Airline ticket sold to 14 yr old at 3am

[runawayteen14]

This is all so incredibly outing but I am curious to know what others think so I will keep it a little vague but I can't imagine too many kids did this (or maybe they did!).

When I was 14 I lived with my mum and step dad near Heathrow. I HATED it, but that is all another story. Most of my family are from another European country. After a big fight I waited for them to go to sleep. Packed up a school bag of clothes. All the money I had access to and climbed out my window.

I walked to Heathrow, a few miles along a dual carriage way, under the tunnel and into the airport. So dangerous it makes me cringe, I had a man stop and offer me a lift.

I then went to the desk and asked for a 1 way ticket on the next flight. This was approx 3am. I was told the price, counted out my money, including a huge pile of change. I also had to leave the desk and go change some Euro's.

They sold me a ticket and I flew home. I had just turned 14 a week before, now that I am older I really don't think they should have sold me a ticket. This was 2006 by the way.

YABU - they should have sold the ticket
YANBU - they should not have sold the ticket

I get that the person at the desk may not have known what to do, but I wasn't questioned at all.

Especially with cash.....

@runawayteen14 whilst reading the post, I assumed you were going to say something along the lines of, this was back in the 80s 😂
I'm much older, so assumed it was the 70/80 and early 90s when you got away with a lot this sort of stuff

Ah, a nice reasonable and balanced post.

@CowsInFields if it had been the 70s she would have been able to buy duty free cigs and booze to take on the plane too!

I thought under 18 you had to have a parent signed consent. We had this recently with my sd

Dear God. A little empathy?

@Obki It wasn't the town, it was the home life I hated.

@Mariposista I travelled a few hours on the other side to my relatives house. I didn't explain the extent of what it was like to live there just that I didn't want to. So after they spoke to my mum I was sent back a few days later where I was in quite a lot of trouble.

I had flown unaccompanied many times prior to that, but I think it was just the circumstances, middle of the night, buying in cash/ coins. I think now as an adult I would have questioned it.

I agree that a 14 year old buying a ticket to another country with cash in the wee hours of the morning should have rung alarm bells with any adult serving them and I’m a bit amazed that it didn’t. I would have expected questions to be asked when I was that sort of age (in the 1980s) let alone 30 years later.

Also, I think your AIBU question is focused on the wrong thing. It isn’t that they were unreasonable to sell a ticket to an unaccompanied 14 year old at 3 am, it’s that they should have been concerned enough to call the police to check on your welfare, whether you were buying a ticket or not.

What a shame you were in trouble. Your actions show that you were desperate and you am deserved compassion rather than admonition. Your mum and stepdad should have been ashamed rather than angry that you felt that escaping on a plane was your only option.
I hope you are ok now.

The buying the ticket isn’t an issue but a 14 year old in the middle of the night would definitely raise alarms for me!

I’m shocked how brave you were.
I was a very ballsy teen but I would never have flown to a different country without telling someone.

This wouldn’t happen now. You can’t buy a ticket at all in the airport it seems these days - at least from BA whether you are an adult or child. Also tried to buy an extra flight for a 14 year old recently (ba again) buying online and they would have been travelling with the rest of the family but as this particular ticket was being bought on its own we were not allowed to buy a ticket for a child as it appeared the child would be travelling alone and you are not allowed to do that anymore.

Ryanair don't allow a ticket to be purchased for an under 16 without an adult ticket being bought at the same time. At least they didn't in 2018 when I had to book and take a 15yr old from my son's sports team on the flight with us as the sport coaches he was going to travel with had already booked their flights.

Your story reminded me of this article although this is much older and totally different reasons: www.irishpost.com/news/the-story-of-the-dublin-boys-who-ran-away-to-new-york-195027

My sister and her friend tried something similar. They were on a coach to Fishguard running away to Ireland. The bus driver tipped off the police. This was early nineties. Of course the airline should have challenged you.

They aren't. Talk about "it never happened"

Heathrow has check in facilities open from 3.30 - and this is only current, it did use to be earlier pre pandemic.

OP - did you look older. I mean i don't really see the problem - lots of kids travel unaccompanied. The dangerous bit is whatever was going on at home and how you reached the airport, not the airline part.

So you just happened to have your passport lying around and thought feck it I'm off ???

It’s odd that you seem so angry about this close to 20 years later!
What happened when you flew to the European country?
What happened between your parents?
Ultimately your parents had the far bigger responsibility towards you and I’m not seeing any outrage to them.
You took money, you took your passport, I’m not saying at 14 you were of a sound adult mind but it was your choice to run away. I don’t even know how a 14 year old has enough cash lying around for a plane on the day. Would you have blamed a train company if you ran away to a station and bought a train ticket?

Plus there wouldn’t have been any flights until the next morning.

So do you wish they had stopped you?

What do you wish they had done and what difference would it have made?

I'm surprised an under 16 can buy a ticket though.

I'm so impressed with your 14 year old self's chutzpah!

Very sorry about your home life as a teenager, I hope it got better.

I grew up in Hounslow, and wouldn't blame anyone for escaping it tbh, although I waited until 19 to run away from my homelife to live in Greece for a bit.

I used to work in a boarding school, we had kids of 13 and 14 buying tickets and flying across the world all the time....

Lots of them came through Heathrow as there are many residential schools in the south-east who use that airport. They are were often unaccompanied, did not not need parental (or guardian) signatures for tickets and came/went at all hours. We had one lad who would regularly bunk off, buy a ticket to Scotland at some unearthly hour and go home...and then get sent back. Heathrow were used to it and, back then (2008 onwards, so similar time) didn't bat an eye over it.

Not saying it was right, but no-one actually came to any harm....

I went to boarding school and flew home in the holidays. The school organised a mini bus to heathrow (which left in time for the earliest persons flight). We would all get dropped off at departures and then we were on our own. So young, unaccompanied 13+ year olds were certainly wandering around heathrow mid to late 90s.

I think once i reached 14 or 15 i started booking my own flights (because my dad messed up term dates once). Id go into the local STA travel and book. Never got questioned iirc.

Yes, it wasn't quite as chaotic as you turning up to airport with a jar of change, but I'm not all that surprised it happened.

I guess now my 12 year old would be able to use her bank card to book tickets online without too many issues.

OP’s strategy is almost exactly what some of the groomed in the Syrian conflict did. One of them even counted out change.