Young travelers and canceled flights

[gsking]

So SWA has this policy where I have to go to extra lengths to book a ticket for my 17yo daughter in order to list myself as a point of contact.  What is this for?

 Because last month they delayed her flight from 8pm until midnight…and then canceled it completely…and I was not contacted.

 So they leave a minor in another city without any special consideration, despite me jumping through hoops to buy the ticket and ASSURE them there’s an adult to be contacted.

 To make things worse, I never even received a refund for the canceled flight, and my support ticket has gone unanswered.   I did not expect it to take weeks and multiple calls to get them to solve a simple problem.

AITA here?  Or should I expect better service when they strand minors hundreds of miles from home?

 I’ll call tomorrow and nag then again.  I’m not going to be so polite this time.

[floridaguy]

If it were my child, I would have called Southwest or even law enforcement if you could not reach Southwest.

[TheMiddleSeat]

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@floridaguy wrote:

If it were my child, I would have called Southwest or even law enforcement if you could not reach Southwest.

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Be sure to file a class action lawsuit too, right @floridaguy?

--TheMiddleSeat

[DancingDavidE]

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@gsking wrote:

So SWA has this policy where I have to go to extra lengths to book a ticket for my 17yo daughter in order to list myself as a point of contact.  What is this for?

 Because last month they delayed her flight from 8pm until midnight…and then canceled it completely…and I was not contacted.

 So they leave a minor in another city without any special consideration, despite me jumping through hoops to buy the ticket and ASSURE them there’s an adult to be contacted.

 To make things worse, I never even received a refund for the canceled flight, and my support ticket has gone unanswered.   I did not expect it to take weeks and multiple calls to get them to solve a simple problem.

AITA here?  Or should I expect better service when they strand minors hundreds of miles from home?

 I’ll call tomorrow and nag then again.  I’m not going to be so polite this time.

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Very sorry to hear this happened, that's disappointing that the communication didn't follow through. I hope your daughter was okay through the ordeal.

The ticket should be a flight credit on your daughter's account, but you should be able to get a refund if she never flew the next day.

The phone number for the young traveler is probably for emergencies, I too would consider a late night flight cancelation to count in that category but I'm only guessing that a cancelation isn't automatically an emergency. I would definitely find out more about this when you call.

Was it your phone information that was used for the "Contact Me" during the purchasing of the ticket, besides the extra contact info for the young travler?

[TheMiddleSeat]

Agree the extra hoops are unnecessary and wish they would just treat all passengers 12 and older the same when booking if they are not going to treat them any differently. 

This is from Southwest's young traveler info:

Southwest does not monitor Young Travelers during travel. Accordingly, each Young Traveler must have sufficient maturity and capability to request assistance from a Southwest Employee if needed and the means to contact a parent/guardian if there is a travel disruption.

Pretty clear it's up to the traveler to contact parent and rearrange travel.

--TheMiddleSeat

[floridaguy]

Then what is the extra fee all about?

[TheMiddleSeat]

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@floridaguy wrote:

Then what is the extra fee all about?

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There is no extra fee for a young traveler, ages 12-17.  Only unaccompanied minors, ages 5-11 have a fee and they are treated very differently.

--TheMiddleSeat

[dfwskier]

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@floridaguy wrote:

Then what is the extra fee all about?

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It covers   frivolous lswsuits from Florida

ROFLMBFAO