This is more of an idly-wondering future question since we are nowhere near this stage yet, but at some point we will probably want to send our kids to stay with their grandparents without us. We live in Iceland and my parents live in south west [name_f]England[/name_f], which is about a 3-hour flight.
I know it must depend a lot on the individual child, but those of you with older kids, when do you think you would be OK with them flying internationally (direct, no transfers) without a parent or other relative? The airline that flies to my parents’ local airport allows children to fly unaccompanied from the age of 5, which seems perhaps a little young to me? I am thinking of our daughter’s 5-year-old cousin and the idea of him going on a flight by himself seems a bit intense.
Although of course they are not ‘unaccompanied’ since the airline has someone looking after them at all times, but that wouldn’t be someone the children knew. Of course we’d wait until our younger child was ready and then send them both together, so what about a 5 year old with his 7 year old big sister? Would that make a difference?
It’s not such a big deal for us all to go to [name_f]England[/name_f] together a few times a year, but in the future I think it would be really beneficial for their language development to be in a completely monolingual English environment occasionally. And also from a more selfish standpoint I’m sure it would be nice to have a bit of a child-free holiday ourselves and to have more options for bridging the gap between the amount of summer holiday we get and the longer holidays that children get once they reach primary school age (6).
I flew alone for the first time when I was 8, but it was domestic (US, about 4 hour flight time), and also pre-9/11. The first time I flew alone internationally I was 15, with flight and airline changes.
I think it obviously depends a LOT on the maturity of the child and how they respond to situations when they are expected to be independent and also how they respond to mild stress.
I think sometime between 7 and 10 would be fine for your situation (short, direct flight between two stable, peaceful, and democratic countries with great diplomatic relations and few customs/immigration concerns, and it’s a definite plus that you and your husband have citizenship in the respective countries)…
Neither of us have dual citizenship at this point (and we’re not married, by the way, not that it matters much!). I’ll be getting my Icelandic citizenship sometime next year and he’ll never get British citizenship unless we move there, which I can’t see happening. Not sure what difference that makes though?
Our children are automatically dual citizens, although we only bothered getting an Icelandic passport for Freyja since it’s EEA and there’s no difference between British and EEA passports when entering the country. We’ll probably get her a British passport later depending on how that whole Brexit thing pans out.
[name_m]How[/name_m] did you feel about flying alone when you were 8? Was it scary and did it go OK? Were you alone alone or with a sibling?
I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable sending my children on a plane alone until they are teenagers. You just never know what could happen and you don’t know the person who is watching them. I personally don’t like the idea of flying alone now and I’m 26!
I would definitely make sure your children are okay with it.
My now 7 year old flew solo at 5 years on a 1 hour flight from me to my mum. She is a little bit of an anxious child but even with than she was fine. With the airline we fly with it is really tightly controlled. You get text messages with every move they make. Boarding, take off, landing, getting off, collection from designated adult at the other end. The service was pretty amazing really. And she got to sit with the hosties and eat lollies and draw horses so she was well looked after on board too. It was a short flight but I was pretty happy with it all.
I would have thought though, that I would have been pretty sure it wouldn’t be possible before she started school. Like, if someone had said she can fly at 5 when she was 4, I would have said ‘are you crazy!?’. But at 5 something often just clicks… they are a bit more independent and capable. In my experience anyway.
Another way we did it was when she was 6 and sister was still 4 my partner flew them down to [name_m]Wellington[/name_m] then my mum flew them back. More expensive on an international flight of course but another option.
Next holidays the big two, now 5 and 7 will probably fly alone… if someone buys a ticket or 2!
The airlines have lots of kids from 5, they are totally set up for it and really professional and put your mind at ease. There is a lot of paperwork though!
I’m pretty sure I flew alone for the first time at around age 6. Then I think I did it once or twice more, and then pretty regularly from the age of 10. My parents both worked for airlines though so I was pretty comfortable with the whole environment from a very young age.
I think airlines are very good with children, and especially a direct flight with a family member at either end I think it’s possibly beneficial to have that independence - I’m a nervous flyer now, but as a child I loved planes and flying (the older I go the more I could think about what might go wrong), but I think if I hadn’t had the experiences I had of it being not a scary thing even when my parents weren’t there I’d be far worse now.
I think it really depends, in my case… knowing my children … no… but also because my children don’t stay with people as a family choice so it has more to do with our family than with the airlines… though in the states there have been a lot of unpleasant things happening with planes it seems, I dislike that also, but as far as a short flight for a child who attends a school and goes off daily and is going to be staying with others and so on… I know they do it and its typically a non issue, much safer than allowing a child to take a bus or in a private car where anyone could just run off with them, they have a real plan for transporting children. But its not for our family. I flew a lot as a child, always accompanied until I was 18 and my parents would give me tickets and off I went… but it was never an issue. Good luck making your decision and I agree its important for children to develope their language skills, its hard when its all over the place and helpful to be where one language is spoken.
I don’t think I could ever send a young child off on a plane alone (I’m only a teenberry, so I have no good insight). I’d be a nervous wreck flying alone now at 17. There’s probably some kids who’ll be all for flying alone, but I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable. There’s just so many things that could go wrong.
I flew alone for the first time at 11 to see my grandparents in [name_f]Florida[/name_f]. I was not accompanied by a flight crew member, and I had to go through customs. I had no trouble and was only mildly anxious. My dad wrote me a long letter explaining all the different steps of the journey (security, customs, etc.) and showed me the customs form that I’d have to fill out. Obviously I was rather mature at 11, and I’ve known some kids that I would NOT trust to fly alone, but I’m actually really glad to that my dad had me fly unaccompanied at that age because it’s made me a self-reliant and easy traveler to this day. It really depends on the maturity of the child. I would think around 8ish would be fine if they are accompanied, as long as they have shown signs of maturity.
I was 10 when I flew alone with my 13 year old sister, it wasn’t international but it was 6 hours including a layover with terminal change. I was incredibly anxious as a child but I don’t remember being nervous. Then again, I flew internationally multiple times before that with my dad and was very comfortable navigating airports and customs by then.
I flew completely alone for the first time at 15. Starting at 17 I was in Uni so I would fly alone multiple times a year. Again, it’s not international, so it’s a bit different. I don’t have any kids so I can’t say what I would do, but I do believe it has a lot to do with maturity and previous travel experiences.
I’d say 13, which seems a lot older than what others are saying. I flew with my younger sister (she had just turned 18, I’m 20) to the Netherlands a few months back and she had no clue what she was doing so relied on me (who has never been ‘in charge’ of getting myself/anyone else on a plane before, it was always my parents who steered us there) and she even said herself she would’ve never made it because she genuinely had no clue and no common sense. There is always staff to ask and I would say the signs are pretty straightforward, but she didn’t seem to think so. If the 13-year-old was given a list of instructions, knew where to go and to ask for help, and had plenty of time to navigate towards their gate, I’d say they’d be fine. I wouldn’t be comfortable letting someone younger than 13 though, unless they had a family member at either end to pick them up.
I would be nervous to send my daughter alone on an airplane no matter how old she was. I was actually talking to my brother in law and his wife about this a few months ago when I was planning to go to Mexico this summer. According to the airline rules on [name_f]Delta[/name_f] and United, the children have to be 8 years old before they can qualify for the unaccompanied minors program. But of course, [name_m]New[/name_m] [name_m]York[/name_m] to Mexico is a much longer flight and involves layovers. If it is a direct flight, and relatives will be meeting them at the airport, I think maybe 8 and up for both kids. A 5 year old might get scared, even if traveling with a sibling. It depends if they show they are responsible at that age also.
I probably would not send my daughter to Mexico on her own until she was like 16 or something.
My husband’s Greek and all of his family live in Greece so we travel there three to four times a year to visit them. I couldn’t imagine letting my children fly before they were 14, even for the 3 hour flight that [name_u]London[/name_u] to Greece is. On our most recent flight to Greece, we helped a 12 year old girl who was travelling alone. She was terribly frightened and even started to cry before we got on the plane. This made me much more reluctant to send my children alone in the future.
Bottom line, I wouldn’t send my child on a plane on their own until they were at least 14.
I’m a Teenberry and I’ve never travelled alone before, but my friends started travelling alone at age 14 with family on each end. And they were completely fine. I think younger is a little bit scary to me.
My daughters were 13 and 14, but they had each other and they did very well finding their gates, going through security, etc. We were in Germany and they had to come later than us. I was so proud of them! Alone, I would say 14. I don’t know if [name_f]Emily[/name_f] would have been able to get everywhere by herself. [name_f]Natalie[/name_f] is 14 going on 40, so she took care of most of it, lol.
[name_m]Little[/name_m] children don’t have to navigate the airport by themselves! [name_m]Just[/name_m] wanted to make that clear since some people seem to be thinking that. Some airlines offer an ‘unaccompanied minor’ service which you obviously pay extra for. It depends very much on the airline if they offer such a service / from what age the service is available. Those that offer the service for young children will have someone with them at all times. The kids don’t have to go through security by themselves, find the gate, organise their documents, none of that! (In fact I know some airlines allow the parents to take the kids all the way to the gate themselves - not sure if Icelandair does though).
I wouldn’t worry at all about anything ‘going wrong’. I am certain that my children would have basically the exact same chances of reaching their destination safe and sound as if they were flying with us (i.e. very, very high). The only thing is that the adult responsible for them would be a stranger to them and the experience might be scary for a little child (but not because it’s actually dangerous!!).
Anyway, thanks for sharing your experiences, especially those who have used unaccompanied minor services themselves! I guess we will cross the bridge when we come to it but I’m almost certain we won’t wait until they are teenagers!