lewelma Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 (edited) Boy am I nervous. DS is meeting my father for a 2-week international adventure, and they are both travelling to the same location and then flying on to the destination. He is 17 years old, and I am so glad I did not send him to an international university this year - very glad that he will go at 18. I'm nervous. Scared even. He will be fine if it all goes well, but if anything is off, I'm not sure how he will handle it. Two passports, three currencies, 40 hour flight. yikes! Ruth in NZ Edited December 3, 2017 by lewelma 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 That's bound to be nerve-wracking. I'm sure it will be fine though. When will you hear and what can you do to keep yourself occupied? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 :grouphug: It should go fine. Is he a people person by any chance? My guys all love traveling alone and I swear, the longer the trip, the better - even layovers. They don't leave the airport, but they enjoy exploring it and seeing who else is around they can meet - usually other young lads or lasses traveling alone or in pairs seeing the world. If he has WhatsApp he can still text you from anywhere with WiFi. One can call too, but we've found a better App for that - maybe Google Duo if my mind is working correctly. Then we have Life 360 on our phones. It allows us to track each other worldwide. Lest one think we are too much into helicopter parenting, I'll add that my youngest is the one who suggested it and put it on our phones. It's helpful when we want to contact each other as we can check and see where they are and if we're likely to be interrupting anything or not. I end up using it for hubby more than my guys, but it's still a nice little app overall. My Jordan lad is in class right now and my Rochester lad is likely sleeping (he's at his house and it's Sunday). Just all thoughts of things we like with traveling as part of our life. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 Mine just completed his first domestic flights alone. I was a nervous nellie, checking in with him to make sure he got to the airport, knew where he was going in the terminals... Your kid has got this! He'll be fine - and learning to navigate on their own is a good experience for them. :) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 He will be fine. If he is prepared for what might happen, if one of his flights misconnects, or, is diverted to another airport, or that his luggage is lost, etc., he will be just fine. If we were sending my DD alone, I would try to explain to her all of the things that I can think of that might possibly go wrong (when I was young I was an airline employee and then a Travel Agent for one year after that), I would send her on her way knowing that she would know what to do if something went awry. To repeat, he will be fine. However, if he is enroute for 40 hours, he will be dead tired when he arrives at his final destination airport. WhatsApp is used by huge numbers of people outside the USA. If there is good WiFi available, you can make Voice Calls or send messages via WhatsApp and it's always free. The quality is very high. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJosMom Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 (edited) :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: And I'll third the recommendation for WhatsApp. DD uses it regularly to keep in touch with her international friends. And Life360, too. The Family Circle feature is a great way to keep tabs on a traveler. Edited December 3, 2017 by JoJosMom 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 He will be fine. If he is prepared for what might happen, if one of his flights misconnects, or, is diverted to another airport, or that his luggage is lost, etc., he will be just fine. If we were sending my DD alone, I would try to explain to her all of the things that I can think of that might possibly go wrong (when I was young I was an airline employee and then a Travel Agent for one year after that), I would send her on her way knowing that she would know what to do if something went awry. To repeat, he will be fine. However, if he is enroute for 40 hours, he will be dead tired when he arrives at his final destination airport. WhatsApp is used by huge numbers of people outside the USA. If there is good WiFi available, you can make Voice Calls or send messages via WhatsApp and it's always free. The quality is very high. Have you tried Google Duo for calls? We've found it to be quite a bit better than WhatsApp - not so much of a gap between speaking and hearing. We've only tried it from Jordan to US though, so I'm not sure if it's better all around or if there's just an anomaly with WhatsApp between those countries or our internet access or whatever the difference might be from. We'd never used either App with other countries as we didn't call prior to a whole semester long "gap." In the US and Canada we just use our phones without an app. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted December 3, 2017 Author Share Posted December 3, 2017 Thanks guys. We use Viber, which sounds like WhatsApp. It has free texting and calls internationally if you have Wifi. We had a small panic 3 hours before he was to leave, that the country he was flying to was not going to let a minor in or out without legal guardian. We found a template for a letter online to send with him and my father, but it was too late to get a Justice of the Peace to affirm our signatures. So hoping all will be ok. There is also going to be a passport problem because he has two and the visas are based on one and not the other. I tried to explain it to him, but all he really wanted to do was play his violin (stress reliever), so I'm not sure he actually heard me. He is going carry on which is good, but the airline restriction was under 15 pounds, so I was pretty proud of him for making that limit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 Hugs. We let our younger son fly unaccompanied to India for ten days when he was 17. He was a (paid) invited guest at an international kite festival, and there was only one other American invited...... So no supervision, no way to contact us other than a quick "I arrived" from the airport, and no one for us to contact other than the kite festival coordinators.... I was a WRECK. Of course, he drank tap water (!?!?!) and got lost, but he loved the entire experience and made it through unscathed. The whole experience upped his confidence immeasurably, and we are SO glad he went. But I wouldn't want to relive those days again.... So lots of sympathy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 My siblings and I all managed solo international flights as teens. In the days before cell phones. He'll be fine. It is an adventure for sure! Hidden belt pouches can be good for carrying passports and money. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 (edited) Age 13 here for first solo international flight. Feel better? :) Edited December 6, 2017 by madteaparty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted December 6, 2017 Author Share Posted December 6, 2017 Haha. Not really. All went well, found my dad, and they are off on their adventure. 😀 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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