The parents are to blame. How in the hell did they not know where their kids were, until they phoned home?
On the other hand, what still gets me about the war in Iraq is that, they say is on because we need to protect America. In the meantime, people come and go thru our airports with not many questions asked. I still do not feel secure.

I traveled by myself a fair bit when I was twelve or thirteen. My parents knew where I was going, and they trusted me to handle myself on the plane and in airports. At some point my little sisters and I went to Florida and again, we were all by ourselves in the airports. I would have been displeased if the airline had interfered with my trip. This was a parental fall down, not an airport.

First, don’t we usually reserve blame for when someone gets hurt/damaged? The only party that seems to have been injured in this scenario is Southwest, because they had to paid out 3 free seats for the kids’ return trip. Further, the kids are the ones to blame. They’re not sweet little thoughtless innocents. They purposefully did something they knew their parents wouldn’t approve of. The parents would only be to blame if they didn’t sufficiently reprimand the children afterwards.

The airline knew they were all minors because none of the 3 kids had ID. And if all were minors, then the airline did have to ask (per federal regs) if they had written parental permission or a parent along to hand off the kids. They didn’t even ask! So yes, airline fail. Also, somehow this story left out a key fact that I read in other versions of this story: the kids had to phone home because they flew to the WRONG CITY. The 15 year old was smart enough to buy tickets and go traveling, but apparently not smart enough to do a simple google search to find out where exactly they should go. Education fail!

Florida, as usual.

That sounds like a lot of fun for the kids. I think that their parents should have had a better hold on their activities though, and I’m not saying that what happened was good. And hasn’t southwest airlines been screwing up a lot lately in matters like this?

I just put my 2 older kids on a plane yesterday to go visit their grandparents in another state. The airline (Alaska, not SW) informed me this year that my 13 year old daughter was no longer considered an unaccompanied minor, but a “teen assist”, whatever that means. She was flying with her 10 year old brother, so I was still able to escort them to their gate, but I did not have to pay the additional fees associated with her travelling as a minor. I was surpised, honestly. It seems like the airline should have clarified the issue of permission. The responsibility is really on the kids though. And Rosana, I ahve ntoiced that you really don’t live in any sort of reality where the issue of the supervision of teenagers is at play. You cannot and further, should not have to watch older kids every second of the day. They need freedom, because in a few short years, they will be adults. Obviously, in this case the children used very poor judgement. Kids do that sometimes.

If my kids, at 15, 13, and 11 do not know that it is a bad idea to take a taxi to the airport, buy plane tickets, and fly off somewhere WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, I will have failed as a parent.

If they do it to be rebellious, they’re going to be grounded until they graduate high school and absolutely will be under adult supervision at all times after that.

Isn’t your single child an infant? Amazing how you know everything about raising teenagers. @@. Even by your own completely ridiculous standards (no child should be left home alone until the age of 15, wasn’t it?) the older teen would have still been unsupervised. It doesn’t say whether or not the parents attempted to call the children or vice versa. I see plenty wrong with being a “helicopter parent” as it is, in my experience, a completely and utterly misguided way to bring up children. It fosters dependence, timidity, weakness, and fear. But hey, I guess having one infant has taught you everything you need to know, so go to town!

About my “own completely ridiculous standards (no child should be left home alone until the age of 15)” they are my standards, aren’t they? whether you agree with them or not, so I do not see them as ridiculous. Even if the kid is alone, I would check on him/her once in a while. I take a more relaxed approach at helicopter parenting but still agree with the premise of having an idea where the kids (nephew and niece) are most of the time. And maybe when that does not work for you, it has work for others I know so it is not that “utterly misguided.”

I’m with you on that, blue. If you try to put the fear of the almighty (or whatever adjective you’d like to use) into them, it’s just going to smash you both. Better to have an intelligent discussion with them about the pros and cons of what they did and didn’t do, and make sure they understand the consequences. And then they’d work off the price of the return tickets. Consequences don’t always have to be draconian to work. Some people are far more competent at beating themselves up than any other person could do to them.