US AIRWAYS 6 MINOR CHILDREN bumped off overweight plane and left for 9 hours! Philadelphia Arizona

We walked our 15 yr old grandson to his gate after landing in Phx from DC. This was the second half of a rd trip ticket to get him back home to CO.

With email confirmation in hand I was told there was no reservation and the soonest he could get a flight was four days. I should have had a clue in DC when they could not get us a boarding pass for that flight also but sent his bags on to CO. But heck I had paid for it and had my reservation in hand.

Now what would a 15 yr old do by himself? This big strong kid who is survivng yet another delployment of his dad to Iraq turned to me wtih tears in his eyes. He could not miss three days of school.

Let me tell all you doubters about minors and all that nonsense. Had he been stuck there buy himself he would have been sleeping in an airport....15 yr olds do not get to rent motel rooms. His bags were long gone...he would not even had a tooth brush. Their customer service people scared us I cannot imagine him facing them on his own.

I have filed a complaint myself on this site

I asked my husband what we have done had we allowed him to go to that gate alone and gone to catch our shuttle. The child would have called us on our cell phone and said they say I have no reservation and I have to wait 4 days.

My husband said he would have gone to the Phx police and asked for the CEO to be arrested for endangering a minor. Too bad the six families did not do that.

Even tho there was some security in numbers, still the people is full of very strange people. We went out of our way to use airports and flights that made it possible for him to fly direct and be met.....not the cheapest way to fly.


Someone needs to stop this nonsense. You pay for something and you should get it.

We walked our 15 yr old grandson to his gate after landing in Phx from DC. This was the second half of a rd trip ticket to get him back home to CO.

With email confirmation in hand I was told there was no reservation and the soonest he could get a flight was four days. I should have had a clue in DC when they could not get us a boarding pass for that flight also but sent his bags on to CO. But heck I had paid for it and had my reservation in hand.

Now what would a 15 yr old do by himself? This big strong kid who is survivng yet another delployment of his dad to Iraq turned to me wtih tears in his eyes. He could not miss three days of school.

Let me tell all you doubters about minors and all that nonsense. Had he been stuck there buy himself he would have been sleeping in an airport....15 yr olds do not get to rent motel rooms. His bags were long gone...he would not even had a tooth brush. Their customer service people scared us I cannot imagine him facing them on his own.

I have filed a complaint myself on this site

I asked my husband what we have done had we allowed him to go to that gate alone and gone to catch our shuttle. The child would have called us on our cell phone and said they say I have no reservation and I have to wait 4 days.

My husband said he would have gone to the Phx police and asked for the CEO to be arrested for endangering a minor. Too bad the six families did not do that.

Even tho there was some security in numbers, still the people is full of very strange people. We went out of our way to use airports and flights that made it possible for him to fly direct and be met.....not the cheapest way to fly.


Someone needs to stop this nonsense. You pay for something and you should get it.

We walked our 15 yr old grandson to his gate after landing in Phx from DC. This was the second half of a rd trip ticket to get him back home to CO.

With email confirmation in hand I was told there was no reservation and the soonest he could get a flight was four days. I should have had a clue in DC when they could not get us a boarding pass for that flight also but sent his bags on to CO. But heck I had paid for it and had my reservation in hand.

Now what would a 15 yr old do by himself? This big strong kid who is survivng yet another delployment of his dad to Iraq turned to me wtih tears in his eyes. He could not miss three days of school.

Let me tell all you doubters about minors and all that nonsense. Had he been stuck there buy himself he would have been sleeping in an airport....15 yr olds do not get to rent motel rooms. His bags were long gone...he would not even had a tooth brush. Their customer service people scared us I cannot imagine him facing them on his own.

I have filed a complaint myself on this site

I asked my husband what we have done had we allowed him to go to that gate alone and gone to catch our shuttle. The child would have called us on our cell phone and said they say I have no reservation and I have to wait 4 days.

My husband said he would have gone to the Phx police and asked for the CEO to be arrested for endangering a minor. Too bad the six families did not do that.

Even tho there was some security in numbers, still the people is full of very strange people. We went out of our way to use airports and flights that made it possible for him to fly direct and be met.....not the cheapest way to fly.


Someone needs to stop this nonsense. You pay for something and you should get it.

Wait a minute here...could this REALLY be or am I imagining that some people would actually pick this situation apart and re focus this away from what it really is? These kids had successfully gotten themselves to the gate and ONTO the plane where they were supposed to be! This was an unexpected glitch, yet one that could have been totally avoided...if I were a gate supervisor and had to remove passengers, there is nothing that would get me to remove 6 teens without parents, off a flight. I have eyes, and most of all, I have UNDERSTANDING and KNOWLEDGE of the risks of leaving them stranded, no matter what...I don't have to be HIRED as a "babysitter" to use my head and do the logical and right thing. There is no DOUBLE STANDARD here on our part as parents, our kids handled themselves beautifully under the circumstances, stayed together, and sat for almost 9 hours waiting for that next flight...(and there were no additional adults taken off the plane, BTW) remember, we PAID for a RT flight to TRANSPORT them to a destination in a certain time frame. That failed. so the DOUBLE STANDARD is on USAIRWAYS for doing what they did, with disregard to the ages, well-being, and security of young teens!

ok...let's take a whole different approach here! Totally off the subject of "my kid was kicked off the plane and left for 9 hrs, yada, yada" (as if that weren't bad enough!)

Let's say your 16 year old...a very responsible kid, gets his or her drivers' license....he's exhibited every sign of being a great driver, and now it's time to let him fly...no pun intended...on his own, just to the local store, say! and by the way, what 16 year old do you know is TRULY ready for the challenges on the road today? IT isn't like it used to be, is it? People are more aggressive, more violent, less helpful..etc, etc....you get my drift. Yet the law hasn't changed, at least not here in my state... at 16 they are allowed to get that license with just a few driving lessons and a parallel park!! (At 16 a child is able to navigate his way to the gate of his flight, hand in his ticket and board the plane) This license is their big step to independance! At some point, you do have to let them go, let them discover life on their own.(with a limited leash, they were escorted to the security gate, remember?) God forbid your 16 year old gets in an accident, or a difficult situation, an irate driver, lost (orkicked off a plane suddenly, which would unnerve even you or I and our anger would probably overrun any maturity anyway!!!)What has taught them, at this age, how to handle an unexpected glitch?...YOU know when you set them free that anything can happen and if it does you will rescue them. THey will call you(every parent immediatly received a call from their kids' cells...and immediately spoke to the gate rep)...you will be relieved to hear their voice...and you will be their advocate...and now they will be more equipped to know better how to handle this if the same thing should ever happen again...

So I wouldn't dare call this a double standard, or the result of irresponsible parents or kids...USAIRWAYS was not able to re-book anyone they would have taken off that flight until 8pm that evening,from 1pm when they were removed...yet they still chose to take young teens, forcing them into a 8-9 hr delay (of course the 8pm turned into a 9:30pm departure!)

And to update USAIRWAYS response: They did send a voucher today vial email in response to my 3rd email complaint sent thru their website contact page. My hope is that they will take a new look at their rules for minors travelling. And make these rules and suggestions very prominant so that we as parents and guardians can easily access and decipher them!

I know nothing about the aviation industry so why would I know about that? You admittedly only know becuse you live next door to a pilot or whatever. I merely asked a question to learn. My name's not chuckie giving fraudulent advice to people.

It just seems that you have a double standard. The children were adult/mature/trusted enough to travel without adult supervision, but as soon as they were removed from the plane they became embarrassed to speak uo, not smart enough to speak up and totally at the mercy of anyone in the airport. If your families felt the childrem were not old/mature enough to travel alone, why didn't an adult go with them? US Air said they would assist, not babysit.

I find it a little amusing that Bart is picturing a huge commercial airline climbing up on a scale or something. When in actuality, it's a little thing called technology! You see, there's a censor basically in the plane, that the pilot can monitor from the cockpit constantly. Who's to say how much over weight the plane was...nobody except the pilot would. I'll tell you that they WOULD NOT lift off if the plane was even 100lbs over. Who's to say that the airline didn't remove other passengers besides the kids, that the parents aren't aware of? Bottom line is that these kids were bumped off....that's why the parents are angry...bottom line! I don't think it would matter "why" they were bumped off. It's simply the fact that they were minors taken advantage of to avoid conflict, and that's wrong.

Lastly, it wouldn't matter if the parents were able to walk them to boarding or not. These kids were actually already seated and then asked to be removed. So in the parents mind...they believe the kids are on the plane. The parent may turn around and go home, the parent may walk to where they can see lift off...how would they be able to be informed about their children being removed? The point is that THIS WAS NOT THE PARENTS FAULT...at least from what I'm reading.

Im amazed, first of all, that so many, or anyone, for that fact, have responded...and many with what seems to be a "devil's advocate" attitude! My thanks and appreciation to Sugarpie, who posted an understanding and accurate assessment.

Imagine, everyone, those who has posted accusatory-sounding posts in your responses to me, if this were your child? That's the bottom line here...the safety and security of a child....no matter how street- smart, how shy, how forward, how whatever...kids of this age have no idea how to respond in a situation like this, when they are caught off guard and suddenly removed from a plane! There were three other youth who were not taken off that flight, and what did they do??? They removed themselves from the flight when they saw what was happening to their friends.

My thanks also, to Robert who gave me some vital information I was NOT aware of. that I could obtain a gate pass. remember, there are 6 families involved, and none of us, who fly frequently, were aware of this. We WERE aware that the usair rules state when a young adult it checked in (even without the fee being paid) it is notated in their system for personel to be aware.

I will post any USair responses. as of now, ONE parent who emailed a complaint on the USair site received an email voucher. we all filed on the same site, and no one else recieved that. yo ucan read the response I received above. Strange that one parent would get a positive and understanding response and others standard corporate babble!

Faith you stated "they were not DUMPED off...they were walked thru the baggage checking process, and to the point where were were no longer allowed thru the security gate..." Which is good to hear.

But directly from US Airways site(Actually it is a couple of sections down from the one that was quoted by you).

www.usairways.com/awa/content/traveltools/specialneeds/unaccompaniedminors.aspx
---
Drop Off
If you will be dropping off or meeting an unaccompanied minor, please make note of this when making your reservation.

In domestic U.S. cities only, parents/guardians may obtain gate access passes at the ticket counter to accompany the child to the departure gate. Parents and guardians should arrive early to check in unaccompanied minors and obtain a gate access pass.

In international cities or if airport security at a particular airport prohibits non-ticketed passengers in the gate area, US Airways will assist the minor to or from the gate and make sure their needs are met as they board or deplane their flight.
-----

So in your case at least one member of your party should have been able to receive a "gate pass". Now, whether or not you knew or did not know about this option, or if you needed to pay the $50 fee for this I am not sure. But I have a feeling that if a member had accompained one minor, and by default the entire group, US Airways may have been less inclined to bump your group. They still may have been bumped, but US Airways would have thought harder about it.

I am not taking US Airways side, but every company has a group of lawyers who do nothing but look at every possible outcome. So sometimes the "fair" way is not always the best way. Think of it this way. If they skipped your group and took the next people down the list to bump, and these people just happen to be a minority. You can be sure that if they were so inclined they would be writting a RoR about how they were mistreated even though they were not the last ones to board. They would also(and probably get) at least a few media outlets to hear their story.

I had no idea planes were actually weighed for each flight. I have never seen it done nor know where it happens from pulling away from the terminal to going to the runway.
I figured there was an estimated weight for people and that seating would be under a certain amount to allot for variances.
Luggage could be weighed more accurately and this could explain delayed luggage at a destination if weigh needed to be removed.
The plane, food, and fuel itself should all be around a standard weight for a given flight.
I guess I am finding it hard to believe that removing just 2 individuals weighing approximately 175-200 lbs each (strictly a guess on my part) would be exactly what the plane needed to take off.

My neighbor has been a pilot for commercial airliner for almost 30 years, so I know that every aircraft is weighed before takeoff. Not individual people, but the aircraft as a whole. If the aircraft is to heavy due to heavy baggage weight, or passengers, I assure you, that someone or somethings will HAVE to be removed. An aircraft to heavy will topple so to speak, and crash. So I hope that answers Bart's question.

Now to the story at hand, I read how a lot of people question the reason for the kids removal. In my opinion, the airline had no choice but to remove passenger for reason of human safety. BUT the choice of picking minors was wrong and taking the easy way out. The airline knows to remove already seated passengers from the plane, and bump them with a wait for hours would lead to extremely angry and sometimes violent passengers, To swiftly request the kids move off, and of course the kids would follow with out hesitation, and would avoid a fuss. basically taking advantage of the kids. I think the airline realizes their mistake when in turn they had to deal with angry parents.
Over all, why would she make this up?

how would they know they were going to be "overweight"? I have never seen a scale you must walk onto before boarding but it has been awhile since I have flown.

I see where you quoted the regs for unaccompanied children and went so far as to state that there was an additional fee (did they say it was optional??). Just wondering since you didn't pay it.

Seems these went from helpless children to being able to take care of themselves very quickly. If you were so concerned why didn't you walk them down yourself?? Surely they would have let you past the checkpoint with your children. I am not sure about Philly but have seen other parents allowed to accompany their teenage children to the gate and to stay there until the plane took off. Things haven't changed that much have they??

Seems to me that at age 15 to 17 they should have the "smarts" as you put it to speak up and say something to the affect of I can't stay my parents already left. I am assuming you at least had placed the oldest in charge so you could leave. That particular person should have been able to speak as an adult, right???? You must have at least thought so otherwise you wouldn't have left right?? I mean if a kid doesn't have that kind of awareness you should have been there the whole time.

If there was a weight limitation as you said they would have bumped some of the other passengers first.

Cory,

Let me clarify some of the things you weren't sure of... here is your post:

Couple Of Strange Things About This Post
How old were the kids? (the kids were 15-16 yrs old)
Who took the kids to the airport and dumped them off(they were not DUMPED off...they were walked thru the baggage checking process, and to the point where were were no longer allowed thru the security gate...)
and left BEFORE they made sure they had gotten on the flight?(each child called each parent by cell to let them know they were at the gate AND when they boarded the plane)
On it's face, it sounds pretty bad from u s air's side but normally unaccompanied minors are seated first BEFORE anyone else gets on in the front of the aircraft.(They were not seated first, they were the last to board, not by usairways choice, just their zone number)
No pilot I know is gonna allow anyone to put too much fuel in his aircraft and six minor kids aren't gonna weigh enough to make a difference.(I spoke to the gate supervisor and she confirmed that the reason for bumping people was an over fueling of the plane...nothing I had ever heard of before either)
What maybe 5 or 600 lbs at most? That doesn't make any sense from us air's side.(It doesn't to me either!!! Why not take luggage off? Or ADULTS)
How many of these kids had cell phones or a quarter to call home?(ALL of them had cell, all of them called and all of US parents spoke to the gate supervisor!)
Did anyone in fact pay the $50 unaccompanied minor fee? And if not, why not? There are alot of unanswered questions on both sides. (We did NOT pay USAIRWAYS the fee because the fee is for USAiRWAYS to ESCORT them from gate to plane and onto plane...these kids are fine doing this on their own, with us monitoring from security drop off till they were on the plane...my daughter called me WHILE being bumped off the plane, contact was constant!)
THe situation sound bad because it WAS bad...both you and I know what weirdos are out there, so to us, USAIRWAYS compromised the safety of our kids....YES...the gate supervisor probably got scared and DID tell them not to leave the gate, which was NOT a bad thing,( I agree with the comment following yours on this site)....but to then tell a parent she was only kidding? that the kids could go anywhere? That's strange, and certainly confusing to us and to the kids! We also told them to stay put, although the 6 hours they'd have to wait turned into 9. ALl in all, the whole way USAIR handled this was atrocious...come on, you just don;t take 6 kids off the flight...there was a plane full of adults, just because they didn't volunteer (which the supervisor did say...no one else would volunteer, so for "fairness" they took the last 6 to board) you don't do what they did UNLESS they could have put them immediately or soon after, on another flight.
We have contacted a consumer rights reporter here in Philly and he immediately returned our calls, confirming that this has happened often at the hands of USAIRWAYS...it may be perfectly legal on paper since the kids are considered adult at 15, I believe. THe real issue is the set of rules about minors travelling,and their need to possibly be changed, mainly to ensure the safety of young, still-vulnerable kids. Look, these happened to be good, reliable kids...certainly not adult-saavy, but not the type to "look " for trouble or take advantage of being set loose on their own. THere are too many "what if's..." and those are scary!
I am relieved and happy of course, that in the end, these kids WERE ok, safe and, though totally exhausted, reached their destination. However , it doesn't negate the fact that there was something very faulty in how this went down.

You said the children were left unattended and then you say the US Air rep told them they couldn't leave the area. It seems to me that telling the children to stay there is being attended. So which is it? Were they unattended or were they being supervised? And what is the age of the child that said they couldn't leave? because you do need to filter a child's response for their age level.

You said the children were left unattended and then you say the US Air rep told them they couldn't leave the area. It seems to me that telling the children to stay there is being attended. So which is it? Were they unattended or were they being supervised? And what is the age of the child that said they couldn't leave? because you do need to filter a child's response for their age level.

You said the children were left unattended and then you say the US Air rep told them they couldn't leave the area. It seems to me that telling the children to stay there is being attended. So which is it? Were they unattended or were they being supervised? And what is the age of the child that said they couldn't leave? because you do need to filter a child's response for their age level.

You said the children were left unattended and then you say the US Air rep told them they couldn't leave the area. It seems to me that telling the children to stay there is being attended. So which is it? Were they unattended or were they being supervised? And what is the age of the child that said they couldn't leave? because you do need to filter a child's response for their age level.

How old were the kids? Who took the kids to the airport and dumped them off and left BEFORE they made sure they had gotten on the flight? On it's face, it sounds pretty bad from u s air's side but normally unaccompanied minors are seated first BEFORE anyone else gets on in the front of the aircraft. No pilot I know is gonna allow anyone to put too much fuel in his aircraft and six minor kids aren't gonna weigh enough to make a difference. What maybe 5 or 600 lbs at most? That doesn't make any sense from us air's side. How many of these kids had cell phones or a quarter to call home? Did anyone in fact pay the $50 unaccompanied minor fee? And if not, why not? There are alot of unanswered questions on both sides.