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Not exactly an (un)accompanied minor...

eluviated
Explorer C

I'm sure others have done this, so I figured the community might be the best place to post this:

 

So I'm going to be flying to PHX from SFO with a stop in BUR to drop my 6 year old daughter with her grandparents for the weekend.  The trip out will be a breeze... land in Burbank, walk with her to the "point of no return," watch her greet the grandparents and head back to the gate for the next leg of the flight.

 

The trip home, on the other hand, has me a little perplexed.  When I booked, I figured I could just get off the first plane and meet her on the "safe" side of the security checkpoint while the grandparents watch from the sidelines... But with only a 40 minute layover, I'm not convinced this will be possible.

 

Does anyone know whether I'd have to go through the unaccompanied minor process (and pay the fee) to make this work? Or can her grandfather accompany her through security and meet us on the other side?  Is 40 minutes enough time to go with the original plan?

 

One last bit: does anyone know if SWA waits for the connecting plane?  (I've had plenty of delayed flights with American that resulted in changed connecting flights.)

 

Thanks!  Maybe your answers will help others as well.

1 REPLY 1

Re: Not exactly an (un)accompanied minor...

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Although I haven't used it myself, there is something called a gate pass that your father may be able to receive from the ticketing agent to provide an escort to your daughter.

 

If that doesn't work, Burbank is certainly an easy access site for security and if you have gate A1 or A2 it's literally only a minute to get there from the TSA checkpoint...if it is doable anywhere, that might be the spot. By "safe" I think you mean airside - so your parents can bring your daughter to BUR, wait for your plane to land and pull up, send your daughter through security at that moment as you'll be walking up, then both of you together back to another gate for departure...it could work at BUR as long as you weren't delayed inbound. Don't try this at MDW or LAS....well at MDW you wouldn't be able to see people on the other end of security for one thing.

 

Southwest may hold a connecting plane at times, but this isn't standard policy necessarily and I think depending on how easy it would be for you to catch a replacement flight, how delayed you are running, if the pilot can make up the time in the air (can't delay all of those people from their future connetions), etc. may all factor into things. I wouldn't count on it and they don't promise it, but I have seen it provided when people would be missing the last flight out by a few minutes.

 

The other wrinkle is that your daughter won't be delayed having started at BUR, so her ticket would be departing as normal...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.