When we were making plans for Trey during my trip to Israel, my parents suggested he fly – alone – to Richmond. Our first thought was “is that even allowed?”, followed shortly by doubt and fear.

Turns out it is allowed, with a couple guidelines:

• The kid has to be at least 5
• The flight has to be non-stop
• They have to arrive by 7pm
• The designated adult has to be there to pick him up with the plane lands (a given)
• You have to pay an extra $50-$100 (we went with AirTran which only charged $50)

After talking it over as a family we decided that Trey could do it. It was just a 1½ hr flight to Richmond and we’d put him on the plane and my parents would get him off. He was quite excited about doing this big trip on his own as you can see in the video below where he discusses the flight with his best buddy:

The flights both went very well and I received glowing compliments from the flight attendants about his personality and behavior.  When we asked him what he did to occupy the time in the air he said he just looked out the window and talked to Curious George.

Oh, and on more cool little detail. There was a mixup when the flight landed in Richmond and my parents were outside security instead of at the plane’s gate. The attendants had to wait until the next flight had boarded before they could take Trey to my parents. So to keep him occupied, they let him do the boarding calls over the intercom. I wish I could have been there to hear his little voice saying “Zone 2, you may now board the plane. Zone 2.”