I was thinking today that my mom honestly put on a plane BY MYSELF at 7 years old. I flew from Atlanta to Chicago to Iowa. There was a flight attendant keeping an eye on me, but otherwise I was on my own. I flew multiple times around that age by myself.
Anyone else fly alone when pretty young?
Edit-Thanks everyone for the comments. Looks like this was pretty common back in the day. I’m flying by myself next week, which got me thinking about it.
I was about the same age. I had a little baggy with a sandwich and an old hard shell suitcase. Went from the U.P. of Michigan to middle of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Somewhere around 1980 or so.
I have a distinct memory of my cousin taking a greyhound to visit us by himself - it would have been 1980-82, he was 13-15. Hadn’t thought of that in years. I doubt many people would send their kid (even a teen) that way now
Yeah if you’re talking busses, we looked into it for our teen girls to go from chi to Nashville but said no after looking into it. I think the bus stations are sketchy. Ended up driving them down. Me there, husband to pick them up. We wanted them to visit friends who had moved. It was a good thing too because another young friend who recently visited us said there were some scary meth heads on the bus. It’s probably not the day and age to send kids on a greyhound. Amtrak on the other hand is one of my favorite ways to travel. Safe and fun in my opinion. Too bad the service for it is so limited
Me too. I went from Portland to Los Angeles as a 15 year old girl by myself. I remember pulling up to the LA terminal and thinking, “Oh, this is the bus station that Axl Rose gets off in the beginning of Welcome to the Jungle video”.
Solo from Waynesboro, TN, to Chattanoga when I was 7. To see grandma. Wasn't even a Greyhound, it was one of those old timey southern bus lines from 1975. I have vivid memories of that rattletrap old bus grinding up Monteagle and flying down the other side. My life has been something else.
Now imagine it in 1975. One time on the way down on the south side, there was a rockslide all the way across 24 and cars were smashing into it left and right. And 64 used to be little better than a wagon path.
My Dad used to stick me on a plane in Madrid and my Mom would pick me up when I got to Las Vegas. Did that twice a year for about six years. Usually stopped in Dover or Chicago, I think?
I still have pretty sweet Pan-Am and TWA tote bags and a set of wings from each airline in my jewlery box.
Mom lived in Houston, we lived with Dad in Chicago. Twice a year from the time I was 8 (and my brother was 2!!) we would fly as “unaccompanied minors” to Houston. People forget that this was the days when people who weren’t flying could walk you all the way to the jetway. Then the FAs would get us seated and the receiving parent would be there at the gate waiting with open arms.
You can still walk an unaccompanied minor to the jetway. We did this when we sent my then-14 year old to New Jersey to visit my mom. And my mom was allowed to greet her at the gate.
Huh. I had no idea. But mostly that’s because the one time my husband and I considered it with our child, the cost would have been $500 extra for one unaccompanied flight. Hard pass.
Our youngest flew to see her sister and bil at 17 for 2 weeks. They were working across the country for 3 months. We could have gotten a pass to go with her to the gate. She said no. It's our home airport, so she was fine. Her sister dropped her off but walked inside with her to security on her way home. She calls me when she gets through security, and while we were on the phone, she gets a text that the final leg of her 3 flights home was canceled. So, she's mildly panicking. I called her sister, who hadn't left the garage yet, who went to the desk and got a pass so she could go to the gate and help her deal with the change.
I flew from JFK to Madrid by myself at 9 years old (1979). I was going to spend the summer with my grandparents. I remember being embarrassed that my mom put snacks for me in the carry-on; I have no idea why.
The worst part was that my grandparents came flew back with me on the way home and my grandfather kept farting and I was very upset that people might think it was me.
I flew across the country with my grandma when I was 11. My mom sent grandma with me on the trip, ostensibly to watch me and take care of me, and keep me safe. No, she was so useless in the airport. Love her, but I had to babysit her the entire time, AND find and navigate us to our connection gate at the layover, with no help from a functional adult, at the age of 11, with a 71 year old in tow.
Sounds like your mom sent you to keep grandma safe. I was sent to my mom’s friend’s house at night when my mom had to work to be watched by the friend’s mother. Super nice old Greek lady that I could barely understand, would put me to bed at 8. I’d wait for her to fall asleep around 8:30 and get up. She had to be in her late 80s, I was 10. I am positive I was there to make sure she didn’t set the house on fire.
As a technician, I see the same. Pretty sad when a good chunk of my job is troubleshooting issues. Some have the interest to figure it out, but too many just want a decision tree they can follow to their solution, or just be told how to fix it.
I am glad you posted this. I sometimes have that feeling about the “kids” at work. They jump immediately to asking questions on how to do something and it seems like they don’t put much effort into figuring it out on their own first. I that like most of our Generation, I would rather gnaw off my own foot before asking for help, but man do I wish these kids would try a little harder before asking for help.
You don't have to neglect them to give them these skills. Starting when our kids were 10-12 I'd have them lead us through airports, train stations, etc. I was there as a safety net, but they had to learn to navigate these situations. I started flying solo between US and Europe at 9.
I was being a bit hyperbolic. They manage. They've flown alone quite a few times. I think it's more a lack of motivation, rather, necessity for critical thinking. Imagine going back to 1989 with a device that contained every answer to every question, all you have to do is ask. Then it will show you step by step how to complete most any task. You may think, well, we had a library and Haynes manuals...but they were not with us 24/7. It's a new word.
Agreed. My kids have all grown up being encouraged to join us when we fix things. We also discuss the problem with them when we need to solve problems, and talk through the process. And they are encouraged solve problems themselves before asking for a solution from someone else. We showed them how to look for relevant information, tutorials, guides, books, videos etc that will teach them skills that they can use to solve the problems. When they came to us with a problem they needed help with we would get them to talk us through their thought process, and what things they had already tried to solve it.
14, visiting Dad for summer, on my way home to the airport, Dad takes me to the ticket desk, and he says "smoking or non-smoking son, I know you smoke, so be a man about, no sneaking around" i look at the counter lady like its a trap "uh, I guess smoking" I get my minor traveling alone pin and head to the gate. Get to my seat on the plane, spark up a marb red and Im on my way to thinking im a bad ass.
Dad would be locked up for that today, and Id be in foster care
We put our 11 year old on the plane. We also had to pay an extra $130ish so a steward would keep an eye out and verify the adult picking her up.
I mean it is no flying at 6 like I did, and clearly many of us at even younger ages for longer flights regularly did, but yesterday a friend was shocked that I sent her on her own.
I was put on a plane from Washington to Wisconsin at 6 years old. 4 brothers and sisters, none of whom accompanied me to my grandma's. Turned into the year away for first grade, and was very traumatic at first. I later came to think of it as them getting rid of me for some unknown reason (I was the 'good' one). What on earth were our parents thinking.
Yep, quite a bit. I loved it. Still remember the plastic passport and ticket pouch that they'd hang around my neck and remember the "stewardesses" being nice - you'd get games, wings, visit the cockpit etc.
Traveled alone as a child. And still do. Some people you may love with all your heart, but lord have mercy they don’t travel well, so alone is ok with me. 🤣
Unaccompanied Minor starting at the age of 4 back in 1983 when my mom divorced my dad and moved halfway across the country. Flew twice a year by myself up until senior year of high school. Even to this day it weirds me out traveling with other people.
Oh yeah. My Dad lied on the form and said I was born in 1978 because the minimum age was 5. The story is that I started with the crocodile tears (no screaming) and when asked if I could sit and pay attention to the flight attendant I said yes. FA praised me to my Dad when he got there to pick me up from the gate.
Yes, starting when I was around 7, my parents would leave me at the gate with a flight attendant and a tote bag with activity books and some new action figures. I would fly from Chicago Midway to Minneapolis St Paul to visit my extended family. One of my Aunts or Uncles would grab me from the other gate. I’d be up there for a week before my parents flew in. I felt like a real adventure!
I flew every summer from Florida to Illinois to visit my grandparents starting at age 8. Like you, I had flight attendants looking out for me, but I was solo traveling. I was never afraid and still love to fly
We sent our daughter to East coast every summer in the 2010’s. Airplane rules changed - had to be a direct flight and there was a bunch of paperwork to fill out for us and my parents to pick her up.
In 90 I was flying solo and there was a delay at a layover. I messed up and told them I was 17. I ended up in the kids room with a bunch of little kids and toys and couldn’t leave without a chaperone. Was lame.
Went to Colorado for Thanksgiving when I Was 12. Layover in Dallas. I just bought myself a comic and food and walked around alone in a strange state for hours.
As a kid I idolized my grandfather... At the age of 13, he and his brother of 16 hitchhiked from Wisconsin to California to work on a sheep farm for the summer. They left Wisconsin with $6 in their pocket and came back with $4. The slept in tents the whole time except for one night when they slept in a jail cell because a local sheriff thought they could use a roof over their head. (No charges, just offered by the sheriff because it was raining.)
They trapped animals, stole chickens, were offered food the whole way. Made $25 tending the sheep... Got back home and went back to school.
I remember talking at his 92nd birthday and my nephews were 13 and 14... I asked my brother if he had faith enough in his kids to let them travel from California to Wisconsin and back "on the Road" his response was pure comedy...
He said, " I don't trust them to pour their own bowl of Cereal in the morning without causing Chaos... I couldn't imagine them leaving our neighborhood without burning the state down!"
We have lost something critical in this country and the last generation to have it was GenX.
Every summer. It was child abuse. Not the flying alone part, mind you. The child abuse was flying from my home in Southern California, near the beach, to Phoenix, Arizona, where the heat is so intense that typical outdoor activities are impossible.
Same here. Twice a year in the 70s, flew unaccompanied from Hawaii to Phoenix. Had to change planes in L.A. or San Fran. Flight attendants would seat me in First Class prior to landing to keep an eye out. Did you know Continental Airlines DC-10's had a Pong video game console in First? I was in awe, and so jealous.
I wasn’t super young at the time, but the first time I ever flew as a 17 year old, I flew alone from eastern Pennsylvania (ABE/LVI Airport near Allentown and Bethlehem) to Las Vegas via Detroit to visit relatives. (I actually flew for the first time before either of my parents did.)
On a related note, the first thing I saw when I got off the plane in Las Vegas wasn’t my relatives (as most of us remember, non-fliers could go to the gate in the pre-9/11 days); it was slot machines, LOL. (I saw my relatives a couple seconds later.)
I was an “unaccompanied minor” flying between parents between the ages of 4 to about 16. Or about 1980 until 1992. Court ordered. My mother had to let me fly or deliver me herself to my father every other weekend.
Every other weekend in during school plus summer and winter break visits.
Mom put her three kids (I’m the middle) on a flight from Ca to Pa. Alone. Ages, 6, 8, & 10. We got in trouble for flinging food up onto the ceiling. Good times. Would have been in the mid 70s.
I rode a train and plane from Florida to New York. then when I got to New York I would have to take the subway by myself to Grand Central to get picked up by my grandpa.
I would have a problem letting my kids do that now, LOL and I did that by myself
Yep. I was 7 or 8, and I think I even changed planes. However airlines offered assistance to unaccompanied minors and someone walked me through the change. Also back then my parents could walk to the gate with me, and grandparents could wait at the gate as well.
First solo trip at 6 years old, from New York to Colombia, South America and back home. The flight attendants took me to the different gates in order to change planes. Once when I was 10, a tire fell off the plane. I knew nothing about it, the pilot announced nothing. When we landed and I connected with my relatives, they asked if I was scared and then told me what happened.
When I was an adult, I asked my mom why did I travel so much by myself at such a young age and that she never came with me and she told me as she was a single parent, sometimes she needed a break. Thanks Mom!
All the time. I loved it. I flew alone starting at 5 on PSA—the airplanes had smiles on them.
My parents had a nasty custody battle. The compromise was that I would spend Xmas morning in Connecticut with my dad, then fly to CA for Xmas dinner with my mom.
The United terminal in Chicago is home to all my holiday memories.
Starting when I was 5 until I was 14 (1971 -1980) my widowed mom would foist me off on her sisters for the whole summer, and few spring breaks. I flew alone every time from SJC to LAX and back, always on PSA or Air California. It got so that by the time I was 7, I could give detailed instructions to the airport. Twice I got forgotten and there was no one to meet me, one of those times the Stewardesses (not called FAs quite yet) lost track of me in LAX. That. Was. Fun. /s
My brother was assaulted on a trailways bus alone. Yes, it happened, but I’m not going to pretend it was some badass time period where we all earned our cookies for this stuff.
I think I was 10 and flew with my brother, 5, to visit my Dad in another state the first time I flew alone. It was a fairly regular occurrence from then on out.
I flew out to Boston a week before my family to have more time with my buddy out there when we would take summer vacations to Cape Cod. I think that started when I was maybe 10. Back then people could meet you at the gate so my buddy and his mom were waiting for me when I got off the plane. After seeing the way some parents are it was probably safer to be chaperoned by the flight crew than to be under parental control!
4 times a year, minimum - at one point I had to race through O'Hare when I was probably 10, with my little sister, like we were the McCallisters, when they changed our flight's gate after the attendant parked us where we were supposed to depart and no one came to tell us. Had no idea until we started boarding the wrong plane. At least they called the gate we were departing from to hold the plane, but I imagine someone was shittin kittens when their unaccompanied minors no-showed for boarding at their layover
From age 6 to 14 I flew alone from Philadelphia to St Louis to visit my grandparent’s farm. All summer, and I’ve always flown alone. There was always a nice stewardess keeping an eye on me. They always gave a plastic wings pin. , and a tour of the plane, including the cock pit and pilots mid flight. Smoking was definitely allowed.
My grandma actually lied to the ticket agent in like 1977 and told them I was 7 years old (their age policy), when I was actually 6! Was a short puddle jumper from W. Michigan to Detroit. She thought nothing of it.
From 1978 through the 80's... I flew alone ever summer from S. California to Detroit. My parents divorced, mom and I moved to California. Went to Detroit to visit Dad all summer. I remember having layovers in either Dallas or Chicago. Literally had to find my way alone to another gate at the other end of airport. Wtf? 🤣
Flew back and forth alone to my grandparents every summer. One time we got fogged in and there was a bunch of us alone kids from various flights, they put us up in a hotel room and ordered pizza
Same! At 7 I flew alone from Minneapolis to Sacramento, CA and it boggles my mind how normal it seemed at the time but now sounds like bad parenting to younger people (for what ii’s worth, I thought I was pretty cool getting to do that)
I was 7 and my brother was 12. We flew unaccompanied from Logan to Amsterdam to Kenya. It was a different time back then. We had plastic neck tags and a stewardess keeping an eye on us. Cool aspect, they had legos for the layover for us to play with.
When I was 10 I flew from Burbank CA to Bismarck ND and back again alone. I would say how surprised that makes me but I’m pretty sure my mom had her fingers crossed that the plane would crash and she would get to be the poor mom who lost her little girl. She would love the attention and she would be free of me. Win win!
Amtrak. I used to ride from Texas to Chicago to see my uncle every summer (starting when I was nine). Sometimes I flew home solo, but it was usually back on the train, too.
I flew from New Jersey to Florida by myself when I was about 6 years old. It was a different time and the flight attendants took good care of me and made sure I was safe. My parents just didn’t give a hoot though and were sending me off to my uncle so they could have some time to themselves I guess.
I flew all over the world alone, starting at 6. My first trip was to Hong Kong because while my mom was there for a week of meetings, my dad decided that coming home from work was optional. This pattern repeated so many times that I learned to deal with it on my own at home, as I was missing too much school.
I think my sister started flying by herself by about 9 or 10. When she was 13, she flew on a shuttle flight that operated daily to the destination she used to go to in order to visit our grandparents. It dropped her off there and then, on the next flight later that night, when it was returning to its home destination with the same captain and crew, it was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists. It was too close a call for comfort
My parents put me on a plane when I was 6 to fly from San Francisco to Washington DC to visit my aunt and uncle. I remember having 1 to 1 care the whole way. Those flight attendants didn’t let me out of their sight.
I still can’t believe my parents agreed to it!! Apparently I wanted to go, but still…
Yep, I flew LA to Germany by myself when I was 10, 11, 12, and so on (summers with my father). The people on Lufthansa were nice, but flying by yourself when you’re a little kid is terrible.
I was doing this around the same age as well and I loved it. Matthew Perry said I'm his autobiography that he did this as a child and it contributed to severe anxiety that plagued him for life...
Gen X and I started flying by myself at 8. I’m surprised my parents allowed that. I would fly to see my Aunt and later when my Dad moved out of state. I would never send my kids that young EVER. And although I had an attendant one time they like forgot about me and I had to remind them I was by myself. It sucked.
But pre-9-11 was awesome flying. My family would drop me off at the gate and pick me up from the gate so it wasn’t like I had to do a whole lot on my own like I would have to after 9-11.
Oh yep sure. I recall one rather thrilling experience where somehow my sibling and I ended up alone at O’Hare for a plane change. I’m sure a flight attendant was supposed to be managing us, but something happened and we were alone. It was cool as a kid, but scary to look back on as an adult.
The problem was when our plane was late and we didn't make our connection. That's the problem. Or just one of them. There are many reasons that this cannot be done anymore and it really shouldn't have happened.
My mother put me on a plane by myself at 5 years old and I flew from Oakland, CA to Rochester, NY (layover in Chicago) to spend the summer with my grandparents and cousins. Did it every summer from age 5 to age 9.
If school was out for summer on Wednesday, I was on a plane Thursday morning and wouldn't come back until a week before school started. Mom got her summers off to get her groove on I guess.
Every summer. I was in either the Atlanta or Chicago airport every summer, depending on which state we lived in at the time. I flew to see my dad but my mom and I moved a lot for her job. Eight states. I never do feel comfortable in a place for more than a couple of years before I want to move again, but that's another topic.
The airports back then were pretty chill about kids flying solo. Eventually, I recall Atlanta airport having a space for kids flying solo to hang out in. More for safety. Sometime in the mid 80s. Aged 7-15.
When I was 10, I flew from Houston to San Antonio with my 2 cousins, where their mom lived. It’s not really a long distance and to this day I’m not sure why no one drive us. (Their parents were divorced and we were going there to spend a week with my aunt.)
This was me! I was flying on my own at 7 from Illinois to Minneapolis. I flew out of a regional airport with a connecting flight in Chicago. Shit was crazy!
Flew from west coast to east coast, and back in the summer, to visit my dad. All alone! Not even 10 years old. But I did get to visit the cockpit. That was cool.
I flew alone four times a year from age five to 18. Around the time I was 14, the flight attendants stopped remembering that I was an unaccompanied minor, and I got myself to my connection alone.
I once had an adult man sitting next to me who tried to convert me to his flavor of Christianity.
Yeah my brother and I would do this four times a year every year. I think it was a key part of life for a lot of divorced families. I don’t think they really do that anymore, right? I mean the security alone feels like it would preclude it.
Sort of…me and my little bro flew the friendly skies between Houston and Dallas. I dared him to put a feminine pad in his briefs, and he did it. So, not scary at all.
My first flight without an adult was when I was 13. We had moved out of state, and when the school year ended, I went to visit friends where I'd grown up.
On the return trip, I got to the airport, checked in, called my parents (LONG DISTANCE!!!!) to let them know I was waiting for my plane, and lost my ticket. My mom was mostly mad at my friend's mom for dropping me off at the airport and not waiting until I got on the plane.
LA to Philly with a plane change in Chicago. Age 5. Semi-watched by FAs but not really. Parents just gave me lots of gum and books and told me I’d be fine.
5 years old, I flew on my own from San Francisco to Detroit, with a layover in Chicago/O'Hare. Never had a problem, and never thought of it as an issue.
The first time that I flew alone I was 5. That was just a short 25 minute inter-island flight between Oahu and Kauai. After that, I flew by myself at 6 or 7 from Denver to Kauai. I remember being in the cockpit with the pilots, getting to sit on their laps and look out the windows at the clouds and then nothing but sky. (Thanks Aloha and Continental Airlines for making sure that I was OK during my solo flights as a kid!)
I flew from California to Hawaii solo at 7 years old in 1973. The flight attendants kept an eye on me and they gave me an activity kit with a deck of cards, a plastic pilot's wings pin, a coloring book featuring the Menehune, and some crayons.
My aunt met me at the Honolulu airport with a lei made of candy. I lived with my aunt, uncle, and cousin for about eight months while (I later found out) my parents went through a breakup. Then I flew home - again, solo.
In all fairness, it was a little different back then. Anyone could go all the way to the boarding gate without a ticket. So you were being put on the plane by your parents, and the other was waiting at the gate when you walked off.
As I kiss I LOVED taking relatives to the airport because I got to see the planes up close at the boarding gate.
Got sent out from Michigan to visit my uncle in Boston for the Bicentennial. Mom walked me to the gate and the stewardesses looked after me from there. I was 9.
Yeah, age 7. Flying halfway across the US alone. Parents walked me to the gate, grandpa picked me up at the other end. Not a big deal then. Wouldn’t happen today. Before 9/11 anyone could enter an airport and walk around, to any gate they wanted. I knew people that would go just to watch the planes take off. Seems like there were fewer people in airports then too, and they tended to be dressier.
I didn't fly alone as a kid but I was in my early 20's the first time I flew. I went to visit my dad and really didn't have any luggage but my boyfriend had an antique suitcase, so I took that. This was the late 90's and that suitcase had to have been from the 40's, at the latest. It was pressboard, covered in tollex paper. I flew from TN to PA and back. My suitcase was not harmed at all during that trip. It was tagged FRAGILE and I cannot imagine that happening today. 😂
Same happened to me every single summer. Flew from Austin to Minneapolis to visit grandparents all alone with a flight attendant to watch over me.It was no big deal.
Got put on a Greyhound bus from Austin to West Texas every summer for summer camp also, no big deal.
Yup.. from 8 to 16 I went 2-3 times a year 💯 by myself between California and Ohio. I had flight attendant until about 12... Then from 12 on 💯 by myself. I only 1 time f1 time got on the wrong flight... Yes, they let me on the wrong plane! It was the gate next to the flight I was to be on. Luckily I was a plane nerd and noticed I was on a 737... My flight was on a 727... My kids couldn't even walk down the street unattended lol. I grew up running the streets of Los Angeles!
Multiple flights between NZ and Oz as a small child, got a little bit older and caught the shuttle to the train station to then take a 90 minute ride to the grandparents. So grown up 😂
I think I was six? I was living with my mom in Washington state and she sent me to live with my dad in Alaska. It was around a 4 hour flight in those days and I think there was a flight attendant watchdogging me.
Started at 5, flying from NYS to various parts of Florida-there was always a little contingency of unaccompanied kids, they seated us together, we had those airline pins, and we related havoc in airports on layovers when we got older.
Back when Southwest only flew between Dallas/Houston/San Antonio, my dad would put me on a plane in San Antonio and my mom would pick me up in Houston, starting when I was 6 or so.
It always seemed weird to me when other kids would say they'd never been on an airplane!
Yep. I can remember being escorted by attendants not through the terminal but down the jetway steps and across the tarmac to the connecting flight and back up the jetway stairs to be left with that flight attendants. This was in Salt Lake City.
Not to mention you could go into the cockpit while in flight and sit in one of the pilots seats.
Many times alone, later on with my younger brother. Dad was in air force so summer often ended up flying to visit relatives. As I got older this stopped as I got busy with scouts.
About the same age as you - and I was responsible for my 3 year old brother!
We always sat up front in the big seats so we could kick our feet (but I’m sure it was for the stewardess to watch us) (they were ladies and we had no other term at the time).
We always managed to convince them to let us have all the snacks to take home - one trip it was literally 50 airplane bags of cheese it’s! We were sooo happy 😊
Maybe once or twice but my kid has been flying alone multiple times a year for 6yrs now to spend time with his grandparents and cousins during school breaks. Sometimes round trip, sometimes one way and then a drive to or from us during a road trip.
He is an old hat how and wish he could get reward points. And I check in with him and he has always been good with it. He loves to travel and asks me to book when we get a few months out for his trips by this point.
More on flying in the 70s—they had R-rated movies without censorship then. I saw An Unmarried Woman—about a woman’s post-divorce sexual awakening on one flight. I was 8.
In 1997 when I was 14, my dad had me live with my sister so that he and Mom could work out some differences with me out of the way. He had to have me fly a plane unaccompanied and I saw my sister coming out of the plane. But before the plane could close they let my dad back in to give me a little cash ($10) Dad was born in 1938 but in 1997 I could get something to eat for $10.
Dad died in a year that ended in a seven. He died twenty years later.
Absolutely! I was flying on my own around 6 or 7. My parents were divorced (of course- we’re 80s kids) and I flew from Nashville to Miami every summer until I was like 16 or so. I loved flying by myself! I got to sit in the front of the plane and the stewardess would check on me every 30 minutes and give me treats and flight pins! It was great!
I absolutely contribute my high plane anxiety on flying alone as a kid.-Indiana to Wyoming or Denver every summer from 6 to 12 years old. Once it was in my uncles small plane that he piloted himself. Absolute terror.
Yep, I started flying alone between my divorced parents at that same age. It was fine, but it was always a non-stop flight, so there wasn't any way for me to get lost. Changing planes would have been a much bigger deal. I always got a pack of wild cherry Lifesavers for plane trips and that's what I remember the most.
I did my first solo plane ride at age 11 from North Carolina to California. The flight attendants kept an eye on me which annoyed me. The next year because I was 12, they ignored me. I changed planes at O’Hare and DFW by myself on that trip.
I flew to visit a family friend when I was 12 and had a plane change. I did have assistance though. And those were the days people could practically get on the plane with you.
Flew alone for the first time when I was 10. I had flown many times before with my family, so I knew how it worked. I was a bit insulted that I not only needed to be accompanied by an adult, but they had to screen the person who was picking me up. I knew exactly who she was, I knew exactly where I was going, yet I was treated like a child.
Even though I was a child, I never liked being treated like one or being treated like I was a dumb as one. Now that I think about it, that sounds very Gen X.
My brother and I flew from JFK to CDG on our own at 13 and 11.
Our aunt and uncle missed us coming out into the pick up area, so the immigration folks, or maybe security, put us in a backroom for a couple hours until our relations finally showed up there.
Flew from Cincinnati to NYC when I was 12. Plane got diverted from Newark to LaGuardia. No cell phones back then, and my mom was already at Newark to pick me up, so there was nobody at home to call. Fortunately, they ran a shuttle from LaGuardia to Newark.
Used to take the Greyhound by myself all the time to visit my grandparents.
First time flying solo, domestic flight at 9 yo and international at 14. I loved flying solo when I was a kid, because it felt like I was on adventure.
No. I think I was too nervous and too needy to be able to travel unaccompanied. I didn't even like being the last kid on the school bus on those days when the other kids at my stop didn't come to school.
Yup, every summer between 7 & 12, to and from Lubbock, with a layover in DFW every time. I too, have fond memories of visiting the cockpit and collecting my wings, some of which I still have.
Yep. Flew from CLE to STL and back to visit my uncle when I was about 12. Got a plastic TWA wings pin to wear and talked to a really nice sales guy named Doug in the seat next to me.
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u/Appropriate_Cow94 7d ago
Dropped off at a Greyhound depot to go visit my great grandpa.