# Parents taking separate flights- anyone here do that (or did your parents)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 19, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996 "2010-05-19T13:45:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/41 "2010-05-20T02:10:48Z")
My parents did this, but after my father died, my mother thought nothing of hopping on a plane and going someplace alone. My husband and I also did this, although it only came up once–but that once was about six months after two kids who were at tennis camp with our sons had been orphaned when both their parents were en route to France when their plane crashed. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/42 "2010-05-20T02:25:28Z")
My parents did that–they had 5 kids and there was no one willing to take on all 5 of us, if the worst happened. They did this when they flew to Nassau, South America, China, Russia and the Antartic. Nowadays, they fly together all the time. Sometimes they also would split up the driving: one would drive with 2 kids; one would fly with the other 3 (when traveling with the kids). But we also often took long car trips all together, so perhaps the flight/car trips were so they wouldn’t have to rent a car once we got to our destination. I don’t think it’s weird at all. If we were going someplace sans kids, we’d probably do the same. (then again, our oldest is almost 21, so she might get custody of the 12 year old… something we need to figure out just so we know). ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/43 "2010-05-20T06:49:36Z")
Sounds bizarre and needlessly paranoid to me. So what if the planes they were on crashed into each other? They ever think THAT could happen? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/44 "2010-05-20T11:55:52Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Sounds bizarre and needlessly paranoid to me. So what if the planes they were on crashed into each other? They ever think THAT could happen? Oh come on, [THAT could never happen…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/45 "2010-05-20T14:58:06Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Sounds bizarre and needlessly paranoid to me. So what if the planes they were on crashed into each other? They ever think THAT could happen? In one of the first urban legends I ever heard, my mother recounted a tale of two parents who took separate flights so that if one crashed, the other would survive. They left LA for New York, and the two flights crashed into each other over the Grand Canyon.\* For some reason, this was her justification for separate flights! As I said, after my father died (unrelated to airplanes) she didn’t seem to mind at all going off somewhere on a plane without me. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/46 "2010-05-20T16:26:13Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Sounds bizarre and needlessly paranoid to me. So what if the planes they were on crashed into each other? They ever think THAT could happen? Well what if they took an early and a late flight so that one was already long-landed before the other one even took off, huh? That’d work! 😛 My thought about separate flights would instead first go to a recent flight I was on, where a man was sitting next to me and (I assume) his wife was in the row ahead of us, sitting next to another unrelated singleton traveler. I realized this when he reached up and tapped her and asked for something, and she handed back a magazine. I got her attention and offered to switch places with her so she could sit with him. She said, “No thanks, I don’t like him that much.” I thought she was joking, but she remained seated. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Shark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/47 "2010-05-20T17:34:46Z")
My anecdotal addition to this thread come by way of a story about a kid who was a couple of years ahead of me in high school. The story was that his parents took separate flights to Vegas for a vacation for just the two of them. Unfortunately, they were booked into the MGM Grand hotel where they both perished in a fire. Now the part I know is true is that they did indeed die in the fire, but the part about the separate flights to avoid leaving their kids orphaned was never verified. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/48 "2010-05-21T12:16:47Z")
Last year when I worked in Afghanistan, we had a married couple on our team who refused to both be on our chopper when we went over conflict zones for this reason. It was the first time I had heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/49 "2010-05-21T12:25:32Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Last year when I worked in Afghanistan, we had a married couple on our team who refused to both be on our chopper when we went over conflict zones for this reason. It was the first time I had heard of it. Well, being in a helicopter over a conflict/combat zone does present somewhat stronger odds of calamity than being a passenger on a domestic commercial-aviation fixed-wing jet. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/50 "2010-05-21T13:00:59Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > I know people who do this and I think it is a good idea. The chance of being in a fatal crash is very small, but if you are one of the ones affected, it’s a personal 100%. I know a family where both parents were killed in plane crash (about 5 years ago) , it was, of course, a devasting event. They had 4 children under 13. Granted, it was a small plane crash not a commercial flight…but still. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/51 "2010-05-21T13:16:48Z")
Travelling to a family wedding years ago my parents fearing the loss of an entire family in an air disaster had the girls fly and the boys drive. So we got to shuttle grandma and toddlers thru airports while the guys ripped a trail through Texas and had a ball. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/52 "2010-05-21T15:33:13Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > This was a plot point in John Irving’s _The Hotel New Hampshire_. > > Sorrow Floats. I came in to post the very same thing. Sorrow indeed floats. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996/53 "2010-05-21T16:22:49Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Travelling to a family wedding years ago my parents fearing the loss of an entire family in an air disaster had the girls fly and the boys drive. So we got to shuttle grandma and toddlers thru airports while the guys ripped a trail through Texas and had a ball. LOL. Dad wasnt as dumb as he pretended to be was he? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parents-taking-separate-flights-anyone-here-do-that-or-did-your-parents/539996.md?page=2)