1 hr layover at DFW - 16 yr old traveling alone first time
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Anonymous
If she is legal to fly by herself and can put you on the phone with the gate agent if needed and has a credit card with her, you're good. That was our setup for our 15 year old going and coming from camp, transiting through MSP. He had been on several connecting international flights with us by that point. So he knew about rapidly transiting airports and how gates work. |
Anonymous
| Be sure to point out that the seatback airline magazine may have gate maps/terminal maps of the airport. Or pre-load a picture on her phone. |
Anonymous
| Do you have any friends/relatives in the DFW area? What we did in a similar situation was arrange with a family friend to be available to help just in case/worst case scenario type of thing. It gave all of us a lot more comfort to know that if something crazy like all planes grounded due to a storm, etc. happened, there was someone local we trusted who could step in and handle it in person. |
Anonymous
| One hour is too short of a layover for anyone unless you are ok with taking a later flight or possibly getting stuck overnight there. |
Anonymous
| DFW is one of the hardest airports to navigate a layover in. It's not a great starter airport. Why not schedule a non-stop flight for her first solo trip. |
Anonymous
This is a stupid thing to do Texas are you insane?? One thing goes wrong and your kid is a female stuck in Paxton’s state . Use your brains people we are not in normal times! |
Anonymous
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The only problem would be if you have weather causing delay out of DC, or origin on return.
If she arrives at DFW on time, 1 hour should be good as long as she can read signage easily and already has a good idea of where to go once she's there. I find DFW easy if you know your way around, confusing if you are new to the airport. You have to orient, then basically you are moving in a circle due to the layout of the terminals. Hopefully she isn't connecting to a small regional that needs a shuttle. Find out what gate she will come into, and what gate she will depart from. Here is a map. Map out what she will need to do now, and then you can better decide. |
Anonymous
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The map:
https://www.dfwairport.com/map/ |
Anonymous
Yikes. You wound unhinged. And let's not turn this into a political rant. This is about helping OP get DD to her destination. |
Anonymous
Super easy if you are staying in the same terminal. More complicated if changing terminals, primarily due to having to heavily depend on signage to understand which direction to take the Skylink tram. When you come up from the terminal you have a choice. Granted, it's one giant loop, so even getting on the wrong direction you'll eventually get to where you're going. It would just be how long does it take. |
Anonymous
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Ugh.
So your kid will be that person who jumps up as soon as the plane lands and starts loudly complaining about their short connection and demonstrate their displeasure of being stuck in row 27 waiting for others to get off (at best)…and perhaps shove ahead while repeating they have a short connection. As you know, the 60 minutes between projected landing and projected takeoff aren’t really 60 mins. The first flight might land at 1pm, but your kid won’t actually get off the plane for 20 mins. The plane taxis, and it might not be able to park right away. Then everyone ahead of your kid gets off first. Have you been to DFW? It’s big. And the connecting flight isn’t always nearby. Here’s what you can do to improve your odds: Buy a seat at the front of the plane and make sure the connecting flight is on the same airline. I have been on multiple AA flights where they announce that certain connecting flights are being held for passengers. |
Anonymous
It’s really not. Assuming they’ve been in an airport before and can read they’ll be fine. It’s not that difficult |
Anonymous
| The answer is 1 hour layover is too tight for anyone. Second is fly direct if possible. Is this cost saver to have a layover? No, she does not need an accompaniment. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
It depends where the flights are in the airport. This is a big place. |