Unaccompanied Minor Help!

[Notsurehow]

My daughter aged 8,has been invited to Australia to spend time with some people who have been/are very special in our lives,There is no way I can afford to travel with her. I totally and utterly trust the people she will be staying with (including her old nanny who has been part of our lives since she was born,and regularly stays with us).
My concern (and only concern) is the flight.
Does anyone have any experience of sending a child as an an uncompanied minor?
Any airlines better than others?
Any tips?
Any warnings?

Where is your start airport and finish airport?

If, for example it is edinburgh then I would do glasgow via Dubai on Emirates rather than via London and Singapore with the likes of BA.

LEM flying is much, much safer than a bus journey. And there's no equivalent supervision on a bus.

Frozen most major airlines will not allow UMC under 12yrs old on connecting flights.

She will be departing from London and am currenly looking at BA via Singapore,I really don't want her to have to change planes,even though I know she will be escorted.
She is unbelieveably excited about it and keeps asking if I have booked the flight yet!

I agree about buses...NO WAY would I let her on a bus on her own!

My dd has been flying long haul since 4-5 months and is the perfect traveling child! no tears, well behaved, sleeps all the flight!!! even to oz!

Have lived in Sydney and Dubai and dds dad lives in Oz so have to travel their often and dd now 8 (9 soon) and even though she has done hundreds of flights there is not a chance in hell I would let her travel alone! either I go or she doesn't go!! (obv she can travel with grandparents, her dad etc)

Flew to Dubai for xmas and on flight over (which is a short one done many many times) she got sick and proceeded to projectile vomit over me and herself!!! ....TWICE!!!!! and once in the aisle as didn't make to toilet! and she also went very floppy and unresponsive which she has never done before (and I am not a worrier, so this stuff doesn't usually faze me) but my dd was hysterical as not usually sick and was terrified.

No way, children may act tough and have flown like mine and be well travelled but get really bad turbulence (and I mean bad!!!!) they want there mum!!!!!

Thank you 34DD...greatly appreciated!

I did England to new Zealand on my own at 16. so not a minor but Still very young.

I was frequently flew and had done the journey before with mum and dad. I loved flying.

but what your suggesting is utter madness

firstly the journey itself is bloody tough on your own, it is freaky having no one to talk to in that time and you have no idea who you are sat next to.

yes there may be other minors but there may not. if there are they are likely to be vastly different in age than your dd.

when I did it I spent most of the journey back with my head under a blanket having taken sleeping pills.

They don't CRB check the passengers on the plane and they have unrestricted access to your daughter for 24 hours. and it will be bloody obvious she is on her own.

If something was to happen to your daughter while on holiday it is way too far away for you to get to her in any reasonable length of time. When your ill or hurt all you want is your mum and you will be 48hours away from her at very best.

I'm not anti UM on airplanes, but older kids and shorter journeys. whilst I have no doubt you can big it up as a massive adventure, the reality of what you are suggesting is horrific and if it isn't neglect it bloody well should be.

save the money til you can go together. then it will be a fantastic adventure

My friends child has flown UM to see her Dad since she was 5 (from South Africa). She did it twice a year without problems.
She was upset at the leaving (your circumstances are different) and was concerned about who she would be sat next to (didn't like teens or boys so much). Apart from that was fine. It was mainly based around their school holidays though so there were often other UM's going home or whatever.

There is sometimes a special lounge/seating area where you can go pre boarding otherwise you hand them to the nice stewardess who walks them through. She flew BA and by all accounts the stewardess/stewards were attentive.

the flight to Australia is 24 hours seriously it is vile on your own. I don't know anyone who has done it without a stop

personally I would never send a child of eight that far away from mum (or dad).

I am also concerned that you can big it up all you like. your daughter's experience may well be very different.

DD is well aware that the passengers next to her (assuming no other UMs) may not want to talk,but she can talk to stewardesses,and walk around if she wants/needs to.If she feels unwell,she knows to ask stewardesses for help and (unlike me) she has the confidence to do this.
Yes,I am terrified that something may happen whilst she is in Australia (as it could anywhere) and I will be a long way from her....however,the people she will be staying with are closer to her than her family and I have no doubt the comfort they will bring her will be almost as much as I could.
I could go round and round on this and if I worried about everything that could happen to her every day,I would never let her out of my sight.

The truth is,she has this opportunity,she WANTS to do it,is no stranger to travelling,has been on "bad" flights with me and knows that all is fine in the end (usually).
As a single parent of a single child,I am (possibly) more protective than many other parents.Having assessed the risk,at great length,I believe this is right for my child.
I asked for advice on airlines and procedures,not "holier than though" criticism.....

And Paperlantern...sleeping pills at 16yrs old???? Did your parents provide them?
Right up to the minute my DD gets on the plane,she will be able to refuse...this is a fun and exiting trip she WANTS to go on,I am NOT forcing her in any way,shape or form.I would rather she didn't go but who am I to prevent her doing something as safe as this...she is hardly being booked on a solo-white-water rafting trip with no helmet!

quite. your worrying about something I took within regulation dosage at 16 yet see nothing wrong with this

it's amazing what an adult can be talked into by someone you trust, let alone a child. particularly easy when a child actually has no idea what the reality of the situation. come to that neither do you. Let alone what the reality of the situation will be for her as a little thing, an individual with her own thoughts and feelings.

to my mind id rather you were sending her white water rafting. if she hated it she could get off pretty instantly and you would be there to comfort her. if she was hurt you would be there to comfort her. if she was tipped in the water you would be jumping in to save her then comfort her. see where I'm heading?

If she hates it (as I at 16 did) you will not be there to comfort her, a stranger will. If she's ill on the flight you will not be there to comfort her a stranger will.

and you will have told her how much fun it will be. Some parents worry about lying about Santa. if she hates it, she's old enough to realise you sent her, told her it would be ok and you didn't have a clue.

worse she has to do it all over again to get home. have you given an thought to what happens if she refuses to board the plane home?

That's leaving aside the disaster scenarios of the plane being hijacked, (something so that happened to friend of mine on gap year at 19), or the plane going down.

If heaven forbid the plane went down and your the other side of the world will it be a comfort to know your friends child did it fine at five? think whether madeline macann's parents find knowing that hundreds of parents, and indeed them, had done it fine without incident was any comfort when disaster struck.

This is bloody monumentally stupid. She's 8. if it goes wrong in any way her trust in you will be badly shaken, maybe even permanently.

yes it will be a big adventure if it all goes ok, Russian roulette can be a massive thrill if you dodge a bullet. I can't speak for anyone else but my dd who us also 8 is way too precious to play Russian roulette with ans if I did at least I would be beside her in case it went wrong.

when you are at hospital level bad no one is as good as your mum (often not even your dad)

You say she's a very experienced flier, op. Where and with whom did she do all this flying; and why is Australia the one flight you'd consider allowing her to make unaccompanied???
I wouldn't do this in a million years.

You really need to ask a lot about code sharing for this it may appear that flights including BA just stop to refuel and you don't need to leave the plane often this is not the reality.

BA switch recently to sharing with Quantas for example via Singapore one BA code all the way in reality BA plane to Singapore then change plane and staff to Quantas plane on to Aus.

if you must do it. trial it first.

shut her in a room with a stranger and a dvd player (random selection of dvds not all interesting to a child). tell her however much she screams or cries you will not go into her. now grab half a dozen or so random strangers off the street. the "stewardess" also has to look after and feed these people. leave her in there for twenty four hours.

tell her at the end of 24 hours you won't be there for her but someone else will. She had to repeat the process before she can see you again.

I assume when you told her about it you left out that bit

don't forget to sit her next to the big fat bloke who she has to ask move anytime that she needs the toilet

I think the whole "plane going down" and " hi jacking" is tosh. The odds are tiny. It'd be more risky putting her on a school coach holiday.

That 24 hours is going to be a horribly long plane journey would be my concern. It's not like you could sleep most of it. Can she amuse herself easily?

The "reality" of the situation is probably that she is better off not knowing. Lots of people wouldn't do anything if they knew before how hard it would be. Doesn't mean it isn't worth trying.

And for the record my friends child has done it every year from the age of 5 (12 hours) twice a year for over 10 years. She loves coming for Christmas and having a summer holiday in Europe. Despite hating the flight she was always ready to come over even though her father would have done more trips to her if required.

the odds of a child being taken from a hotel room are pretty slim. The fact that what went wrong wasn't your fault or was very unlikely, won't help the guilt if you've done something monumentally stupid in the first place.

difference between this and a school coach trip, (i cant believe I'm pointing this out) something goes wrong and you will hop in the car and be there in a very short length of time. she hates it you will go pick her up, she hates the journey you can go pick her up so she doesn't have to do the return journey. none of these options will be open to you

no schools i know do residentials at eight, no primary schools i know do residentials abroad. dd has done residentials with Brownies at seven but 45 minutes drive away, many of the kids found it tough (even though they had a blast) and where very keen to see parents when the end came 4 days later.

Have you given any thought to parental responsibility and that legally you will need to sort that out with whoever is at the other end?

There are no non-stop flights to Australia from UK, and passengers always have to disembark at the refuelling point, even if they're getting back on the same plane.

Although cabin crew will be responsible for your daughter's welfare, there will not be one crew member whose responsibilities are solely her, or solely all the UMs on board - they will still have to be serving other passengers.

It's a heck of a long trip for a passenger of any age. The worst aspects of sending a young child alone are things like needing to go to the loo but passengers confined to seats during a period of turbulence, the "spaced out" feeling of travelling through multiple time zones, etc rather than the rarer "emergency" scenarios.

It's wonderful that your daughter has the opportunity to go, and great that you're keen for her to have new experiences, but my advice would be for the two of you to travel together. You probably wouldn't spend much more for two of you on a less usual airline than you would for your daughter alone on BA or Qantas.

BA via Singapore is perfect and has a brilliant UM service. The aircraft leaves London late eve, literally stops 90 mins in Singapore, then goes directly to Sydney. I did it last month, there were 2 UMs on it, no problem at all. My son was over chatting to them at some point in the flight, they were all fine.

But, totally agree re the codeshare thing, you do not want the QF plane change. You want the BA15 direct flight via Singapore (have done it often)

things may be challenging and hard

yes challenges are good. when you are old enough to balance the pros and cons yourself, or when you have the support of an adult who can help you through it or age appropriate challenges.

not challenges which an adult you know and trust tells you will be a blast, then buggers off leaving you to do it on your own. that is massively unfair

how old were the minors mabs?