In Reply to: Teenager travelling to bali to meet us posted by Ramada on Monday, 16. June 2008 at 12:46 Bali Time:
From the Jetstar website
"Independent Traveller Requirement - Children
The airline generally requires that passengers are able to travel independently. The airline does not have the systems, staff or facilities required to assume responsibility for assistance and supervision of passengers. Children requiring supervision will not be regarded as able to travel independently on the basis that they may cause a disruption or endanger themselves or others if travelling unaccompanied.
As a guide for Domestic Australian and International flights to/from Australia operated by Jetstar (JQ), children who are not yet attending secondary school will be regarded as unable to travel independently and will not be eligible to travel unless they are accompanied by an appropriate Accompanying Passenger*. Jetstar may require proof that children are currently attending secondary school at check-in. Despite these guidelines, if a child is attending secondary school but their parent or guardian considers that the child is not sufficiently independent to travel unaccompanied using the service provided by Jetstar, they must notify Jetstar. Jetstar is not able to carry such passengers unaccompanied.
*Accompanying Passenger means a paying passenger who, in our reasonable opinion, can travel independently and is able to and will provide the appropriate assistance, supervision, or both, as is required for the particular customer they are accompanying. As a guide, Jetstar generally will not consider a passenger to be an appropriate Accompanying Passenger for a child unless the passenger is at least 15 years old. Jetstar generally requires that passengers are able to travel independently. We do not have the systems, staff or facilities required to assume responsibility for assistance and supervision of passengers. Children requiring supervision will not be regarded as able to travel independently on the basis that they may cause a disruption or endanger themselves or others if travelling unaccompanied.
For Intra-Asia flights operated by Jetstar Asia (3K) or Valuair (VF), passengers below the age of 15 must be accompanied by a passenger who is 15 years of age or older, at the time of travel. The airline regrets that it is unable to accept carriage for unaccompanied minors."
I have just discussed with our daughter who did something similar from Perth. She basically feels it depends on the child. 13 is a funny age, and a child can be seemingly quite mature but just a baby at heart!!
She and I are a little confused by the comments on how much education Bali would supply a child, especially as she has been so many times before. Guess it depends what type of holiday you intend taking, but the usual cocktails by the pool/shopping hol is not going to secure her academic success (unless she is an Indonesian student). My daughter said her first trip was a real education (life experience) but not since then.
I would like to add that my daughter did not do her allocated homework. Not sure what kind of student your daughter is but ours is great (usually). Like me she had great plans but when in Bali she just gets into "Bali mode".
I agree with you, I would not pull a child out of school longer than necessary for a holiday at 13 - 17 years of age myself. School holidays only for us for a while