How I made a mistake over the British Airways rules for unaccompanied children

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• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  14 Aug14 August 05:59

  That was a close call! Things like this need to be made clear at time of booking. Might be interesting to find out if BA is an exception with ‘full service’ airlines not offering unaccompanied minors services or whether most have got rid of them. Did bmi offer them when they still existed? Does Virgin? Do any of the low cost carriers?

• Lewis says:

  14 Aug14 August 06:16

  I’m always surprised by these parental consent rules. My wife (Cypriot) was flying back home to the UK from Cyprus with our one year old a month or so ago. She called me in a panic from passport control, where she’d been stopped by a border guard asking for the paternal letter of consent allowing her to leave her he country with my son without me. Perhaps he was just over-zealous, but we’ll be more cautious in future.

• sambe says:

  14 Aug14 August 06:17

  Why can’t they keep a photo on their own device that they carry with them?

  • AJA says:

    14 Aug14 August 07:00

    I wonder if it’s a way of avoiding the child running away without parental consent. It would have potentially prevented Shamima Begum from boarding. Not that she flew BA so presumably the answer is to fly Turkish Airlines.

    • Bagoly says:

      14 Aug14 August 07:34

      I’m struggling to see which undesirable cases this control prevents effectively.
      When would a 14-15 year old run away on a flight without there being some “sponsoring adult”.
      And how does anything here prevent that “sponsor” being passed off as the parent?
      It’s pretty common for surnames to not match.

      I suppose it does provide some detection ability after the fact, but that would hardly have been a deterrent re Shamima Begum.

      • Rich says:

        14 Aug14 August 08:58

        It doesn’t take much imagination though does it? Complex, bitter divorce cases with custody battles where one parent now lives abroad are common. 14 year old has a fall out, decides to flee to see mum or dad without telling the one with custody in the UK.

        Or worse, an easily influenced child meets someone online and is groomed, offered a ticket and money to travel to see them ‘but don’t tell your parents’. Sick, but plausible.

        • Bagoly says:

          14 Aug14 August 14:36

          I wasn’t struggling to see those undesirable cases themselves, but how the control helps.
          Where do BA get any evidence that the “parent” is actually the (UK resident) parent?

    • Can2 says:

      14 Aug14 August 07:50

      I don’t think for any 15yo it would be a problem to print the ID page of their parents’ passports secretly.

      • John says:

        14 Aug14 August 08:50

        I don’t know how my parents managed before I turned 10 or so, I basically managed all the travel from that age – I must have learnt how to from somewhere but they are so clueless, even when I look back with an adult perspective

• TimM says:

  14 Aug14 August 06:22

  ” I had no problem booking for my daughter at ba.com, and as her BAEC number was in the booking British Airways knew exactly how old she was.”

  BA IT is dysfunctional at the best of times. Add a layer of unknown rules over the top and the British desire to follow them regardless and these situations arise.

  • Rob says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:36

    The ticket was also booked as a 12-15 year old ticket ….

    • John says:

      14 Aug14 August 08:51

      But that’s just for the APD calculation.I suppose there isn’t much joined up thinking

• Andrew J says:

  14 Aug14 August 06:41

  Probably also a lesson in keeping a copy of your passport photo page on your phone.

  • AJA says:

    14 Aug14 August 06:54

    I do. That way I have a backup if I lose my passport. Same with my drivers licence.

    Also a lesson in why it’s good to arrive at the airport with plenty of time. Gives you a chance to resolve issues before check in closes and you’re denied boarding.

    • The real Swiss Tony says:

      14 Aug14 August 07:17

      Note it was a copy of the parents passport they wanted – presumably the one taking them to the airport at that – not the child’s.

      • Andrew J says:

        14 Aug14 August 07:21

        Yes that’s right. Presumably the original passport was required for the child!

      • AJA says:

        14 Aug14 August 07:54

        Yes. The passport photo on my phone is my own. I am not a parent but if I was I would have been able to get T5 check in agent to print a copy of my passport.

        I also have a photo of my OH’s passport in case they lose both it and their phone.

        • The real Swiss Tony says:

          14 Aug14 August 09:15

          Got you. I thought you were suggesting that the child should have a copy of the parents’ passport on their phone.

  • Alex G says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:04

    Very important to have a copy of your passport when you travel.

    When my passport was lost/stolen in Canada a few years ago, having a copy made it easier for the British Consulate to issue an Emergency Travel Document.

    (Still needed to make a 1200 mile round trip to collect it though.)

  • John says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:53

    All family members have a paper copy, digital copy and cloud copy of all passports.

    • Bagoly says:

      14 Aug14 August 15:13

      We have driving licences and insurances (vehicle and property) in the cloud as well.
      The property insurance seems to me the most obvious one – think of a fire at home!
      And marriage certificate as my wife did not change her name.

      I did wonder about the increased risk of identity theft, but decided that one often has to send copies to companies, and my Dropbox/Google passwords are probably stronger than those of most employees of travel companies/government departments.

• AJA says:

  14 Aug14 August 06:50

  You”d think that as BA has the specific page with the details that it would be easy to put the link into the booking confirmation or point you there when you are creating the booking.

  It would be even better if they’d make you confirm you’d read and agreed it before proceeding with the online booking process and again at OLCI like you do with the restrictions on what you can carry in baggage.

  But forcing you to print the form and have a paper photocopy of a parent’s passport is so out of date. I mean if it’s acceptable to have a boarding pass on your phone and it was acceptable to have Covid vaccination in the NHS app you’d think they’d allow a scanned copy of the consent form and tge passport.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    14 Aug14 August 07:55

    Remember this isn’t just BA paper work.

    Documentation is often required by the immigration authorities of the country you are travelling to and BA is trying to comply with those laws.

• Olivier says:

  14 Aug14 August 06:51

  Similarly on Eurostar there is a hidden rule that childs between 12-15 travelling alone must travel on trains departing between 6am-5pm

  https://www.eurostar.com/us-en/travel-info/travel-planning/travel-with-children#

  • Polly says:

    14 Aug14 August 07:18

    Am amazed it’s allowed as early as 6am!

  • SamG says:

    14 Aug14 August 09:03

    I imagine this is to avoid them being on late trains that run into issues stranding them in another country . I know some airlines who offer UM service won’t take children on the last service of the day for a similar reason

• Mirp says:

  14 Aug14 August 07:11

  Wow. Thanks for the information. Most people would have been stuck.

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