to let my 13 year old take a 12 hour flight alone

[caffelatte100]

My 13 year old DS is booked to take a flight from Europe to Asia to stay with a grandparent for his half term holiday. We will take him to passport and then he will be met by grandparent the other side. It is a direct flight with no changes. Just to be clear, he will not an accompanied child (e.g. he will do it all alone with no assistance) and he will have to collect his suitcase. He's flown a lot, travels independently on trains and buses by himself everyday in the country where we live.

I was feeling confident that he can manage it really well and that this would be a really exciting trip for him, enriching for both him and his grandparents who also have lots of great things planned for him. However, when I was telling a friend about this today she couldn't believe that I would let him fly alone and almost accused me of being reckless in my decision. She also told me that other airlines don't let kids fly alone until they are older and that this must be for a reason. He's flown lots of times, speaks the local lingos, is confident and could ask for help if he needed it and he looks after his things. The only thing that I am nervous is the small possibility that he might become ill on the flight. AIBU to let him do this? Do you have any last minute advice I can give him?

I think if you are happy with it, and he is happy with it then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

I have 14yo twins - one of them I wouldn't even think twice. She'd be absolutely fine, event if unexpected events hit. When a child was knocked down by a car outside the Guides one night she was calmer than the majority of the adults waiting and ended up taking control of the situation. Her twin, well she was 15 minutes late home yesterday and I was almost sick with worry. The child has such little common sense it terrifies me, and everything I've tried to teach her it fails. She's just got the shortest attention span of any human I've ever met.

You know your child. If I only had DD2 I can imagine being absolutely horrified if someone was going to let their child fly 12 hours solo! People will judge on their experiences, their child's abilities and their levels of worry about stranger danger/terrorism etc. You are the best judge on your child's ability to do that journey.