Parents fuming over airline's kid-on-plane mix-ups Associated Press Writer Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jun 17, 5:22 pm ET
HOUSTON – The mother of an 8-year-old girl who was put on the wrong plane while traveling unaccompanied blames the mix-up on "total incompetence and a lack of caring" by Continental Airlines.
Wendy Babineaux said Wednesday she's "getting the run-around" from the airline while trying to find out how her daughter, Taylor Williams, flew out of Houston on Saturday and ended up in Fayetteville, Ark. She was supposed to go to Charlotte, N.C., to visit her father.
The next day, 10-year-old Miriam Kamens wound up in Newark, N.J., while flying alone on the same Continental contractor, ExpressJet. She was supposed to travel from Boston to Cleveland to see her grandparents.
The families had paid a $75 unaccompanied minor fee for the service.
"That they did this with my child and turned around the next day and did it with another child shows they do have major problems," said Babineaux, who lives in the Bryan-College Station area 90 miles northwest of Houston.
Continental, based in Houston, said that in both cases two flights were departing simultaneously from a single doorway and miscommunication among staff resulted in the children being placed on the wrong planes.
"We're reviewing the entire situation and are focused on reinforcing our procedures with our employees," said Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe. "We fly thousands of unaccompanied minors every year and the procedures work when followed."
Babineaux called it "total incompetence and a lack of caring" by the airline.
Miriam's father, Jonathan Kamens, agreed, writing Tuesday on his blog: "When this number of employees messes up, you don't just have a training problem; your corporate policies have made it too difficult for people to do the right thing or too easy to mess up."
Babineaux said she learned of the mistake from the airport in Arkansas — not Continental. She said her daughter — who finally got to Charlotte at about 10:30 p.m. — is unaware of what happened and she doesn't plan on telling her until after she returns to Texas next month.
"I don't want her to get (on the return flight) and be all nervous," Babineaux said.
At Continental, parents provide contact information when arranging for a child to fly alone. The paperwork is then given to employees at the ticket counter and parents are given a dummy boarding pass so they can go to the gate with their child.
A child is supposed to always be escorted and supervised. A child can be escorted by a gate agent to a plane and then handed off to a flight attendant. After the plane lands, the flight attendant is supposed to hand the child off to a gate agent or escort. Parents are given passes for their pickup people on arrival.
At Continental's hub airports — Houston, Cleveland and Newark — unaccompanied minors can wait at supervised facilities called Young Traveler Clubs, which provide entertainment and snacks.
Kamens doesn't think Continental has the right policies in place. He offered some suggestions. First on his list?
"Do not board two planes at the same time out of the same gate, period," he wrote.
Among his other ideas were letting parents or escorts accompany minors onto a plane and requiring the minors preboard.
While Babineaux has hired an attorney, both she and Kamens have said they are not looking for compensation from a lawsuit.
"This way, when (Continental) hears attorney, they think maybe, 'We need to get our stuff together,'" Babineaux said. "I'm hoping to get better treatment for unaccompanied minors so no one will have to go through what I did."
Cripe said the airline has apologized to both families and they have been refunded their $75 fees.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090617/ap_ ... ontinental 
