Unaccompanied minors

[cariad]

Help my IHD friends!

I want to get my kids to LA for August 17 when Gwyn's work is doing a 'bring your kids to work' family day with bouncy castles and the like. They will have to depart the morning of August 17, assuming nothing goes wrong (that better not be sinister music I hear) they should be there well before midday.

I don't think I'll be able to leave by then because I'll be tying up all sorts of loose ends with the house. I don't fancy paying for a round trip ticket for me, then returning within days on a single ticket, but maybe I'll just have to do that.

Aidan and I are very different people. What I saw as an adventure as a child he seems to find terrifying. He has been in tears when Gwyn was 5 minutes late to pick him up from soccer day camp, and many children were doing a longer program and were starting their afternoon session, so not like he was alone. Just yesterday, dropping him at beach soccer, he asked what he should do if I'm late picking him up. My response: I don't know, Aidan. Panic. Scream. Cry. Whatever you want. He's got much better, really, but I don't know how he would handle being sent cross country with only his younger brother, and Liot takes after me which scares Aidan because he's always telling him not to do things with a chance of injury. (He would throw up watching Liot do gymnastics, heaven knows I nearly did!) The travel time would be 6 hours, one stop where they'd likely have to hang out with some disinterested flight attendant.

Has anyone sent their minor children off on an airplane? How old were they and how did your kids get on? How did you handle the worry that something would happen to the plane?

[thegrammalady]

when my kids were little their father worked for united airlines. they flew all over the place alone. if i'm remembering correctly you have to be 10 to fly without an adult.  an airline  employee puts you on the plane and you are met at the other end by an employee. there is really not to much problem with children driving alone. you need to tell the airline when you make the reservation that the children will be unaccompanied and they take it from there. each airling has their own rules but they will let you  know.

[willowtreewren]

This was a loooong time ago, but Meagan, our daughter, started flying alone when she was just about to turn 5 (The age limit was 5 at the time, but I figured she was close enough). Continued flying alone every summer after that!

Once, when she was about 10, her connecting flight was cancelled. She kept trying to tell the attendants that they would not be able to reach her grandparents by phone since they lived more than 2 hours from the airport and would be on their way already. She suggested that they just page them at the time the flight was supposed to arrive. They wouldn't listen to her because she was a kid.

 

Nobody knows your kids as well as you do, though. Aiden might find this too over-whelming. And the airline restrictions may have changed considerably in that past 30 some years.

Aleta

[msrosefromms]

Long time ago, my daughter (1979) who was 4 at the time flew alone from new york to pittsburg. They assigned her a flight attendant, She got wings and cards and loved it.

[Chris]

I use to fly alone as a kid to my grandparent in Arizona all the time. An adult had to be with you at the gate and we were allowed to be seated first. I got off like everyone else. Since things have changed, whomever is picking them up or dropping them off can go to the gate with a print out of the itenary from the airlines website and valid ID and names of who they are meeting. They then get a pass and are allowed top go through security screening area.
 
If you can get a non stop flight, that would be best with the way Aiden is portrayed. Having a layover would be added stress to him with a worry of missing the flight or getting on the wrong flight If they have a game device or ipod, have them bring it with, but tell them not to turn it on until the flight attendant tells them they can so that they will be kept busy if they are not tired. Anything to keep their minds off will help.

[cariad]

Wow, thanks for all the replies, was not expecting this many people to have experience with this. I remember when I interviewed at prep school, my father wanted to save money so he told the airline I was 11. Hey, I was a kidney failure child - you know I looked it even though I was 13. With my dad, that can never be the end of the story, though. He decided he needed to piss off to Baltimore after the interview since we were on the east coast anyway and I guess he had either some other business or someone he wanted to visit. My father is very, very secretive, though that has diminished with age.

Oh, and did I mention I was flying standby back to California because the flight was overbooked?

So, I can clearly remember the ticket agent shouting to another ticket agent "the father lives in Baltimore, the mother lives in LA (neither of these was true! ) and they're sending their eleven year old standby!" Then behind me a woman shouted "Can't you see she's scared enough as it is?" she muscled her way to the front and appointed herself my guardian, forcing me and her son who was probably only a year or so older than I to awkwardly stare at each other for a few hours.

I wasn't scared! I felt like this was possibly the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me at the time, I went from ordinary, nondescript teenager to innocent child embroiled in a bitter, bi-coastal divorce. And my mother suddenly lived in Los Angeles (she was probably an aging startlet) and my father lived in a city that I had never seen before but had to be more exciting than sleepy Santa Barbara. Shame some good samaritan had to ruin my adventure by helping! (I remember she bought me a soda, but that's about it.)

Contrast this to Aidan, who fair enough is 4 years younger than I was. He said he did not think he could handle it, even though I explained that a flight attendant would be with him the whole time and even fly on the plane with him. Each time we've gone to the airport, I explain every step. I keep hoping he'll turn into the kind of kid I was (just in this way, not in any other). Ah well, for all I know, Gwyn won't even be working in LA by August. We have details on the English offer.

[Chris]

Forgot to say that the airlines website also is helpful.