The other day I read an article over on Paddle Your Own Kanoo titled British Airways ‘abandoned’ 14-year-old girl in Toulouse and then tried to charge family £1,200 for new ticket. As a traveler and a father of 6, I was intrigued, so I clicked through to read the details of the situation. After reading up on what exactly happened, I can see some parts of the story where perhaps British Airways could have done a little better

14 Year Old Flying Alone From France

JS from Ipswich, Suffolk, UK writes into The Guardian about something that happened to her 14 year old daughter, who was flying on her own from Toulouse back to London Heathrow on British Airways after visiting family. Here was her letter describing the situation

British Airways lost my 14-year-old daughter in Toulouse airport when she was flying alone to Heathrow, then charged me for a whole new flight departing the next day. My cousin had checked her in, and she was given a boarding pass marked gate 54, where she duly waited. When staff appeared, she presented herself at the desk and was told that her flight was, in fact, departing from gate 52. Gate 52 had closed before she reached it and she had been marked as a “no-show”.

BA knew she was 14. They knew she was physically in the airport. They knew she had been given wrong information about the gate that was 50 metres away and they were too lazy to check on a young girl sitting on her own. She was shouted at by airport staff as she tried to get back through passport control and security, and was in floods of tears. No one offered her any support.

It took me an hour to get through to BA. Its reaction? I would have to pay £1,200 for another ticket. This was reduced to £680 when I complained. Luckily, my cousin could collect her and give her a bed for the night. I am horrified this is what airport “care” has come to.

What We Know (And What We Don’t)

Okay so let’s first talk about the facts that we know

• The girl was flying direct from Toulouse to London Heathrow, on British Airways.
  • She was not using any sort of unaccompanied minor service (it looks like BA does not offer that),
  • British Airways allows 14 year olds to travel unaccompanied and expects them to be able to navigate the airport on their own.
• She had been checked into the flight by her relative
• At some point she had been given a boarding pass showing a departure gate of Gate 54. It’s unclear to me whether this was the day before or shortly before the flight or at the check-in counter. I suppose that it would have had to be by a BA check-in agent since she would likely have to check in to show her passport since this was an international flight and the UK is not in the Schengen Area.
• At some point the flight was changed to Gate 52.
• The girl didn’t notice (we don’t know why / how), nobody noticed that she was at the previous gate, and by the time she went to the correct gate (Gate 52), the flight was closed.

Stock Photo from Pixabay

Does This Count As “Abandonment” By British Airways?

The mother writing in to The Guardian claims that British Airways was “too lazy”, and did not “[offer] her any support”. First, let’s look at some of the things the mom talks about in her letter that were definitely not the fault of British Airways

• British Airways is probably not the one that changed the gate – usually it’s airports that change the gates, and it’s not uncommon. On my recent American Airlines flight, my gate changed twice from the time I got to the airport to the time I walked to my gate. And I know from experience in Europe the gates change quite often. In most non-U.S. countries, it’s common for you to not even GET a gate on your boarding pass – instead it just says “Check Monitors”. In fact I had a situation where this happened to someone I noticed in the gate area in Charlotte awhile ago.
• The mother mentions that her daughter “was shouted at by airport staff as she tried to get back through passport control and security” – while heartbreaking to read about, again, it wasn’t British Airways agents who were doing that. I can only imagine how emotionally challenging trying to navigate that on her own must have been.

So Who’s To Blame?

I could see a scenario where it is POSSIBLE to put some of the blame on the 14 year old traveler, but only if you make bad faith assumptions. Sure, it’s easy to armchair quarterback her and say she should have checked the airport monitors, the gate monitor or listened for the gate change announcement that was almost certainly given.

But I’m going to give a kid the benefit of the doubt.

Instead, I have to put the majority of the blame on the parents. All those things that I mentioned above (listening for announcements, checking monitors) are things that a parent SHOULD be teaching their kid to do. And if they aren’t ready to do that, then you can’t let them fly on their own! I think the youngest I’ve ever had any of my kids fly was 18 (though I would have possibly been comfortable with some of my kids earlier), and when they did, we were in regular contact, making sure that they were at the right gate, checking when they take off, landed, etc. (these were connecting flights).

Now sure I’m almost certainly a more savvy traveler than most, and as I’ve traveled I’ve tried to teach my kids what to do if / when they travel on their own. I’m just really surprised that the mom and the daughter weren’t in contact via text / WhatsApp / message on the airport wifi. Even if the daughter wasn’t travel-savvy enough to check for this gate change, the parents should have been, either through tools like FlightAware or the BA website / mobile app.

The Bottom Line – Who’s To Blame?

While I know that it’s human nature for people to paint themselves in the best possible light, I’m not sure that British Airways is really the one to blame here. Yes, it would have been nice for them to try and find the girl when the gate changed, but I’m not sure most airport / airline systems have the ability to do this. I feel empathy for the girl who was put in an awful situation, but if I had to lay the majority of the blame, I’d have to put it on the parents

What do you think? Did BA “abandon” this young traveler? Or who do you think is to blame? Leave your thoughts in the comments below

Newsletter Signup

Join the PWaC newsletter filled with credit card and travel tips

Join Now!

You have Successfully Subscribed!