BA Ends Unaccompanied Minor Service

British Airways has stopped taking reservations for unaccompanied minors under the age of 12. 

From now on, all children aged 6 to 11 must be accompanied by a traveling companion of at least 16 years of age. 

The carrier said it will honor all existing reservations for its “Skyflyer Solo” service, but if a date change is made, the child’s travel must be completed by Jan. 31, 2017. Any parent who wishes to cancel a reservation will receive a full refund. 

British Airways’ OpenSkies unit, which serves the New York-Paris route, will continue to offer its Solo Flyer service for children aged 6 to 11 for a fee of $150 each way, in addition to the fare. 

Virgin Atlantic Airways, a transatlantic rival to British Airways, also offers unaccompanied minor service for children aged 5 to 15, for the price of an adult fare. 

British Airways did not publicly announce its decision to drop the service. It communicated with parents who have used the service, saying that “despite the overall growth in our customer numbers over the last decade, demand for our Skyflyer Solo service has declined.” 

It is perhaps a sign of the times: Expats in Singapore, Kenya, and other outposts of the former British Commonwealth, as well as parents sending their children to overseas boarding schools, made extensive use of the service in past decades, but even members of the British aristocracy are often leading less glamorous lives today.

British Airways’ move set off a wave of nostalgia among one-time junior jetsetters in Britain, who reminisced about the carrier’s “flying nannies.” 

Pic: BriYYZ