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Unaccompanied minors & international flights: just curious


Penguin
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I am just curious about this:  At what age do you think you would allow your child to make an international flight (between USA and Europe) as an unaccompanied minor on a direct flight?  With connections?

 

We have extended an open invitation to several of DS's friends in the USA to come visit us in Denmark. No takers yet...For some, money is the issue.  But for others, I know it is unease with putting their kid on an international flight.  I would never ever try to persuade a parent to go out of their comfort zone, so of course I just let it be. 

 

I don't even know when *I* would be comfortable, as the situation has not actually presented itself.  The first time that I ever had to consider putting a kid on an international flight, said child was 17.  My 13 year old has travelled back-and-forth with me from Europe to the USA multiple times, and we always have multiple connections.  The last few times, I have made him "lead the way" during the entire process.  He knows exactly what to do now, but dealing with a missed connection or a cancelled flight would still be a concern.

 

By next summer, most of these boys would be 14 and it would be their summer before high school.  It would be so fun to have one for a visitor!

 

edited for clarity/typos

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Calvin did London to Hong Kong (no connections) when he was eleven.  Thirteen with connections would be fine in this family, but we are extremely used to international flights.

 

Calvin is spending a month in the US on his own at the moment, flying between various friends and relatives.  I'm not even a little bit worried about him.

 

L

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There are also possible legal issues involved in this. Would the airline accept an unaccompanied minor passenger on that route? Do the countries involved (origin and destination) permit unaccompanied minors to travel on that route? 

 

There are often laws, strictly regulating travel by minors with only one parent. Certainly that is the case between Colombia and the USA. A parent doing here that must jump through extra hoops, to do it. A child traveling alone is another story...

 

IMHO, if it is legal, a child of that age, who is an experienced international traveler, should not have a problem, if everything is routine, as long as they have whatever papers from the Parents  that are required, to show that they are not a Runaway child, etc.  and to comply with the regulations of the airline and the origin and destination countries.

 

The child should be prepared for routine situations such as lost luggage, delayed, cancelled or rerouted flights, or ending up in a different city, because of a mechanical problem on the aircraft, bad weather at the destination airport, etc. The child should have money available (cash in U.S. Dollars) in case of unexpected expenses while enroute to the hosting family.

 

The vast majority of flights are routine, but one should be prepared.

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My oldest went to Sweden just after he turned 14 and he had a stop in Frankfurt to change plans.  He was nervous, but did fine.  

 

When dd went at age 14, we got her a direct flight.  

 

These 2 are very different - oldest has never been shy or been bothered by asking people for help/directions.  I think dd would have locked herself in the bathroom rather than ask a stranger for assistance (I'm exaggerating, but she was quite shy).  

 

When my youngest goes next summer, he won't be quite 14, but he'll have no problem asking for help.  I'd be comfortable letting him change planes too.

 

I think age has less to do with it than the personality of the child.  

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It depends on whether they were actually considered unaccompanied minors and how good the airline was about managing them.

 

I flew by myself to Germany at 9 and 11, with a connection.  Lufthansa took great care of me.  All the UMs had their documents in big orange pouches.  We sat together, the stewardesses brought us games to play, and for the connection we were taken out of the back of the plane with the crew, and taken to a place to play (wonder if these even exist anymore) and then ushered to our next flight.  When we were coming back from Europe this summer, I happened to see a Lufthansa stewardess ushering a few UMs through the airport - they even still had the orange bags.

 

But most airlines don't consider kids UMs after 12? 13? And you don't get the extra service.  I did fly by myself to Mexico at 15, with a connection.  No help from anyone at that point.  The plane coming home was late and I missed my connection in Atlanta; had to take the next plane.  I did navigate that fine, but I was a pretty practical kid.  So after they're not considered UMs anymore, it would depend on the kid and their maturity.

 

My own dd is coming back from Europe this year by herself, at 16, with a connection.  I don't think she could have handled it by herself any younger, and I was a little concerned about her now - I would have been much less concerned about her twin sister.  This particular kid doesn't tend to really notice her surroundings. We flew over with her and at the (small) connecting airport we made her tell us where to go and what to do next and where to find help if she needed it.  That made me feel a little better about it.

 

Without UM status I'd say it would depend on the kid, and if there were a connection.

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When we used to fly as kids 'Unaccompanied Minors' were children under a certain age (14? 15?) who had to be 'signed over' to the airline and were then supervised in the airport. I'm not sure if that is what you are talking about, or whether you simply mean underage children flying alone. In the former case I would have no concerns apart from the usual parental anxiety after age 10 or 12, although I'd only send a child that age to a family I knew very, very well. In the latter case, I'd only send a child overseas after the age of 16 and probably only if they'd flown overseas before with the family. I'm assuming at least one change of plane - I'd be less concerned with a direct flight.

 

A classmate of dd's, aged 14, has just flown from Australia to Europe, with a flight change at an international hub. They flew him as a formal UM, and pointed out that if the second flight was delayed he would not legally be able to get a hotel room on his own. That seemed a valid concern.

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Like I said, I won't be trying to convince a reluctant parent - I am not like that.  Anyway, I did just look up SAS's policies since they are a major carrier in and out of Scandinavia.  You can secure unaccompanied minor service for ages 12 - 15, but it is optional for that age bracket.

 

http://www.flysas.com/en/travel-info/travel-with-children/unaccompanied-minors/

 

 

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I've had 13 year olds come from Europe to visit on direct flights. Now with cell phones it would be less anxiety provoking .  Let the families know they can still check their kids. What a great opportunity. Or could your son go to the states for a while and then the kids could fly back together?

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It would depend on so many different things for me.  The number of connections and where they are would make a big difference. I wouldn't put my experienced 15yo and 13yo on flights alone between Bishkek and Seattle because there are too many stops in airports where they don't speak much English, and such long layovers. I hate dealing with the stress of flying to Bishkek, so I'd wait till he was 16 or 17 to do that. But I'm totally fine with them taking flights to and from Europe and Central America. 

 

If they were flying as unaccompanied minors, though, I wouldn't worry about anything. Airlines take care of everything for UMs, so I wouldn't be too worried about that no matter what the age or where they were going.  In that case, the more important thing to me is whether my kids are ready to be far away from home for a long time and who they'll be staying with.  It also would be nice if they'd dealt with jetlag before.

 

 

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When I was 13, I took a couple of younger kids with me from Japan to the US.  The actual flight and connection was fine but one of the kids had a visa problem according to Japanese immigration and I was totally unprepared to handle that.  It actually ended up being a mistake and they let us go but until then I was scared and didn't know what to do.  This was pre-cell-phone when it wasn't easy to connect to an adult to ask for help and advice.  All of this to say that I'd probably be fine with it at 13.

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I flew to Europe by myself at 14, plane got delayed in weather, and I spent the night in a hotel in Peoria, Illinois (provided by the airline for the whole plane - we were supposed to be landing in Chicago). At 14, I'm not sure what I would have done to acquire a hotel room in other situations; I was not officially flying as a UM per the airline. This was pre-cell phones being common, and I did not have a credit card.

 

I would have handled the same situation slightly differently as an adult, but I did fine. I had also flown (with and without parents) every other weekend for the preceding decade, so I was VERY familiar with air travel.

 

Would I send my own children unaccompanied at 14? I think it depends very much on their personalities and their previous travel experience.

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As an unaccompanied minor, 13 or14. Middle ds who is 15 wandered all over Reykjavik without us, and though we traveled with him, we put him in charge to test his logical thinking skills. We had a delay in NYC, and some crazy security delays on the way home out of Iceland due to the terrorist threat out of Norway which put a lot of heightened security in place across Europe. We almost missed our flight, but he handled all of the mess very, very well. So to Europe, I would be comfortable. Australia, NewZealand, same. Where it might go off the rails for me would be areas with significant unrest,or where it might be more difficult to get help in an emergency.

 

Our 17 year old would be fine now. I am not certain that he would have been at 15. Dd was sort of "born 21" and could have handled it at 12 or 13. Our youngest is a homebody, does not like to be alone, and is shy of talking to strangers even at 14. He would be appalled at the thought of traveling alone and will likely, someday, need to be shoved out of the nest, LOL!

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I think 13 or 14 would probably be OK for my kid, but my kids have had experience with international travel.  I don't know about your son's friends' families, but many American adults have not traveled overseas, so it could be a big unknown to them.  Of course lately with passenger planes disappearing / being shot down and heightened security etc., parents probably conjure up all sorts of images at the thought.  "What if the plane gets re-routed to some place where nobody speaks English?"  (This has happened to me and it was not pleasant.)

 

Maybe the folks would be OK with their kids going in a group with maybe one experienced adult?

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Depends on the child, I went from LAX to Germany alone to visit family when I was barely 15. It went fine even though I was bored out of my mind on the flight. My oldest kiddo (14 in 2 weeks) I dont see being ready, I dont even want her on the bus alone though. Way to immature.

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I think it would depend partly on the maturity of the particular child and especially their level of experience with international travel. I would consider sending a responsible 12 year old who had traveled extensively in the past, but not one who had never been on an international flight. If it were their first time overseas, sixteen seems like a more comfortable age to me to navigate the experience alone.

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.  He knows exactly what to do now, but dealing with a missed connection or a cancelled flight would still be a concern.

 

There was a stewardess accompanying the minor so things like missed connection and cancelled flight won't be an issue as the assigned stewardess would have assisted.  We have watched that in action many times for delayed flight and missed flight.

 

Copied from SQ's website.

"Throughout the journey - from check-in for the flight, to arrival at the final destination - your child is always under someone's care. This service is offered to our young passengers from 5 to under 18 years of age, if an adult aged 18 years and above is not travelling with them on the same flight and cabin class. Children under the age of 5 are not allowed to travel alone.

This service is mandatory for unaccompanied children aged 5 and under 12 years, and is optional for those aged 12 to under 18 years old."

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We thought about letting Indy go to Germany this summer to stay with his BFF, but we had so many other things going on, we decided not to.  He's just turned 12 (a week ago), and I would let him go.  Of course from where we are, it would be a straight flight, but even if there were connections, I'd let him, as the airline would make sure he got to the correct gate.  We may let him go next summer for a few weeks.

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I wouldn't allow it, period. Maybe after age 16 and carrying a credit card with at least a 10K limit.  I spent a lot of time flying as a kid and saw that sometimes, with some airlines, unaccompanied minors are well taken care of by flight attendants, but on other airlines there were times I literally had to remind the attendant that I was supposed to have been on a certain flight and they'd forgotten to take me to the gate.   IMHO customer service has only gotten worse, let alone with airline transfers and overbooked flights...  What if a volcano in Iceland erupts again and they get stranded someplace and aren't even old enough to rent a hotel?  Getting stranded happened to me as a kid; luckily I was pushy enough a customer service rep gave me a hotel voucher after repeatedly suggesting things that were completely ridiculous given that I wasn't old enough to have a credit card of my own, let alone rent a car.  I only got stranded for 36 hours and I had plenty of money for food, etc.  I can't imagine how I would have coped if I had been stranded for weeks.

 

I don't think I've even flown across the country with connections more than twice and not had a significant delay at one connection, especially not as a child.  To this day I hate airports (not flying, I love flying, but airports stress me out).

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At 14, I flew by myself across the world, with one long flight plus one short connection. Clearing customs was a bit scary, but the airline was pretty good. I actually managed to leave the airport to go meet a cousin of a relative, and when I returned, they were freaked out about where I'd been -- it was kind of hilarious. In retrospect, kind of scary. They also served me wine with one meal (!). 

 

I had had no experience flying solo domestically, but I had flown as a kid with my family. Also I had previous experience on local train and bus travel.

 

There were no cell phone options back in those dark ages.

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Probably at 11 or 12 yo.  Certainly by age 13.  However, I flew alone even earlier, though domestically.  And last time we flew internationally, there was a hilarious little girl of about six or seven flying alone to see her grandmother in South Africa.  She was making the flight staff completely crazy, but I can only assume her family had paid for the privilege.

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This summer we sent DD 13 as an unaccompanied minor from India to NY through Dubai.  She went on Emirates and they were amazing!  At check in they changed other people's seats so that she was sitting next to a woman.  The ground staff handed her over to the pilot who took personal responsibility for her documents.  In Dubai they have a separate lounge just for the unaccompanied minors to wait - with snacks, games, etc.  In NY she was escorted up until she met her grandmother.

 

In the US she flew solo (but not as an unaccompanied minor) from NY to CA.  My brother was able to get a gate pass and accompany her up to the gate and she had a cell phone.

 

For international travel, with a connection, I would do the airline unaccompanied minor service up until about 16 year old.  Mostly for my peace of mind!

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At 15, I flew alone from the US to England, Ireland, and Scotland. I was met by a family friend in England and by the organization I was staying with in Ireland, but I was on my own in Scotland for 2 days. My parents had prebooked a hotel room. I almost missed a connection -- they said "It's that way! RUN! RUN!" and I got there just as they were closing the door, but other than that it was pretty uneventful.

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Ours just went to Europe, unaccompanied, age 17. Three connections on plane, then train and bus to take before reaching destination. Then at the end of the trip, 3 trains across 4 countries and bus to destination. I planned beginning, he figured out end when he got there. I was a bit nervous, but all went smoothly. Hardest things were that tickets couldn't be bought on travelocity or any other of those type of sites for an under 18. Expedia would do it. Youth hostels wouldn't accept an under 18 by himself, he ended up taking overnight trains to avoid having to stay somewhere. He did have signed letter from us that he had permission to travel, written in 2 languages. He had debit card to use at ATM's. No phone. A bit of a leap of faith for us, but he was ready and needed the adventure. I would have been more nervous for one of my girls to do that, just seems safer as a boy/young man. Blessings on all of you who are contemplating this sort of adventure, or living through it!

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Ours just went to Europe, unaccompanied, age 17. Three connections on plane, then train and bus to take before reaching destination. Then at the end of the trip, 3 trains across 4 countries and bus to destination. I planned beginning, he figured out end when he got there. I was a bit nervous, but all went smoothly. Hardest things were that tickets couldn't be bought on travelocity or any other of those type of sites for an under 18. Expedia would do it. Youth hostels wouldn't accept an under 18 by himself, he ended up taking overnight trains to avoid having to stay somewhere. He did have signed letter from us that he had permission to travel, written in 2 languages. He had debit card to use at ATM's. No phone. A bit of a leap of faith for us, but he was ready and needed the adventure. I would have been more nervous for one of my girls to do that, just seems safer as a boy/young man. Blessings on all of you who are contemplating this sort of adventure, or living through it!

 

That sounds so exciting!

 

What country(ies) wouldn't accept an under-18 at a youth hostel by himself?  I traveled all over Europe when I was 17, with two 16-yos, and we stayed in youth hostels all the places we went... no problem at all...

 

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