Frontier's Decision to Take Two Kids to Hotel After Flight Delay Was 'Not Protocol,' Says Expert

The decision to take two unaccompanied minors to a hotel room after their flight was diverted is “standard procedure,” a spokesperson for Frontier Airlines told PEOPLE in a statement, but one expert disagrees.

The action taken by Frontier is “unusual” to say the least, according to Amanda Norcross, editor of family travel site familyvacationcritic.com. Per the airline’s outline of services for unaccompanied minors, she says, flight attendants oversee the children and tend to any needs in flight. After landing, the children should be left with the gate agent.

“According to Frontier’s rules and regulations, the [$110] service fee includes ‘gate agent oversight of the unaccompanied minor for as long as the child is not picked up at the gate on time by the guardian,’” Norcross tells PEOPLE.

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Chad Gray, the father of seven-year-old Etta Gray and nine-year-old Carter Gray, told a local CBS station that his children were flying alone from Des Moines to Orlando when their flight was diverted to Atlanta because of severe weather. Gray said he called the Frontier gate agents multiple times, but they weren’t answering the phone. He claims the airline did not contact him or the child’s mother to inform them that the flight had landed and they were not informed the children were being transported to a Holiday Inn near the airport until his son borrowed another child’s phone to call him and tell him what was happening.

Gray also claims the children were driven to the hotel in an airline employee’s personal vehicle, where there was no booster seat for Etta, and upon arriving at the hotel, the children ended up staying in a room with other kids they didn’t know.

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“This is not standard protocol per the airline’s rules and regulations for unaccompanied minors,” Norcross tells PEOPLE. “This is not stated in any of the airline’s rules and regulations available to the public.”

Norcross also points out that although communicating with the children’s parents “in-flight may have been difficult due to weather conditions,” the parents should have been officially updated on the situation sooner.

“The parents should have been alerted by the airline as soon as the flight landed in Atlanta,” Norcross says.

A spokesperson for Frontier maintains that the children were in contact with their parents throughout the incident.

“Our records show that the children were in contact with their mother before being transported to the hotel and with their father the following morning before leaving on the continued flight,” they told PEOPLE in a statement. “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.”

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Although Norcross states this wasn’t standard procedure per the airline’s regulations outlined on their website, she has a few tips on what parents should know before letting kids fly alone, which includes understanding there’s no umbrella policy for all airlines and the rules may vary with each brand.

“Parents need to know exactly what’s expected of their children when flying alone, as well as the airline’s policies, prior to booking any flight for an unaccompanied minor,” she says. “While many of the airlines’ policies are similar in nature, some rules vary from airline to airline.

Seemingly all have a fee for flying an unaccompanied minor in the range of $100-$150, and require a form to be filled out by a parent or guardian at the ticket counter upon arrival to the airport. They also generally allow one parent to obtain a boarding pass in order to go through the security line with their child and accompany them all the way to the gate.

The site also outlines some general tips for parents, including, taking a trip to the airport with the child before the travel day to familiarize them with the surroundings if they’ve never flown before. It also suggests making sure the child has some cash and an ID on them, even if the airline doesn’t require kids to carry one, in case of emergency.

Other tips include keeping carry-on baggage to a minimum and personally introducing young children to the airline staff they’ll be in the care of.

 

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