That said, I am as disturbed as you are to learn that this happened twice in one weekend with the same carrier, which is all the more reason for taking this public. I believe the FAA and/or TSA should impose hefty fines on the airlines for any more repetitions of this type of negligence. They may argue that the UM program is an agreement between the airline and the parents, but not checking the manifests is unforgivable from a security standpoint, regardless of whether or not it involves an UM.

For the airline to treat this as trivial (and by refunding the unaccompanied minor fee that’s the impression they are giving) is unacceptable.

ALL parents and grandparents aware of your situation are looking at Continental’s policies and actions closely. Too many people goofed this up- this was not the mistake of one person, but several.

I’m glad your daughter is okay. Child safety should never be taken lightly and as a parent myself, I’m disturbed at how badly Continental bungled in their supervision.

First of all, let me say I’m happy that in the end your daughter turned out to be safe. I am also happy to see that, despite the many mistakes that were made, her safety never appeared to be at issue, although obviously you didn’t know that at the time.

I agree that offering to refund the extra charge is not sufficient as a response from Continental, but I do agree with Pierce that you were probably a little quick to run to the media if you wanted to get more out of them. As far as they are concerned, the damage has been done and their fight is now with the media, not with you. You effectively took away their incentive to come up with a more substantial response.

Personally, I think it is more important to expose the obvious security flaws than to get anything substantial back from Continental, so in that light I welcomed the publicity.

I totally disagree with posters who said that you shouldn’t have let your child fly alone on a program that is supposedly secure, and your wife’s reaction to that in one of your next blog entries sums it all up. Very well said. But next time, when you put her on a flight on her own, I’d suggest you give her a cell phone.

If you don’t make out big, shame on you cuz you blew it!

Don’t puss out!

While reading with interest your situation on the Houston Chronicle, they posted a link to your blog and I read your initial complaint. I agreed with some of your points and disagreed with others. Then I went back and read the comments section on the Chronicle (I get a laugh out of the comments section most of the time…terrible habit of mine) and noticed quite a few negative responses to your story. So I went back to your blog and read deeper into your situation and thought to myself that this was overkill and wanted to comment. The last sentence of my comment was unnecessary and although I cannot take it back, I do apologize for disparaging your family in any way.

The best outcome out of all of this is that your daughter was finally flown to Cleveland safely and your and your in-laws fear has been assuaged. I hope you get what you are looking for with this situation.

Perhaps.

In the meantime, the customer relations representative at Continental called and left a message on my voicemail at 10pm at night, suggesting that either she or the people for whom she works felt that what happened to me and the bad press it caused for Continental was severe enough to warrant her staying at work just a tad bit late. We’ll see what she has to say when I call her in the morning.

And I’m sure that the email and phone call I got tonight from a story editor for Good Morning America asking if I was interested in appearing on their show was yet another sign that the media will grow bored with the story in a day or two.

In the meantime, Continental will get a lot, a lot, a lot of bad press. They could fix that and come out on top by doing the right thing for me and my family. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Just wait until the media displays all his bitching and lets the public comment on him and his actions.

Dude, if I cared about what ignoramuses on the Internet had to say, I wouldn’t have created this blog or posted to it for the past several years. Smart people don’t let idiots get in their way.

I feel terrible for the girl to have to face her friends with a loud mouthed father.

I’m sure my daughter and her friends will all be fine. As far as I know, none of them read my blog or watch the TV news. Having said that, even if they did, the coverage you seem to think is going to scar them would hardly do that. In fact, I imagine they would think it’s cool.

But it’s really not surprising to see any of this nonsense in yet another comment posted from Houston by an anonymous Continental employee. People, people, you’re not really helping your cause here!