Unaccompanied Minor Fee by US Airline: What Each Charges in 2026

The unaccompanied minor fee is $150 each way on Delta, American, United, and JetBlue. Southwest and Alaska charge $50 each way, with Alaska adding $25 when the trip involves a connection. Frontier does not offer the service, so a child under 15 cannot fly alone on it at any price.

That fee is separate from the child’s ticket. You pay it on top of the fare, and on most airlines you pay it again on the way home. A $150-each-way service on a round trip is $300 before you count the seat itself.

The fee also buys a required service, not an optional upgrade. On every US airline that offers it, the unaccompanied minor program is mandatory for children ages 5 through 14 flying without an adult. You do not get to decline it to save money.

All figures on this page are taken from each airline’s own published policy, verified September 2026. Confirm the current amount on the airline’s site before you pay, because these are among the fees airlines adjust without much notice.

The Fee at Every US Airline

Here is what each major US carrier charges for one child, per direction of travel, as of September 2026.

Airline	Fee each way	Mandatory ages	Covers extra children?
Delta	$150	5–14	Yes, up to 4 siblings
American	$150	5–14	Yes, siblings on the same flight
United	$150	5–14	Yes, up to 2 children
JetBlue	$150	5–14	No, per child
Southwest	$50	5–11	No, per child
Alaska	$50 nonstop / $75 connecting	5–12	No, per child
Frontier	Not offered	—	—

Sources: Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and Frontier official policy pages, verified September 2026.

The gap is real. Southwest and Alaska charge a third of what the big three network carriers charge for the same basic service. If cost is the deciding factor and the route works, those two are the cheapest way to send a child alone.

Why the Fee Doubles on a Round Trip

The fee is charged per direction, not per trip. That is the detail most parents miss when they budget for it.

A child flying Delta round trip pays $150 to get there and $150 to come home. That is $300 in service fees on top of two one-way fares. The same round trip on Southwest is $100 total, because Southwest charges $50 each way.

Airlines that cover siblings soften this for larger families. On Delta, one $150 fee covers up to four children traveling together, so two siblings on a Delta round trip still pay $300 total rather than $600. United’s fee covers up to two children per reservation. JetBlue and Southwest charge per child with no sibling discount, so two kids means two fees each way.

What the Fee Actually Buys

The fee pays for supervised handoff, not a nicer seat. Across US airlines, the service includes an airline employee who checks the child in, escorts them to the gate, watches them during boarding, keeps an eye on them during the flight, and releases them at the destination only to the specific adult you named at check-in.

That last part is the point of the whole program. The airline will not release the child to anyone who is not on the pickup form with matching photo ID. That is the safeguard you are paying for.

The person dropping the child off cannot leave the airport until the flight is in the air. On most carriers you get a gate pass so you can walk the child to the gate and stay until the plane departs. If the flight returns to the gate or is delayed, you have to still be there.

Nonstop Only on Most Airlines

Most US airlines will only fly an unaccompanied minor on a nonstop flight. This limits your options more than the fee does.

JetBlue permits unaccompanied minors on nonstop flights only, not connections. Southwest allows a nonstop flight, or a single-plane flight that stops without a change of aircraft, but not an itinerary that requires changing planes. That rules out a large share of routes on both airlines.

Delta and American are more flexible. Delta allows some connecting itineraries for children 8 and older, though it will not book the last connecting flight of the day, so a missed connection does not strand a child overnight. Confirm the specific routing when you set up the service, because the age of the child changes what is allowed.

Alaska allows connections but charges more for them: $75 each way instead of $50. Alaska also restricts its youngest travelers to nonstop flights.

Frontier: No Service at Any Price

Frontier does not offer an unaccompanied minor service. A child under 15 cannot fly Frontier alone, and there is no fee you can pay to change that.

Frontier ended its unaccompanied minor program in 2018 and has not brought it back. Any child under 15 must travel on the same reservation as a passenger who is at least 15. If you were hoping Frontier’s low base fares would make it the cheap way to send a child alone, that path is closed.

A passenger 15 or older can fly Frontier by themselves, but as an ordinary passenger. There is no supervision, no escort, and no gate-to-gate handoff. Frontier treats them as an adult.

A Note on Spirit

Spirit Airlines ceased all operations on May 2, 2026, and is no longer flying. Older guides may still list a Spirit unaccompanied minor fee. Disregard it. The airline no longer exists as an operating carrier, so there is no Spirit unaccompanied minor service to buy in 2026.

The Teenager Exception

The fee is mandatory only through a certain age, and that cutoff differs by airline. Above it, the service becomes optional and you can skip the fee.

On Delta, American, United, and JetBlue, the unaccompanied minor service is required for ages 5 through 14. A 15-, 16-, or 17-year-old may fly alone as a regular passenger with no fee, or you can request the paid service if you want the supervised handoff for them anyway.

Southwest sets its mandatory range at 5 through 11. A child 12 or older flies as what Southwest calls a Young Traveler, with no service fee, and is expected to manage check-in and boarding independently. Alaska’s mandatory range runs through age 12, and the service is optional for ages 13 to 17.

So a 13-year-old flying Southwest pays nothing extra, while the same child flying Delta the same day would still fall under the mandatory $150 service. If your child is right at one of these age lines, the airline you pick can decide whether you pay the fee at all.

How to Keep the Cost Down

You cannot negotiate the fee, but you can control how many times you pay it and which airline charges it.

1. Compare the fee, not just the fare. A $49 base fare on one airline with a $150 service fee costs more than a $79 fare on Southwest with a $50 fee. Add the service fee to the ticket price before you decide.
2. Book a nonstop. A nonstop avoids Alaska’s $25 connection surcharge and keeps the child eligible on airlines that bar connections entirely.
3. Group siblings on airlines that discount them. On Delta, American, and United, one fee can cover multiple children traveling together. On JetBlue and Southwest it cannot, so two kids means two fees.
4. Check the child’s age against the cutoff. If your child is 12 to 14, Southwest treats them as a fee-free Young Traveler while the network carriers still charge the full service. The age line can erase the fee.

The one thing you cannot do is opt out of the service for a child who falls in the mandatory range. If your 8-year-old is flying alone, the fee is not optional, and the only real levers are which airline you use and how many directions you fly.