Would you let 13 year old fly UK to Japan unaccompanied?

[EmmaAnne68]

My DSS 12 wants to fly to Japan to see his Aunt. His mum has said this is okay, as long as he raises the money for the trip. (He’ll have just turned 13 at the time of the trip).

At age 13 we think he’s way too young to fly alone to Japan (he’s never even taken the bus by himself. . . )

The flights can be anywhere from 14 to 24 hours, and can have a couple of stops along the way. Plus he doesn’t speak the language.

Are we being unreasonable? One of my biggest worries is he’ll hate the flight to Japan, and not want to come home alone. Flights are at least £1200, so we couldn’t afford to fly over to bring him home if needed.

Depends on how much he's flown. I know people in boarding schools flying home unaccompanied from that kind of age. It'll be to the east asian destinations like Hong Kong and Tokyo as another PP already said.

I did it from 16 but three years makes a big difference from that age.

I'll pick a direct flight and I flew a lot of long haul. It's very straight foward if someone is taking him to checkin and picking him up at the other end.

The most difficult part is navigating transfer in an unknown airport, and also finding your way to the hotel at the other end.

More likely to be Narita than Haneda. But still very doable and easy to navigate.

Direct flight. No stops or changes as on the way it can be confusing and assuming you not in an English speaking location. Also, some carriers have different terminals in their airport and dashing to change planes etc is not ideal.

I thought JAL's service was just up to the age of 11? I didn't realise they did it for older children as well.

It's absolutely fine to fly unaccompanied at 13 and completely normal

I had to go to boarding school. I had to fly 12 - 14 hours alone regularly from the age of 11.

I haven't looked into it, but was under the impression most airlines no longer take unaccompanied minors? If you can get one which does for his age, then he won't need to know anything about navigating the airport, or anything else. You would hand him over after check in, and he would be accompanied to the plane's door and handed over to the air crew. They would then hand him over to specific ground crew who would accompany him through passport control and baggage reclaim until handing him over to his aunt.

Language won't be an issue as the crew will speak English.

Depends on the child really, some 13 year olds would be ok and some not. If said 13 year is capable and mature enough then I'd possibly allow it with some caveats - it would have to be a direct flight only, too many possibilities for something to go wrong with having to get connecting flights. Child in question would have to be fairly experienced with air travel already, if it's their first time on a flight or if they have very little experience of international travel then it would be a no. They need to be able to navigate themselves through an airport and be used to turbulence, be able to follow safety protocols etc.

Sounds very risky to me!

Don’t think most parents would be happy with that, and I doubt that it’s normal!

Good God no.

I should have googled first 😂.

BA he'd need to be 14 to fly alone and they wouldn't escort him so he'd have to work it out for himself. Is he capable? Catching a bus is not a good comparator. Is he used to going through airports? Is he sensible? Could he follow signs to the gate?

JAL doesn't help, so that rules out direct options.

If not he needs an unaccompanied minor service. KLM looks like they offer it for his age and are an excellent airline. There would be a transfer but he'd be accompanied throughout. This is what I would do. If my child had the drive to raise the cash because they wanted it so much, I'd let them do it.

I think it probably feels very normal and no big deal to families that have lived and worked overseas/ have close family overseas /travel extensively etc. Their kids will be used to flying, used to what happens in airports etc, and they're likely to be confident and relaxed about that.

For families that don't travel much/ for whom getting on a plane seems like a big deal, this will probably seem bonkers. And it might well be a bad idea for their particular children - some of dd's school friends were very anxious going through the airport on a school trip at 14/15, even though they had teachers with them. I think dd realised for the first time then that travelling can be quite scary for some people...it hadn't ever occurred to her previously!

Could be either, I always seem to end up at Haneda (I go sometimes for work). Osaka is really good as well. I'm a big fan of Japanese airports and not a fan at all of Heathrow T5.

It’s not risky at all, they are acceompanued all the way by staff.

What do you think could happen?

Does ANA no longer do direct flights from London to Tokyo? They used to have an unaccompanied minors offer, no idea if it still exists.

Fair enough. I always seemed to end up in Narita!

Age rules are airline dependent, as has been mentioned BA dumped their unaccompanied minor service a long time ago. Shame, but costs….🙄

Ex Heathrow options non-stop possibly only BA or JAL/?ANA.

BA I think these days mainly or only serve Haneda rather than way back in the olden days when they were only allowed into Narita.

FWIW flight times Europe to Japan have now become very very extended due to the ME conflict but AFAIK it’s not forcing anyone to do a technical stop enroute.

Direct means there’s no change of aircraft, it doesn’t necessarily mean non-stop.

Given the last two points It’s worth checking itineraries quite carefully

Mine would be fine. But they have flown a million times, and I've coached then through airport since they were tiny - asked them to find our gate, gone through what to do if connecting flight is delayed or luggage lost etc.

If it's his first flight ever, that's of course different. But if not, yes I would let him go. He speaks English, there will be English-speaking staff everywhere he can ask for assistance and he can always call someone if anything unexpected happens.

No I wouldn't.

Although I can see why some do if they have independent teens who are used to international travel. I still wouldn't though.

He needs to raise at least £1,200 which seems unlikely. . . But we don’t want to say yes and then somehow he does raise the funds!

If a 13 year old manages to raise the funds (other than using GoFundMe) then I’d be impressed.

@Medschoolmum Their UM provision only goes up to 11. I forgot to mention it alongside JAL.

I would if it was a direct flight and he was accompanied.

I flew unaccompanied with an interconnecting flight at 15. It was fine although I was broadly used to airports and flying, so knew what I was doing.

Our return flight was caught up in an issue that made the news and I would have been stranded overnight. My mother was on the phone to the airline asap and l had someone waiting to help me when I landed.

With the state of air travel these days? No.

“Willing passenger” 🤔