Some of our customers have asked us if it would be cheaper to fly with their kid themselves instead of paying up to $300 for the airline unaccompanied minor service fee. Actually, in certain cases this is the only way to get the child from one city to another. Reasons for this scenario will be pointed out in this blogpost.

Some of the airlines don’t offer the unaccompanied minor service to certain cities and some don’t offer it at all. Here’s an example: https://faq.flyfrontier.com/help/can-a-child-travel-alone. If a customer needs their kid to fly from Pensacola, FL to Green Bay WI, for example, there might not be any flights which offer the unaccompanied minor service. In this case, the parent in Florida might need to drive to the nearest large airport which is in New Orleans. If that’s not possible, then the parent in the north would have to drive to Madison or Milwaukee to book a flight with an airline which would have a chaperone to supervise the minor.

But let’s say that neither parent or guardian in both cities could make the drive to the larger airport and the child absolutely needed to fly. Then it would make sense to try to arrange two round-trip flights for either or both parents in addition to the round-trip flight for the minor. Booking these 3 round-trip tickets takes some skill as the flight times have to line up correctly in order for the passenger to be on time for the flight. In addition, the parent needs to be able to return to his or her city the same day. Unfortunately, these two requirements are not always possible to satisfy. Arriving the night before and paying for a hotel is also not a good option because of the extra expense.

So is it cheaper for parents to fly with their kid and try to return the same day? The answer is that it depends on a variety of factors and how flexible both parents are. Just let the agent at Weflykids know that you would like to explore the option and he or she will go over it with you.