<p>Just as BS have different rules, airlines have different policies on how old a child must be to travel without mandatory Unaccompanied Minor Service. The service could be a serious hassle during school breaks if an adult is required to sign the child in and accompany the child to the gate at the airport.</p>
<p>This is an excellent point.
At my school, when a younger student needs to be accompanied to the gate, an email goes out to the entire faculty with the promise of $39.00 (?!) plus parking expenses for anyone who makes the trip. Because this is the kind of school where all the faculty know all the kids, someone quickly pitches in. We’re one of those smaller “nurturing” schools, but I bet that even the BigFancy schools have policies and cheerful assistance to ensure safe travels for the kids. The important thing is to plan, prepare and communicate ahead of time.</p>
<p>“Children 12-17 (which I take it most of the kids going to BS are) have the option to pay the fee and use the unaccompanied minor service provided.” </p>
<p>they are basically treated as an adult. </p>
<p>This is definitely a good idea to pay the service fee if there is a connection involved. And of course each airline will have their own policy. Also I would not have them traveling on the last flts of the day if at all possible.</p>
<p>Edited to add I think when the kids are flying FROM BS would be the most nerve racking.</p>
<p>The hassle with paying the service fee is that an adult needs to sign-in the kid and accompany the kid to the gate and wait till the flight takes off-- problematic if the kid rides a bus from campus to airport.</p>
<p>I think my teen would die of embarassment if he were the only one of his peers on the school’s shuttle bus to the airport, who has to do this “hand-holding”.</p>
<p>It’s the connection issues that really bollocks things up. We drive kindof a ways to pick our son up at a major metro airport instead of flying him into our regional, which would require a transfer. Now that is this year, when he’s a 14-yr-old freshman. I expect next year he’ll do the transfer and come directly into our home airport (although, as mentioned above and ESPECIALLY with the connection, we’ll never put him on the last flight of the day. Been stuck overnight too many times myself at the transfer airport!)</p>
<p>GMT, lol. I agree, I think any kid would not want to be that kid. ( I forgot about having to wait, I was thinking more of the help with the connection issue) </p>
<p>And I think after a couple of flts they get the hang of it. </p>
<p>Yes PD nothing worse than getting stuck at an airport due to a missed connection. And I am sure you will like not having to do the extra drive next yr.</p>
<p>Check out Jet Blue which allows 14 year-olds to fly as adults. Most, if not all, other airlines, consider anyone under 15 traveling alone to be an unaccompanied minor.</p>
<p>**a paid-service<a href=“i.e.%20you%20pay%20for%20the%20airline%20to%20take%20responsibility%20for%20your%20kid”>/B</a>
At a certain age cutoff, it’s not mandatory to buy the service. For domestic flights, the age cutoff is as young as 12 for some airlines. For most int’l flights, the age cutoff is 15 or 16.</p>
<p>If you do not opt for the paid-service, in the event your kid gets bumped on a connecting flight, there is no supervision for your kid when he/she is stuck. That could be a problem if the kid has to stay in a hotel – some hotels will not accept minors. It’s also problematic if your kid does not have a credit card.</p>
<p>The ideal arrangement is that the kid flies non-stop. But for int’l flights and some domestic locations, non-stop is simply not an option.</p>
<p>For long-distance boarders, the logistics of transporting your teen to and from school is something you need to factor into the equation.</p>
<p>Our son has no choice but to take connecting flights and, because of his boarding school schedule, often can’t take an early flight–9 p.m. is the earliest he ever gets in to the airport here. We’ve had one or two nail-biters, but have found that airlines will go out of their way to reschedule our kid onto new flights when his are delayed or in danger of being cancelled. Our kid quickly learned to find a booking agent at an empty gate and ask for help, making it clear how old he is (he can easily pass as a college student). </p>
<p>We do try to have him connect at more low key airports, where he won’t, for instance, have to get on a shuttle to a different terminal to catch his connector. But after the first two round-trips, it all got to be old hat pretty quickly. For my peace of mind, he calls from each gate and once he’s waiting for (or on) the shuttle to school. </p>
<p>We’ve also found that when he’s delayed, he can usually find another delayed kid from school to hang out with, even at connecting airports. They’re pretty good at finding each other on facebook in the terminal!</p>
<p>I fly over 250,000 miles per year. Here is my take…</p>
<p>Once your child gets through the groping hands of TSA and if they stay within the confines of the secured terminal system, they should be fine even if they have never traveled by air. I have not missed a connection in years but then again I have had to run to the next plane more than once. I thought I was going to have a heart attack in Johannesburg last year but I made my flight.</p>
<p>All of the information pertaining to the airport, terminals, flights, etc. is available online. They will find their way rather handily.</p>
<p>Given the amount of security in airports just begging for something to do, paying for an unaccompanied minor service seems redundant at best. I have seen young travelers on Continental quite often. I think they allow 12 year olds to travel unaccompanied provided they are not connecting on the last flight of the day.</p>
<p>I’ve had airlines completely drop the ball on the service, too, which can be a hassle. I had my daughter connecting in De Gaulle and the airline never met her as promised. Well, at least they did not get to her before she decided that she better get moving to her international flight before it left. She made it on her own with not much time to spare (she thinks). As long as the kid can read and figure out what to do and where to go – something adults are usually too busy to do – they are going to be fine. Just make sure they pay attention to the difference between departures and arrivals. That’s the trickiest part.</p>
<p>The one thing I would not do is have a connecting flight where a child has to change terminals. This happened at De Gaulle…but in that case she remained within the security perimeter and took a shuttle that did not require her to go outside and then go back through security. If you go through, say, JFK, and have to change terminals, all bets are off. As long as they stay inside the security zone throughout the voyage, they’ll be fine and there are professionals who will go out of their way to take care of an unaccompanied minor without anyone paying a fee. (That’s something to remember when dealing with airline people who are giving you a hard time. Try to think of how – perhaps – they might have overrode the computer to put a young kid who got hung up in bad weather on the next flight instead of making her stay overnight in the terminal.)</p>
<p>I WOULD be concerned with international travel for my child…some airports are better than others but it is not unusual that one needs to exit the secure area and re-enter through security to make a connection.</p>
<p>Yes, but having to leave the secure area anywhere is the problem. </p>
<p>In my daughter’s case in De Gaulle, she didn’t have to do that, so it was as safe/dangerous as LAX or JFK – and actually safer if those connections required terminal changes. For us, that connection was no different than the big airport connection for U.S. residents. She has a phone, it’s a local call to us and I could have gotten to her by car in a couple hours or had a local friend meet her. Plus she has traveled a lot and speaks the language fluently. So that was a local flight for her. It’s the connection on the U.S. that gives us our gray hair because that’s where we’re an ocean away. </p>
<p>It’s not so much the country as it is whether your child is changing terminals and leaving the secure area to do so. I think the advice here is to avoid booking flights that entail a terminal change and even when that happens, I’d warn the child traveler not leave the secure area, at least not until they latch onto someone from the airport or the airline who will get them to the secure area in the appropriate terminal.</p>
<p>I know this is slightly off topic, but I thought I’d share. Regarding international travel, here’s a little tidbit that our family learned the hard way a few weeks ago. Many countries require your passport to be valid for 3 months, 6 months, or a year after your travel date. The requirement varies by country. So even if your return flight is prior to the passport expiration date, you won’t be allowed to fly if you don’t meet that country’s buffer period requirements. Like I said, we learned the hard (and expensive) way.</p>
<p>Also, some airports require an additional pass through security even when connecting on the same airline. My personal experience is with a Heathrow connection on BA coming from JFK and Prague. Both times I had to run the security gauntlet twice. International connections can be a pain because security rules can differ.</p>
<p>Re a comment made at the top of this thread: BigFancy school that I am familiar with hires retired teachers with the required van driver’s license to take the kids to the airport in a school van and get them on the plane…</p>
<p>A big CAVEAT before buying a year’s worth of air tickets: read the airline’s policy regarding MINORS carefully!</p>
<p>Especially the parts regarding:
age-requirements for taking connecting flights
age-requirements for mandatory purchase of an escort package for supervising the kid during the flight and mandatory adult sign-in and hand-over at the airport
age-requirements for int’l flights</p>
<p>Also, read up on the school’s policy on what hour the school dismiss kids for breaks-- some ramifications:
Inquire about the school’s shuttle bus service to area airports, so you can book a feasible flight departure and return time
For Int’l students, unless the school dismisses very earlier in the day, it may be too late to board a flight to certain parts of the world (e.g. Asia) and will require an additional overnight stay before departure</p>