Advice on 14 year old child flying without parents

[Gio G]

Hi all,

My son (14) has been offered a week in South Africa to join his grandmother, who is out there for 3 weeks. Friends of my grandmother (who we also know) have suggested he can flight out with them. They have a son who is 13, which would be good for company. Looking online, there appears to be no decent information around what type of consent we would need to give, to allow the travel.

Anyone got experience of doing this out there?

Thanks G

[Jonnas]

Bit of info from BA here....

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/childinfo/pub...

I would imagine it is quite Airline specific and they will all have different policies and services......

[Puggit]

Is it direct to Joburg (or Cape Town?) - changing flights at JNB will be a daunting exercise for a kid as it involves immigration, fetching luggage, checking in etc...

[Steviesam]

My sisters kids (13 and 14) just flew from Boston to Manchester, via Iceland, and they were fine.

Just go for it.

[Marcellus]

It's been a while since I knew about this but basically if the child is travelling with anyone over the age of 18 there are no issues.

If not then they need to be booked in as an "unaccompanied minor" so when you check in you hand them over to an airline employee, they are then handed from employee to employee through the airport, onto the plane and through the other side and then signed over to the pre-approved person by you at the other end.

They're not left unsupervised for a minute from the moment you hand them over until the moment they are handed to the person at the other end.

[anonymous-user]

My kids have flown all over the world on their own from when they were 6, they will be accompanied too and from the gate and at any stop over, as an example once they flew from KL to Norway via Amsterdam and I wound up subsequently booking and flying the same leg to Amsterdam, but we had booked them on unaccompanied so I was not allowed to take them to the gate, or be offically with them in Amsterdam as they were in a special kids room, the room supervisor was helpfull and allowed us to sit together in the seats outside but that was it no trips it the shops. So as you can see it is safe, mine have done flight changes in loads of places, it is not a problem.
Now at this moment my 17 year old is on her way home from Paris on her own after spending a few weeks with school friendsI'm really worried about that.

[Gio G]

Thanks for the advice all. I think he will be flying Emirates, I will ask them about their policy, if they have one, however it appears to be a non-issue especially at 14.

Thanks G

[Marcellus]

Gio G said:

Thanks for the advice all. I think he will be flying Emirates, I will ask them about their policy, if they have one, however it appears to be a non-issue especially at 14.

Thanks G

I am certain they will... after all they have loads of "little princes and princesses" coming over for term time!

[NormalWisdom]

Marcellus said:

It's been a while since I knew about this but basically if the child is travelling with anyone over the age of 18 there are no issues.

If not then they need to be booked in as an "unaccompanied minor" so when you check in you hand them over to an airline employee, they are then handed from employee to employee through the airport, onto the plane and through the other side and then signed over to the pre-approved person by you at the other end.

They're not left unsupervised for a minute from the moment you hand them over until the moment they are handed to the person at the other end.

Not the case with all airlines. My daughter flew fairly regularly on her own from the age of 13 (7 years ago). BMI had an escort, Easyjet just let her go on her own. She was only going to various places in the Med to meet her Mum who was sailing

[Griff Boy]

Berw said:

Now at this moment my 17 year old is on her way home from Paris on her own after spending a few weeks with school friendsI'm really worried about that.

If your really worried about it already, please don't watch 'Taken'!

[civicduty]

This was in the mid-90's so it might have changed since then but I flew unaccompanied at ages 13 & 14 to Singapore to visit my Mum and Stepknob. This was with BA, basically my Dad took me to check in as soon as the bags where gone I said good bye. I was then escorted by a member of staff through security and was then taken to a kids club type room with a dvd playing, food drink and stuff to do.

When it was time for my flight to depart, I was escorted to the gate was the first one to get on the plane was handed over to a flight steward who would look after me all through the flight regularly checking on me, at the other end it was reversed.

Someone again escorted me through passport control, waited with me whilst I grabbed my bags and then stayed with me until I was picked up, and even stayed with me and tried to get in contact with my Dad when he was late picking me up because of traffic at Heathrow.

I still have the first class toiletry bag I was given on one of the flights, I was obviously in Economy, now used to hold shoe polishing kit.

I was always impressed with the service, never felt overwhelmed or anything. If there are connections to catch and bags to pick up I am sure the staff will be able to help with all that.

I suppose post 9/11 everything might be even more controlled now and supervision might be even higher which would be welcome.

Anyway just my 2 penny worth, HTH

[///Mike]

Really simple this one. Let the airline know that its an unacompanied minor and he will be looked after. As a precaution I would pack him off with a letter with your consent and the intent of his visit along with your contact details on it for SA customs.

My mum worked for BA and half my family lived in NZ. I flew there and back on my own on more than one occasion under the age of 16 on standby tickets where I got booted off in Sydney and Sinagapore and had to find accomodation and transport home with a little help from my mum on the phone. Thats a far cry from travelling as an official unacompanied minor where he will be looked after and I loved every minute of it.

All the best

[Lazadude]

Griff Boy said:

If your really worried about it already, please don't watch 'Taken'!

Maybe theyve aquired a specific set of skills over a long career?

[hoyin]

From about the age of 8 I went to Hong Kong every year of my life during the summer holidays to stay with my Grandmother unaccompanied.

You get looked after by the stewardess and nothing traumatic ever happened. I was always well looked after as far as I can remember.

I really wouldn't worry. It will do your kids good and to get some independence.

[ClaphamGT3]

I flew all over the world as an an anaccompanied minor, both on civil airlines and on the RAF VC10 fleet & it was fine - I had great fun!

[surveyor]

hoyin said:

From about the age of 8 I went to Hong Kong every year of my life during the summer holidays to stay with my Grandmother unaccompanied.

You get looked after by the stewardess and nothing traumatic ever happened. I was always well looked after as far as I can remember.

I really wouldn't worry. It will do your kids good and to get some independence.

Step-son was flying unaccompanied from the age of 6 from Gatwick to Tenerife with BA. He loved it, and was only perturbed once when stuck next to a non-english speaker. They moved him so someone else had to listen to all facts and figures of Bristol City. He was well looked after and often gained treats by helping flight attendants. As this was just pre 2001 also got to spend some time in the cockpit (not that I'm jealous!)

He used to pop out of arrivals at 1AM, sitting on a crew suitcase on a trolley being pushed....

He flew a couple of years later from Bristol with one of the Charter airlines. They were not so good, and he was on-board and seated before they realised they had an unaccompanied minor to deal with.

[torqueofthedevil]

Every year from 9 I flew Manchester to Denver with changeovers in Chicago or Newark. On way home would sometime meet family in Florida. Not an issue.