Delta Airlines Mixes Up Two Kids Flying Alone
Mix-ups sometimes happen. But one airline mistake landed two children in each other's destination.
Kieren Kershaw, 9, was one of those kids. He's now safe and sound with his grandparents near Boston.
However, Delta Airlines sent him on a kind of side-trip when they got him mixed up with another 9-year-old -- a girl.
On Tuesday, Kieren was flying alone from Spokane, and both kids had stopovers in Minneapolis. The mix-up sent the girl to Boston, and Kieren to Cleveland.
Kieren told CBS News, "Where she was I was supposed to be at, and where I was, she was supposed to be there. I was just shocked that they would really drop me off right there."
Delta eventually got both kids to where they belonged -- a few hours late.
For more on Kieren's story, click on the video below.
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Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. Kieren Kershaw, 9, was one of those kids. He's now safe and sound with his grandparents near Boston.
However, Delta Airlines sent him on a kind of side-trip when they got him mixed up with another 9-year-old -- a girl.
On Tuesday, Kieren was flying alone from Spokane, and both kids had stopovers in Minneapolis. The mix-up sent the girl to Boston, and Kieren to Cleveland.
Kieren told CBS News, "Where she was I was supposed to be at, and where I was, she was supposed to be there. I was just shocked that they would really drop me off right there."
Delta eventually got both kids to where they belonged -- a few hours late.
For more on Kieren's story, click on the video below.
Watch CBS News Videos Online
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I would not advocate that every child travel alone. Children do need to be well prepared, i.e., @dreamsbvw's comment. But if the child can demonstrate to his parent that he is a competent flyer, give him the opportunity. Accidents happen EVERYWHERE. You can't always protect your children, but you can teach them to be safe and hope that they will remember everything you have taught them.
We pay a large fee for the service. This is just to answer questions raised by some, here. My daughter is well-traveled, as these kids most likely are. She has visited 19 countries, so far. How many U.S. citizens can say the same? I asked her how she would feel in this situation, and she said it wouldn't be any big deal at all, just funny, and fun! She would just feel badly for whoever had to wait around extra hours at the airport for her late arrival. She LOVES to travel, and is well-seasoned. This scenario is much more likely to happen to a novice adult traveler, though it might some day, who knows. Blaming the parents just shows complete ignorance, however, in my opinion. Are the naysayers really with their children 24/7? No (poison) tv (WE absolutely DON'T have), no school, no outside world? Hand held 24/7? Yeah, right! Gotta love the rampant judgementalism in this country - NOT!
I DO hope the airline at least put these kids in first class, returned the minor traveling alone fee, plus paid for the airport parking fees.
Aside from that, life is an adventure, for us at least! And this was a great adventure for these kids! No harm done, flights are often hours late, anyways! It's a great story they'll have the rest of their lives.
I HOPED they would lose me. I loved flying and just wanted the ride to go on forever. I still do, ha.
Airlines try...but mistakes will happen.
They could simply start to ban children flying alone... then the parents would really complain.
1) The child needs to know where they are going. Not just to grandma's...but the actual city where they are flying to. Grandma is picking me up in Boston.
2) Teach them about gates and the flight info that is posted on the gates.
3) The child needs to NOT be afraid to ask questions. "Excuse me. I am going to Boston and the city named here is Toledo. That is not right. Can you verify this is my gate?"
But ultimately the airline needs to take a much more care. They charge a fee ($100 on US Airways each way) to fly with an unaccompanied child. Maybe only send your children on NON-Stop flights.
My children fly cross country all the time, sometimes non-stop, sometimes with a layover, I prefer non-stop, but they have to call me at the layover when they are at the gate and give me the info on the board.
Anyway...there are my 2 cents. I am so glad everything worked out for these two children and hope they have an awesome visit with their families!
Rinnie though, has this happened for you?
I wouldnt think so. So do not judge. The flight attendants are getting paid for watching over your child if you paid the unaccompanied minor's fee, and hopefully if that happened your child would be mature enough to tell the flight attendant and something WOULD be done. It is HIGHLY unlikely that a plane would go down, and if so even if you were there what could you do? Stop the plane from falling? Sure you could calm them down but what good really is that? 1,000's of people do it each day and it turns out fine. With security and everything else these days its almost impossible for anything like that to happen.
And dont be so rude to Dream. She does what hundreds of thousands of parents do but she makes sure her kids are doing it right.