Is this an insane idea?

H

HK2008

Registered User
First of all, please do let me know honestly if this is an insane idea: as Christmas is drawing near, I was thinking to let my 6-year-old girl go back to Australia and stay with her Auntie for 2 weeks, by just sending her back alone...

Had anyone done it before? Is it doable and if yes, how should I approach the airline company to give me a helping hand? I'll make sure she does get on to the airplane safely and my sister would be picking her up in Sydney Airport.

I would of course completely forget about this if it's simply not possible to do, or there is any risk involved.

Thank you for sharing your thought!
 
it's called unaccompanied minor...yes, some airlines do it

would i do it with my 6 year old on an 8+ hour trip???? not in a million years.
(1) xmas is for family
(2) no way i would expect someone else to baby-sit my 6 year old on a flight of that length

but everyone (parent) is different and every child is different... what would work for my family and i would not necessarily work for you and your family.

PS> i was wondering if you were still around... glad to see you are!
 
My husband started flying on his own at the age of four. Every summer he would go to Japan to stay with his Aunt. The airline always had a designated flight attendant that would be by his side from the time of check-in to arriving and being picked up by a family member.
 
where was he flying from?

if the flight was an hour or two, maybe even three, i'd say..... maybe i would do it....

to australia is minimum 8 hours.... no way i would send my 6 year old on an 8 hour flight by himself, no matter if there was a flight attendant to keep an eye on him or not.
 
Carang is right they're called unaccompanied minors and they are closely watched over by the crew and someone has to sign for them at there destination. There is an age limit though and I would check with the airline to see if 6 is old enough to travel unaccompanied. That being said, I don't know if they can go international as unaccompanied minors and there may be a flight duration limit as well. I personally would not send my child on a flight over 2 hours at that age. That's a long time to be alone and could be very frightening/ traumatic for a young one.

I was a flight attendant and we had 2 unaccompanied minors, a brother and a sister, both older than 6 that burst into inconsolable crying when we hit some rather serious turbulence. I wouldn't want to put my kids through that.
 
Sorry, forgot to mention where he flew from. He flew from Hong Kong. He also flew to London on his own a few times when he was six to seven years old.
 
Thank you all ladies for your reply.
Yes Carang I'm still here! It's been almost 3 years and I'm getting more used to the HK way of living day by day. Especially considering I've blended in so well, by constantly working long hours and no time chatting to you on this site:)

OK I've got your points now. 9 hours of flight plus flying solo for a little girl is a bit unthinkable(I certainly don't want her to get potentially traumatised or anything). We'll have to wait till next Christmas and go back as a family then, because we just went back in early Feb this year.

Once again many thanks to all! This site is truly the place to go if we need some good and fast advice!
 
I have a large age-gap between me and my younger sister. When I first moved to Hong Kong, my brother (who is close to my age) also moved to Denmark at the same time. My sister was only 9 at the time and was missing us both terribly.

My brother was going to be in Hong Kong and my mum had the idea of sending my 9 year old sister over to see us both, so her first time out of Australia was by herself ;) She did fantastic on the plane and has since come over again unaccompanied. On her 2nd trip, she was 12 or so and didn't even need to use the "unaccompanied minor" service as she was confident enough to get through the airport herself.

That all said, my sister is quite mature and confident - but her trips over here (she's only come twice by herself) have been extremely positive for her, and though we were a little unsure of how she would go at first, she did great.

I don't know your son and how he will cope on the plane, and I don't know your reasons why you are considering it, (like if both you and your husband be busy with work or whatever)... But the unaccompanied minor program can be great for kids who want/need to travel without their parents. So it's always an option :)
 
the extra 2 years at that age make a huge difference... we are talking more than 1/4 of their lifespan....

i will say that i used to take the greyhound bus for 13+ hours when i was 11... but again... that's a lot older than 6-7....
 
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Oh I know that, I was just sharing my experience. I'm not trying to persuade the OP, I'm just sharing that we've had a really positive experience with it.

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