The unaccompanied minor: the job within the job, the crying, the one who taught me how to do it
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#1 Air Transat, and last week I looked after an eight year old flying alone from Montreal to Paris to her father, and it reminded me that the unaccompanied minor (UM) is a specific skill nobody talks about. So, the thread.
The process
The child is handed to the crew at the door by a ground agent with a folder: the paperwork, the person meeting them, the emergency contacts. The child gets a seat near the galley, a wristband or lanyard, and a crew member who is responsible for them for the whole flight. At the other end they are handed to a ground agent who checks the ID of the person collecting. The chain of custody is strict and it is the one thing that cannot go wrong.
The child
Ranges from delighted (the ten year old who has done it six times and orders the crew about) to terrified (the six year old on the first flight to a parent in a different country after a divorce). The terrified one is the job. They need a crew member who talks to them, gives them a task (helping hand out the snack, on some airlines), tells them what every noise is, and checks on them every twenty minutes even when they seem fine.
The crying
Happens, usually at take off or at the descent when they realise the flight is ending and the parent they are leaving is not on the other side. The correct response is not to stop it. It is to sit for a minute, if the service allows, and let it happen, and say that the other parent is waiting. Then a task.
The one who taught me
A purser in my first year who took a UM from me when I was overwhelmed on a full flight, sat with the child through the descent, and afterwards said: 'You do not get a second chance with a frightened child. Everything else on the aircraft can wait twenty minutes. That cannot.' I have flown with that rule since.
The part nobody says
The UM who is flying between separated parents on a schedule, every second weekend, at eight years old, across an ocean. We see the same children for years. They grow up on the roster. That is a lot to watch.
Crew, your UM stories and your rules?
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#2 Purser, and the 'everything else can wait twenty minutes' rule is the right one and I apply it. The UM is the only passenger who cannot advocate for themselves. That is why the crew member is assigned.
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#3 easyJet does not carry UMs at all, for exactly the reason that the process is heavy and the short haul turnaround cannot support it, and reading this thread I understand the decision more and also miss the version of the job that includes it.
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#4 Delta, and the second weekend child across the country is real and we know them. A girl on the JFK to LAX every other Friday for three years, from seven to ten. She graduated to flying alone properly last year. The crew who knew her had a small moment.
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#6 JAL, and the Japanese UM process is even more formal, with a specific crew member in a specific role and a handover ceremony that is almost official. The children are calmer for it, I think. Structure helps a frightened child.
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#7 Wizz, and we do not carry them either, and I had not thought about this part of the job at the legacy carriers at all. The task for the frightened child is a good idea I will use on frightened adults.