picking up and unaccompanied minor at mco

[ashely612]

My dd's friend is going to join us on this trip. Her flight should arrive 10 minutes after ours. Is there anything special I need to have with me to be able to pick her up from the SW attendant? Do they just wait at the gate for us? What happens if our flight is delayed? I just want to make sure we have everything in order before we leave.

 

[mareed]

A SW Employee would look for you at the gate and would check your driver's license and have you sign for the child.

If your flight is delayed, then there will be no one to pick up the child! That would worry me quite a bit.

Here are links to SW's unaccompanied Minor info: http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/family/unaccompanied-minors-pol.html and the Terms and Conditions at http://www.southwest.com/html/custo...pic=unaccompanied_minors_terms_and_conditions.

From the Terms and Conditions:
Should the Unaccompanied Minor's travel be disrupted or should the person(s) designated fail to meet the Unaccompanied Minor upon arrival at the destiantion airport, Southwest Airlines is authorized to take whatever action is reasonable and necessary under the circumstances. The parent or guardian agrees to reimburse Southwest Airlines for its expenses incurred in taking such action.

And here's the form that will be filled out by the child's parent and will be worn on a lanyard by the child: http://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs/customer_service/um_form.pdf.

If there is no-one to pick up the child, I'd think they'd first call your cell phone which you likely couldn't answer because you'd be on a plane. They'd then call the alternate contact at destination, but it sounds like there wouldn't be anyone else in Orlando that knows the child, so not realy an alternate contact. With no answer, they'd likely call the parent at the origin. When the parent tells them you've been delayed on a flight, it's possible that they'd put the child back on a plane to the original location with the parent, or they may wait with the child a short time, but there is no SW employee available to babysit as everyone has their jobs to do.

If it were me, I'd reschedule my flight or the child's flight to have at least a few hours between them.

All this assumes that the child is under 12 and is truly an unaccompanied minor. If they are a somewhat responsible child older than 12 then Southwest doesn't do anything for them, and you'd just want the child to wait somewhere in the airport until you arrive. But I'm guessing that they're younger and truly an UM.

Good luck! At least SW lets you change flights without a change fee.

 

[seashoreCM]

According to Southwest's procedures (link above) the adult picking up the child nees to be (or at least shoot to be) at the arriving gate 45 minutes in advance.

You will need to notify the receiving end immediately if it appears at the last minute that the child might beat you there. It may be necessary to use the Airfone in the seat back to accomplish this notificaiton.

The parent putting the unaccompanied child on the plane should furnish a aritten narrative of how the pickup will go (a person arriving on another named flight to pickup the child). This paper should go with the papers and ID cards the child carries to add to the circumstances if needed to deal with the child at the destination.