Oops! 2 Unaccompanied Minors Put On Wrong JetBlue Flights

JetBlue

I’ve been asked from time to time if Kim and I would let Lucas fly at a young age as an unaccompanied minor. I’m usually quick to brush off the question with a definite no.

Even though Lucas is an experienced traveler, I can’t imagine a scenario where it would be important enough to have him fly alone, especially not at close to five years old.

The Daily News reports that ” A 5-year-old returning home alone from a family visit in the Dominican Republic was placed on the wrong flight,” by JetBlue.

The boy, who lives in Manhattan ended up a couple of hundred miles away in Boston while his mom was waiting for him at JFK Airport.

Maribel Martinez told the Daily News that she “thought he was kidnapped and never see him again“. The article mentions that “she lost her mind while it took more three hours” to figure out where her son, Andy Martinez Mercado was.

To make matters worse, the JetBlue staff brought Martinez a different 5 year-old boy who they thought was her son.

The boy brought to Martinez had her son Andy’s passport and belonged on the flight to Boston.

Martinez has lawyered-up and plans to sue “JetBlue for their negligence, which caused her family so much emotional distress this summer“.

Some background on the boy Andy’s trip:

Andy flew with his mom to the Dominican Republic on July 28. His mom stayed one week before heading back home, leaving Andy with family. She bought a return ticket for Andy to fly back on August 17, paying the unaccompanied minor fee of $100.

Andy was supposed to arrive in NYC just before 8 AM on August 17. When he didn’t show up at JFK, the airline eventually figured out that he was sent on the wrong plane to Boston. After speaking to his mom, JetBlue put the boy on the next flight to JFK, getting him home on the same day.

In a statement, JetBlue basically said how the two unaccompanied minors who are the same age got mixed up and sent on the wrong flights but were still always being supervised by airline staff.

Martinez (Andy’s mom) says that the airline never apologized or explained how this mistake even happened.

However, JetBlue did try to make things right by refunding $475 for the flight as well as giving $2,100 in credits for future flights. The Daily News reports that “Martinez says that they will never use JetBlue again“.

Would you let a young child fly alone as an unaccompanied minor? In my opinion, 5 years old is a bit young to consider this.

Find out more from the Daily News here.

6 thoughts on “Oops! 2 Unaccompanied Minors Put On Wrong JetBlue Flights

  1. Raul- I can’t imagine a more distressing thing to happen to a parent. (I wouldn’t put my son on a plane unaccompanied.) However, what’s the cost for emotional distress? It seems that people want to immediately sue for anything possible. The mom must’ve been so distressed that the kid flew with his Dad soon after. Yes, not as an unaccompanied minor, but if she was so worried, I’d think she wouldn’t want the kid to fly. Better yet, maybe the kid would’ve been afraid to fly if he was so affected by the incident.

  2. Fellow blogger “Mommy Points” flew her 6 year old daughter Cate “Unaccompanied” a few months back without a problem. The old rule, “stuff happens” always applies —

  3. Bill- Interesting take but I’m not sure that I’d call this bad parenting. I don’t understand what the mom is suing for though. The airline got the child back home, refunded the cost of the ticket and offered a credit. Can’t imagine why she thinks she deserves more.

    1. Sueing for emotional distress, didn’t u read the post? The airline lost her kid then told her we found him only to give her the wrong kid. Can u think of a more emotionally distressing situation? I cant.

  4. This is bad parenting at its worst. Let the airline fly your child home so you don’t have to…and then threaten to sue when the airline makes a mistake which still never endangered the child.

    I hope any suit brought by this idiot parent is dismissed…and the judge reminds the parent that her parental negligence in dumping parental responsibility on an airline is far worse than anything the airline did. The airline behaved pretty well here in apologizing, taking care of the boys through the mishap, and the. flying the boys home to their correct airports, not to mention refunding the cost of the flights. PLUS providing generous flight credits.

    My take? Bad parent who wants to blame anyone but herself. Mistake by airline that still handled it well in the end.

    1. She is suing for emotional distres, it’s mentioned in the post. Imagine the airline loses ur kid then tells u we found him but turns out its not ur kid it’s some other brown kid we thought was urs. The reason she is seeing is because the airline lost her kid. What don’t u get?

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