Well, I was certainly buying tickets for myself when I was 13, and I hear today's kids are pretty precocious! FWIW, I flew a lot on my own when I was in my early teens, and learned how to get taken seriously by the people I interacted with - though there were times it wasn't easy. So I guess this was in the back of my mind when I "suspected" she was young, although I did have a somewhat older girl in mind - say late teens, early 20's.

So, zrs70, my guess was way off - but I sure do like your referring to a someone in her mid-30's as a "young woman"!