It was Christmas Eve when the airline ticket agent told Gretchen Suthon that her son couldn't fly alone to see his father because his flight had a connection in Baltimore. "I have this 8-year-old in tears, saying 'I've got to go home to Virginia,'" says Suthon of Birmingham, Ala. "I said, 'Isn't there any other way?' They said, 'Not unless you have somebody in Baltimore to meet him.'"    

Luckily, Suthon's ex-husband was in the military, and as a result, they had friends all over the world, including in Baltimore. Suthon says she told the ticket agent, "Give me 10 minutes." She called her friends and though they hadn't seen her son in years, she says they were thrilled to meet him at the airport and escort him to his connecting flight. 

Holiday time is the second busiest time of year for minors flying alone, after summertime, according to airline experts. Many of those fliers are the children of divorced parents who are under court order to get their kids to the other parent for the holidays. That means they have no choice but to become familiar with what the airlines call their "unaccompanied minor" policies and figure out the best way to get their children where they're going safely.      

An increasing number of flight delays and the post 9-11 security measures are the biggest challenges unaccompanied minors and their parents face, experts say. Kids travel expert Eileen Ogintz, a syndicated columnist and publisher of the travel web site www.takingthekids.com says planning ahead helps. "It's just a matter of being smart about it," she says.     


KNOW THE AIRLINE POLICY

These policies differ from airline to airline and can change frequently. Shawn Habibi, who runs The Trusted Traveler (www.thetrustedtraveler.com), a service that provides trained adults to escort children on domestic and international flights, provides links to most of the domestic and international airlines' unaccompanied minor policies at  (www.unaccompaniedminor.net). He provides unaccompanied minor forms parents can download at (http://www.unaccompaniedminor.net/links_of_pdf_forms.html).     

Most airlines will not allow a child younger than five to fly alone, although some will allow them to fly with an older sibling. Most will take children up to age 12 as unaccompanied minors and many charge fees ranging from $50 and up for the service, which usually involves extra attention from gate agents and flight attendants. Some airlines treat children older than 12 as adults, but they will offer assistance to teenagers if a parent pays the unaccompanied minor fee.     

Experts say parents should make sure they are aware of the level of assistance the airlines will provide for their child and they should find out what they need to do to make sure their child gets the help they might need. Sometimes this involves having forms filled out properly, arranging for another adult to meet a child at the destination and making sure the child wears identification the airline might provide for unaccompanied minors.     

Habibi's firm will provide children with an escort, usually with experience in law enforcement, the airline industry or nursing for their journey. His company's fees run from $500 to $900 for domestic flights and from $900 to $1,500 for international flights. His escorts deliver the child door to door and handle all paperwork and any arrangements, such as booking a hotel room or re-booking a flight if flights are canceled or delayed. And he says his agents stay in constant contact with parents during the journey.    

Habibi says he's helped out a number of divorced clients whose children are too young to travel without an adult. "They have custody issues and they can't resolve who is going to do what so they hire our company," says Habibi, a former member of the U.S. Army who started his secure point-to-point service company after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.