sit with her children.

I think it is dreadful as I think I said on the last thread like this. I don't have a problem with another adult (nanny, grandparent, aunt, grown up sibling NOT stranger) that has agreed to take charge of the kids sitting in coach with them while the parents sit elsewhere. .. I say this as a former nanny too. I would only be okay with this as a nanny if I were compensated appropriately e.g. extra day/half day off while away on holiday or extra pay or unless it had been agreed when I took the job.

I am appalled that a parent would expect a total stranger to sit next to their air sick kid, let alone expect the stranger to deal with it.

DS and I have been reading up about the Sioux City crash. I noticed that there were unaccompanied children that died in the crash. I wonder if they died from crash injuries or whether they died from smoke inhalation after the crash.

I flew as an unaccompanied minor from age 7, I loved it. Back then you got a bag of goodies from BA with colouring pens and sometimes a pack of cards. Food was nice (and free). Got to sit at the front so tonnes of space too

But on the rare occasions we flew as a family we were all together, I don't see how age is that relevant - if you're going somewhere as a family then why on earth wouldn't you want to sit together?

MummytoKatie
I think you have been very unlucky. I couldn't count how many flights I have done, I think it is 14 this year, and I have never had the problems you have mentioned. I have once had a flight turn back because of a problem but I can't think of anything else.
Also, assuming that the probability of having a problem on a flight is 1/6 then the probability of having one on two flight is 1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36 which is about 3%. (For the mathematical pedants I am assuming the events are independent.)

Faltbread, did you miss the part where the youngest was getting upset? And mum did nothing but lie to her?

*flatbread, sorry

Would people be as upset if the mum was in Economy as well but 10 rows away from her children? Or is the outrage more about her having more luxury for herself?

I flew Unaccompanied Minor from 10. So no parent on the flight at all, shock. A disinterested airhostess would pop by every now and then.

I've flown well over 150 (40 in past 5 years!) times and have only had 2 scary incidents for the poor poster up thread with 20% horror stories, you've been very unlucky!

I'm more ambivalent about this and think she looks a bit of a bitch but it depends on the kids. Though my softer DH thinks the nanny should have gone down the back and one of the children staying with the mother. Though, he does say that he's understand if the mother chose the 9 year old!

3boys, it depends, is she ten rows away in economy by choice or not?

Hairy Why does does it depend on choice? Surely the debate is whether it is acceptable for the age group to sit independently. If it is yes, then it doesn't matter where the parent is.

Wrong mainly for security reasons. In an emergency the nice looking lady wouldn't give a stuff about helping the children. The mum might try to get to her children and hinder the escape process.
I have a bug about airlines seating children under 12 away from adults in parties and the seat swindlers ( low cost who charge for pre choosing seats) not automatically allocating or pre boarding children under 12 . Even if they stick you in the row next to the galley or toilets a child should be sat next to a adult IMO and I think the CAA should enforce this.

I've travelled a lot on low cost carriers (no seat allocations) and find that if people ask to switch seats so that they don't have to leave their little possum sitting next to a stranger that people will happily oblige. You actually have to speak to people though and use your words.

Rosa, what do you actually know about airline safety or airline security?