Unaccompanied minor on my flight, wondering if this is an average experience.
Howdy! I don’t fly very much, and have probably flown less than 15 times in my life. Just wondering if this is a normal experience.
An unaccompanied minor (somewhere between the age of 5-7) sat in front of me on my Southwest flight yesterday in row 6 by the window, with no one seated in the middle, and a woman who was not related to him in the aisle seat. This was the first time I’ve seen an unaccompanied minor on any flight I’ve been on, so I’m not sure what’s normal/abnormal.
This poor kid wasn’t given any activities by whoever dropped him off to do on the ~3.5 hour flight. He kept pressing the call button to call the flight attendants over to ask them questions (“is the plane going to crash?” etc) because he seemed nervous, and he didn’t really understand the purpose of the button or much of what was going on at all (because he’s only like 6). He was restless and anxious and wriggling around and yapping the whole flight, as many kids who don’t have their grown up with them would be.
I have a lot of sympathy for the kiddo, but even more sympathy for the poor woman seated in his row. She was essentially forced to chat with him, answer his questions, talk to him, and keep an eye on him for the whole flight. She was so kind and compassionate, in a way that I’m not sure I could have been since I usually feel quite anxious while flying and put on as much noise canceling as I can, and zone out.
The flight ended, the flight attendants collected the kiddo to get off the plane first, and the woman looked at all of us who were near her after he was gone, saying “oh my god.” She looked so exhausted. She, of course, did not sign up for that. I felt terrible for her, having to literally babysit a young kid who she had never met and she certainly wasn’t getting paid to do that. I feel like she should have gotten her flight for free or something. It seemed so unfair.
Is this a normal experience for unaccompanied minors on Southwest? I feel so bad for this poor woman. I think I would have needed to ask to move if I’d been in her shoes, and I’m not sure that request would have been accommodated. It seemed to me like the kid should have been seated in the first row right next to the Southwest flight attendants who were actually being paid to supervise him!!
What would yall have done in this scenario?? I don’t know if I should complain or something, since I was personally completely unaffected by this situation, other than just being an observer and feeling very bad for both the anxious/restless child and the woman.