The age bands on the current unaccompanied-minors page
Four bands, and one of them carries a routing restriction that shapes the whole trip.
A child this young is not accepted for the unaccompanied minor service under any arrangement. Someone has to fly with them.
The service is required at this age, and the child cannot be handed to a Delta connection at all. A 6-year-old's itinerary has to sit entirely on flights Aeroméxico itself operates, which rules out many Mexico-US routings before price even enters the picture.
The service is required, and at this age a connection is possible, but only within the narrow Delta rule described below.
A teenager can fly as a regular passenger, or you can add the service for the escort and the documented handover. Many parents choose it for a first solo trip.
The service fee depends on the route and season, and one fee covers up to 4 minors on the same reservation; we tell you the exact amount before anything is booked.
Aeroméxico's own documents disagree on the ages
The honest detail you won't find laid out anywhere on aeromexico.com itself.
Aeroméxico's current unaccompanied-minors page draws the lines the way we've described: mandatory to 14, optional 15 to 17. But the airline's older Customer Service Plan, still published on its own legal-information hub, describes the service as covering unaccompanied minors between 5 and 13 years, 11 months. Both documents live on aeromexico.com right now, and they do not say the same thing.
We follow the current unaccompanied-minors page, because it's the one the airport works from day to day. But if your child is 14, or about to turn 14 mid-trip, don't let the trip hinge on which document a counter agent has in mind. Plan for the stricter reading of your child's age and have it confirmed on the reservation before you pay. That's a two-minute question on a call, and it's exactly the kind of thing we pin down for you in writing on the booking.
The SAM: Mexico's exit paperwork for minors, and it isn't only international
The single biggest reason families get stopped at the counter, and it has nothing to do with flying alone.
Mexico's immigration institute, the INM, requires a Minor Exit Form, known as the SAM (Formato de Salida de Menores), whenever a minor travels with someone who is not their legal guardian. The form is free and issued by INM. What almost nobody expects: Aeroméxico's guidance applies this to domestic flights as well as international ones, and to close relatives. The worked example on the airline's own passenger pages is a grandfather flying his grandchild from Mexico City to Bogota, a trip that needs the SAM or its alternative even though the child is with family the whole way.
Instead of the SAM, a notarized authorization letter from the parents or legal guardian is accepted. If the letter was issued outside Mexico, it must be apostilled and translated, which takes real lead time, so this is not a night-before task.
For travel through Tapachula, a minor not traveling with their parents also needs a free-format handwritten authorization letter plus a copy of the parent's or guardian's ID. It's a local requirement layered on top of everything above, and it's easy to miss because it applies at one airport.
The test is not "is this person trustworthy," it's "is this person the legal guardian." A grandparent, an aunt, an older sibling over 18, a family friend: all of them trigger the requirement. If the child's companion isn't the legal guardian, assume the paperwork is needed and confirm.
Exit and consent requirements for minors are set by Mexican immigration, not by the airline, and they change; confirm current requirements with INM and at aeromexico.com before travel.
Where the service doesn't run
A participating airline is not the same thing as a participating route.
The unaccompanied minor service covers Aeroméxico's Mexico routes from Mexico City's Terminal 2 and domestic routes from Santa Lucía (AIFA). But it is suspended indefinitely on four routes: Mexico City to Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Santo Domingo. If the family plan was to fly a child alone to one of those cities, the service simply isn't offered there right now, and the sooner you know, the sooner we can look at alternatives that actually work.
The El Salvador route carries a different kind of restriction: it is limited to Colombian, Ecuadorian and Venezuelan minors who are not traveling with their parents. That's an unusually specific rule, and it's exactly the sort of thing worth confirming on the call for your child's nationality and routing before any money moves.
Connections: Delta only, and never the last flight of the day
The routing rule that decides which itineraries the service will accept.
An Aeroméxico unaccompanied minor can connect to exactly one partner: Delta or Delta Connection, and only on trips between Mexico and the United States. No other airline is allowed anywhere in the itinerary. Even within that partnership, the child can never be booked onto Delta's last flight of the day, a rule that exists so a missed connection doesn't strand a child overnight. And remember the age gate above: 5 to 7 year olds can't use Delta connections at all.
In practice that means a child flying from a US city to a Mexican beach town, or the reverse, has a much shorter list of valid routings than the booking sites suggest. This is the part we check leg by leg before you book, because an itinerary the search engine happily sells is not necessarily one the unaccompanied minor desk will accept.
The small print that surprises: the pet rule and the drop-off
Two details that don't come up until they're a problem.
A child flying alone cannot bring a pet in the cabin. One service animal or one emotional support animal is allowed, but the family cat traveling as a pet is not, so don't build the trip around it.
The parent or guardian arrives 3 hours before departure, domestic and international alike, and must remain at the airport until the flight is confirmed to have departed. If the flight boards, returns to the gate and cancels, the airline needs the adult still there. Clear your afternoon, not just the drop-off hour.
Before you book, the checklist
Five answers now prevent a child being refused at the counter.
- The child's exact age on the travel date, and if they're 14, get the band confirmed on the reservation
- Not a suspended route: Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Santo Domingo don't offer the service
- Connections only via Delta, Mexico-US only, never the day's last Delta flight, and none at all for ages 5 to 7
- SAM or notarized letter in hand if the child travels with anyone who isn't the legal guardian, even domestically
- The drop-off adult's whole window blocked out, 3 hours before departure until the flight has left
Sort the paperwork before the fare. The SAM is free and the notarized letter is routine, but an apostilled translation from abroad takes weeks, not days. Families compare flight prices for a month and leave the one document that can stop the trip to the last 48 hours. Do it in the opposite order, and if you call us, the document check is the first thing we run.
Frequently asked
What ages can a child fly alone on Aeroméxico?+
Does a child flying with a grandparent need special paperwork in Mexico?+
Can an Aeroméxico unaccompanied minor connect to another airline?+
How early does the parent need to arrive, and can the child bring a pet?+
Contact options
Reach Aeroméxico directly, or let us set the service up and check the documents.
Contact Aeroméxico directly
The airline's own official channels, free.
These are Aeroméxico's own channels; confirm current unaccompanied-minor rules at aeromexico.com, where you can arrange the service yourself at no cost.
More Aeroméxico help
Related guides.