[jimworcs]

The key lesson here: When flying internationally, it is almost NEVER the right choice to select the US based carrier for the journey. The standards of US based airlines has fallen so low, and the attitude of the staff is so poor that almost every other airline in the world beats them. This is not just a subjective judgement. The largest survey of passenger airline experience, published annually by Skytrax, has documented the demise of US based airlines over the last 10 years.

The issue of children being separated from parents has been discussed at length on this forum before. Sooner or later a child will be sexually molested by a stranger. To force a 5 year old onto a complete stranger for a long haul flight is outrageous... both for the child and the poor stranger. It is also potentially very dangerous. In an emergency evacuation, you are likely to impede your and others exit as parents frantically try to find their child. In a decompression, who takes care of the children?

The deregulation of the airlines has failed. They have no moral compass. They think that their schedules, money making opportunities and operations are more important than the needs of their passengers. It won't change until they are re-regulated AND the markets are opened up to allow competition.