Parents call out Frontier Airlines for treatment of unaccompanied minors
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The parents of Carter and Etta are calling out the way Frontier handled their kids' diverted flight when they were traveling alone. (Courtesy of Chad Gray)
Two parents in Florida are calling out Frontier Airlines after their young children, who were traveling unaccompanied, spent the night in a hotel when their flight got diverted. The airline, however, claims it was standard procedure.
Etta, 7, and Carter, 9, were traveling from Des Moines to Orlando on July 22 after a trip to visit their grandparents when bad weather caused their flight to divert to Atlanta late at night, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to the airline, the children were taken by a Frontier supervisor to a hotel room where they were provided food and stayed overnight until they could fly out the next morning.
But their parents, Jennifer Ignash and Chad Gray, claim they didn’t know what was happening with their kids right away and think Frontier should‘ve gotten their permission before transporting the children to a hotel.
Gray said the worst part was not knowing what was happening with his kids. (Courtesy of Chad Gray)
“We never gave approval for that to happen,” Gray told the Journal-Constitution.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Etta and Carter allegedly had to borrow a phone from another unaccompanied minor in order to contact their parents. “Without that child, we would have had zero idea where our kids were,” Ignash said.
But a spokesperson for Frontier Airlines told Fox News that the children were in contact with their mother before being transported to the hotel, although the father couldn’t be reached until the next morning.
“The safety of our passengers is top priority at Frontier Airlines and the well-being of unaccompanied minors is no exception,” the spokesperson said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We understand how an unexpected delay caused by weather can be stressful for a parent and our goal is to help passengers get to their destinations as quickly and safely as possible.”
Frontier charges $110 fee for unaccompanied minors ages 5 to 14, but will only allow them to travel on direct flights, according to the airline website.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ignash said parents who might have children traveling alone need to “understand what the airline’s policy and procedure is and get a direct contact.”
Gray told the Journal-Constitution the worst part was not knowing what was happening with his kids. “You like to minimize the risk that your kids have and you want to protect them. And not having any control over the process whatsoever, I think, is really, really frustrating,” he said.