Southwest Let Kids Fly Solo; Parent Didn't Know

(AP)  Three Florida children bought tickets with baby-sitting money and flew to Nashville, Tenn., on Southwest Airlines - unbeknownst to their parents.

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Brown had $700 saved and asked a 13-year-old friend where he wanted to go.

The friend, Bobby Nolan III, suggested Nashville.

Together with Brown's 11-year-old brother, the three took a taxicab to Jacksonville International Airport and bought three tickets at the counter. The children say no one asked them for identification.

They called their parents from Nashville and immediately flew home.

Southwest Airlines says the company's minor policy covers children ages five through 11 traveling alone, and that the 11-year-old in this case was accompanied by two older companions.

[nuipapa]

Everyone wants to point the finger at Southwest, when the REAL blame should fall on the mastermind 15 year old brat who thought of the scheme. She'll be a sure fire runaway in a few years, then I guess you blame the greyhound bus driver who took her out of town if she bought a ticket or the Amtrak conductor for not saying where's your mommy? Southwest has had that policy in place for YEARS, and it's not going to change now. The Parents should be belting and grounding all those kids for even having the notion that they could get away with something like this. Another example of parents not owning up for their shortcomings, instead blame someone else to take the heat off of them.

[ici2i]

Sure, until you find out that a kid's solo journey is in response to a predator he / she met on-line who arranged to meet the kid. Now that wouldn't be so funny, would it? Something just isn't right about this airline policy which maybe should be amended to require an adult (w/ID)to make the actual purchse for the minor.

[thomderr1]

So adults, but not children, need identification.

Should not children be required to have their parents permission to fly? Even if they are in a 'divorce situation', each parent needs notification unless otherwise directed by law.

Where where the parents in this situation?

Where was the TSA?

"Oh, they're just kids."

Wrong, wrong and wrong!

[tsigili]

Just goes to show, that enterprising kids can do just about anything they want, if they have cash.

[jeannettelj]

I loved this story. Yes, they were very enterprising but I fear that Southwest will get the brunt of the negative publicity about this story because they did not ask for identification. I'd lots rather see a story like this and get a chuckle that read about those celebrity drug addicts.