Leaving a child at the airport

[Longboardpedro]

I have 3 kids with my wife. She is from Germany but we live in the UK. She had tickets to head back to see family for new years.

Unfortunately my eldest daughter only had 2 months left on her passport so when they reached the final gate for departure, my eldest was turned away from flying.

I had to collect her and bring her home whilst my wife carried on with her trip to germany with the 2 other kids. My eldest was heartbroken.

I was shocked, as this is something I could never do. We either all go or no one goes is how I approach things but keen to get some feedback from other parents on their opinions if that was OK?

There is literally nothing in the world that would make me leave my 9 year old child alone in the airport. I would never do that.

She wasn’t left alone at the airport, she was left with her dad.

I think your wife was correct in taking the other two children especially if it's her family.

I'm just not sure on reflection that I buy that this happened as said, I don't think an airline would fail to notice this until the final check at the gate.

To the contrary, as my previous posts make clear. Airline staff I’m sure would board all those eligible to board and would see the issue of the 9 year old as absolutely not their problem - because it’s not! The 9YO probably didn’t have any bags checked in under her name but if she did then yes they’d have been offloaded.

So that means OP’s wife would have had to abandon the 9 year old at the gate completely (ie no one responsible for her) which in itself would have been possible albeit fcuking callous.

But how then did 9YO get reunited with OP?

OP can’t go through airport security to collect her unless this is facilitated by airport staff and airport staff have taken responsibility for the 9YO, which we’ve ascertained is fairly unlikely.

Or 9YO has to go through wrong way back through airport security to meet OP airside which again isn’t possible unless facilitated by airport staff.

OP can’t just turn up at the airport and say “my 9YO had been abandoned at gate 24” and expect to be waved through security to collect her, obviously.

Well there are some ridiculous replies on this thread but this one takes the biscuit. I feel like some posters are falling over themselves to find any pathetic excuse have ago at the OP 🙄

Depends on the airport. I often make my way through the entire airport right to the gate with no checks of my passport at all! Even then, it's only a quick scan!

Some more detail is needed however, I personally couldn’t have done that unless there was an extreme emergency.

Was 9 year old left alone awaiting yourself?

Where was the passport date discovered? Check-in? At the gate?

If your wife waited until you came to pick up then that changes the narrative somewhat

9 years old is too young to be jeftbin an airport alone. I wouldn’t have done that.

Bit of the usual double standards on MN! Incredible.

I could never go off on a trip and leave one of my children behind, especially if it was all my fault. I just wouldn't be able to fly off with their sibling and leave them behind. Mine would be heartbroken and I just wouldn't be able to do it.

I'm not going to condemn the OP's wife too much though because I'm a single parent and very rarely travel so I'm coming at it from a different situation.
I still can't ever imagine doing it though.

Agreed. This is the one time I wish the OP did the annoying "X continued on to Germany, Y collected the eldest child"...

I'm never quite sure what to do with the word "nice" op. In this house it's used in a passive aggressive way. Along with "fine" and "lovely"!

You clearly believe your wife made the wrong decision in leaving 9yo. You could always fly her out in the next couple of days?

This is the one bit I can believe as it has happened to friends who were turned away at the gate when going on holiday to Greece. There have been lots of press reports of it happening to others too.

not Sure when they would necessarily see it before if traveling with just hand luggage.

To the contrary, as my previous posts make clear. Airline staff I’m sure would board all those eligible to board and would see the issue of the 9 year old as absolutely not their problem - because it’s not!

All passengers are the responsibility of the airline which is why you cannot go through security without a boarding card. Airlines may have decided to take the risk that comes with allowing online checkin but that risk falls on them as much as the passengers if they do not complete checks landside themselves and that would include not allowing minor passengers to be left alone airside. That is why minors cannot fly without an unaccompanied minor service; it not a ‘nice to have’ - the airport would simply not allow airlines to have minor passengers airside unaccompanied.

This is a very sensible post.

The DM had to make a decision at very short notice. We don't have all the facts here, we don't know how the DD was left at the airport, how much the flights cost, how elderly and infirm the DGPs are, what the OPs plans were for the week and when is the next opportunity to go to Germany. New factors keep coming into my head every moment, so there are many things to consider.

The DM will have had all that information to allow her to make a more informed decision and it's a bit unfair of the OP to ask us to judge without it.

I still would've gone.

But the timings sound wierd. Dd would've been distressed , upset.

As others have said mum would've only had a few minutes of panic to decide what to do, and then phone op, and make arrangements for dd to be taken back through security, back through the airport, to meet op.

I've never done that myself. So other posters who have missed/been denied flights will be able to tell us how quickly that all happens, how quickly the exit from the airport occurs.

Generally, There only a few minutes of boarding, or it's not long, especially for a short European flight. The period of time when they announce boarding opens, and then closes, isn't that long. If mum only realised as boarding that passport out of date, she'd have had to act quickly, in order to make arrangements, and she herself still catch the actual flight.

But half of it is made up! We don’t know what happened and doubt op is coming back after someone accused him of having an affair

And if the father had done it the metaphorical gibbets would be up but this is MN, the Home of Hypocrisy.

And leave his eldest daughter here?

I've never known the word nice to passive aggressive!

I don't go posting on threads I don't believe are true, do you?

And no.

But leave the mythical 2 year old at the airport to ruin her 'well deserved' free time

You say we all go or none of us goes - but you weren't going 😂

The parent responsible for the trip - presumably your wife - should have checked passports. I'm amazed they didn't given the frequent travel.

I wonder if your wife has too much on her plate...

It's interesting that you didn't post at the time asking how you could help your daughter to feel left out.

We either all go or no one goes is how I approach things
Careful with this, it's quite a rigid belief which can cause a lot of upset and pain, as threads on this site attest every day!