12 year old flying alone,any advice?

[polly28]

My dd is going to Canada this summer to visit my parents.She will be going with a friend and I will be paying the little bit extra it costs to get the unaccompanied minor service(much to her disgust).
Has anyone had any experience of this,did anything go wrong?

my step son (12, although 11 last time he flew to us) regularly flies between Aus and us in NZ. Nothing fortunately has ever gone wrong. He packs lots of things to do in his hand luggage, books, CD/walkman thing, game boy type thingy etc. He always clears customs and baggage handling first which is great and frequently arrives with phone numbers of other kids travelling alone he wants to call when he gets here. I think they must sit them together each time. Am sure everything will be fine.
Having said that DH's friend has fogotten to pick his son up twice now from the airport until they have called!!!!

DD has flown unaccompanied long haul, from the age of 12. Didn't have to pay any extra, though. One thing that happened with dd was that she ended up without a proper seat for take off, as the woman in the next seat refused to have a child sitting by her! Dd had to sit in a crew seat until they mamanged to shuffle people about. But if your dd is going with a pal, that probably won't arise.

Everything else went smoothly and in fact an advantage for dd of boarding with a stewardess is that she met up with Sean Connery! They had a good long chat about the Scottish Parliament(!) amongst other things and she got his autograph.

polly, I started flying alone to visit grandparents when I was five - all in all I must have done 40+ flights alone as child (i.e. under 14 or so). I also did some long-haul with stopover, changing planes etc and never had anything go wrong. They look after you so well on the plane, e.g. when I flew to Boston to visit relatives (age 10) I got an upgrade to first class because they had free seats. You get to ride on the golf-carts they use to get about in the airport and they get your suitcase for you.
When I changed planes I got to stay in a huge playroom with all sorts of cool toys and a sweetie buffet. Ahhh.. wish I could get the same service now.

would anyone recommend charter flights for unaccompanied children,or should i stick to scheduled flights with main airlines like BA ?

Do chartered flights offer UM services? Not all airlines do them, I discovered. I wouldn't use one unless they had proper supervision in place.

thanks for the advice,I thought I should probably stick to the main airlines .dd's friends mother mentioned that she had found a cheaper flight than the BA one I had in mind.Personally I no longer fly chartered after too many bad experiences,and definately not with children!Will have to diplomatic methinks

on a slightly separate note have today booked for step son to visit again and as he is now 12 am having to pay full adult fare, but he is still classed as an um. crazy...... and expensive at easter. winge over.....

We'd paid full fare for dd and that's why we were not amused that she only had a crew seat, Sibble!

I'm looking at flights atm and even for an 8yo you still seem to have to pay 2/3 of the price.