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Thread: Children on the long-haul flights

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Wiltshire, UK
    Posts
    112

    Default Children on the long-haul flights

    Hi - new to this, just got PR, hopefully going on 19th May. We are currently checking out flights and plan to go Air NZ via LA because of the luggage allowance.
    We have a 6 year old and 1.5 year old and are really worried about looking after them during the flight - particularly the little one. He (Finn) is very active and would not normally sit still for 10 minutes let alone 16 hours.
    Anyone who has done this ? Have you got any good advice? A friend has suggested some drug to wack them out for a while but this would probably only help for a few hours.
    :?
    Hope you can all help.
    Only just discovered this site, wish we had found it before - it is fantastic.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Whangarei, Northland, formerly
    Posts
    338

    Default

    Hi and welcome

    We had a 6mth old, 16mths old and 31/2 yrs old when we flew out here last year with Singapore Airlines.

    My suggestion would be to go with the flow. Take a bag full of little toys he has never seen before and when things get a little stressful, pull a new one out of the bag!

    We found the staff really helpful and the endless supply of snacks etc helped a lot.

    It is always good to move around as much as you can when flying anyway, so take every opportunity possible to have a wander and fully expect to walk all the way to NZ!!

    Are you intending to buy him a seat all of his own? We did for all of ours and for the two younger ones we bought them car seats suitable for use on the aircraft, which subsequently pins them down when things get stressfull! We bought Britax Eclipse car seats that you can fasten in with a lap strap. The downside being you have to carry it as hand luggage through the airport. But it really did work for us.

    We did take a bottle of piriton, but when we did use it found it had no effect. Apparently Medised is good. May be worth talking to your GP.

    Hope this helps. Where are you headed? Do you have jobs?

    Amanda

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    christchurch (formerly essex)
    Posts
    2,749

    Default

    Hiya this has been covered before so if you do a forum search for 'what to do with the child' then that might offer some ideas. cheers Veronica

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Auckland since Jan 05
    Posts
    513

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    Hi, had a 4 year old with broken collar bone in tow.... stopped at singapore and booked in the changi transit hotel .. THE LIFE SAVER!!!!

    I highly recommend it - £28 for 6 hours and it really helps with the jet lag. I am sure most international airports have some kind of facility.

    Our 4yr old coped exceptionally well.. we thought it would be a nightmare .. it was fine.

    You'll be right!

    Love Linda
    xx
    Pm me if you need more details

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Manawatu - NZ
    Posts
    4,450

    Default

    Hi Jennie & Rob

    First of all - welcome to the forum.

    Don't stress too much about taking the wee ones on the flight. Our 2 did their first flight to NZ when Fergie was 20 months old and Henry was 2 months old.

    I think it can be as stressful as you let it. Mine screamed the entire leg between London & Singapore !!! The staff were brilliant.

    I second all of the advice given above. Go with the flow, try not to make too many 'rules and regulations' for yourself.

    As for the knock-out-drops. We used Phenergan. However, try it on your kids before you leave as it can have the opposite of the desired effect and make them bounce off the walls :eek

    Good luck and keep us posted on how you're getting on. Where are you heading to?

    Diny

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Auckland
    Posts
    13

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    Just a note: When we travelled with Singapore air they gave us a bigger luggage allowance because we had one way tickets. Not sure if they still do it but worth looking into.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Stonefields, Auckland
    Posts
    301

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    K1W1 - yes they do - they double the 20Kg to 40Kg. Still not as much as via USA though - but we'll appreciate it when we go with them in a few weeks. Also, brother-in-law reckons he was told they'll tolerate an extra 10Kg - but not counting on that as I suspect that depends on who checks you in and what mood they're in :P

    Neil

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13

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    Hi Jennie & Rob,

    hopefully we will make our holiday trip to New Zealand in late March (returning four weeks later) with two children (17 month (Jesper) and 5 year old (Finn ). We will try the "magic box" way, with a lot of new toys and books for them to discover. They are both very active and charming, so I hope that there will be other children around for them to play with.
    Finn has some problems with pressure equalisation in his ears, we hope that this will not lead to cancelling our trip :hopeso . I bought some "earplanes" for the flight, hope that helps with the pressure thing during take off and landing.

    Frithjof

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Wiltshire, UK
    Posts
    112

    Default Thanks for the advice

    Thank you all for your helpful hints. We are planning to go via LA simply because Air NZ give you 64kg luggage per adult - such a difference to 20kg!
    Phenergan - that is the drug my friend mentioned; I'll have to try it beforehand on little Finn.
    How nice another to hear from the Mum of another Finn.
    We are heading for Wellington for the IT job market there - not sure of suburb yet- still reading all the hints on this website.

    Still getting over the shock of having a real proceedable offer on our house after it being on the market for 9 months with two unproceedable offers.
    Cheers
    Jennie

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    New Plymouth
    Posts
    65

    Default

    Hi Jennie & Rob,

    Welcome to the forum.

    Just some information about Do's and Don't when flying with children, basically Singapore Airlines 'V' Air New Zealand & LA stopover 'V' Singapore stopover, you will find this by going into the ENZ at the top left of the page and then near the bottom it say Flight's and children, there is pro's and con's for both airline's, but the information is quite usefull.

    Anyway good luck and I hope everything goed ok whatever you decide.

    Suzy Rimbo

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