Flying with Children - 2
This is Part 2 of the Flying with Children article – Click here to go to Part 1
Ensure that you have sufficient toys, crayons, paper, books, food, drinks etc for both the journey to the airport, whilst at the airport and on the flight – and on arrival at your destination.
You may find that everything goes really well until you arrive at your destination and your baggage takes an hour or more to emerge onto the reclaim carousel or worse still not arrive at all! (so make sure you have a few essential items in your hand luggage just in case)
We find that bringing a new toy that your child has never seen before can be a great way to occupy them when they start getting a bit fidgety.
Also you may wish to give your older children the responsibility of choosing and carrying their own toys in a little rucksack – a rucksack is sometimes preferable to a wheeled bag or little suitcase because they are almost certainly able to carry it on board and it won’t take up too much space in their seat area.
Many airlines give you the opportunity to check in online for your flight and change your seats before travelling – this is invaluable, and is highly recommended. Remember to try to get the bulkhead seats – if these are not already allocated. Checking in online means fewer things to do when you get to the airport.
If you are travelling with one of the low cost airlines, it can make a lot of sense to get to the airport early (so early that you are waiting for check in to open) because this means that you will often be one of the first to board the aircraft and therefore be able to choose your seats to sit together. Although the seats by the emergency exits may appear attractive because they have lots of space around them, it's possible that the cabin crew will ask you to move if they're not sure that the exit mechanism can be operated by the people sitting there (including your little ones) so on low cost airlines it is better to try to get seats near the front of the aircraft – at least this way you will often leave the aircraft first.
Drop off your bags as soon as possible!
Many airlines offer online check in and if you did this then they will have somewhere for you to drop your bags off. Our suggestion is to get rid of your bags as soon as possible but ensure that there's nothing in your checked in hold luggage that you might need on the journey. Depending on the length of your flight this can be many, many hours so think carefully about what you will need at each stage of your journey – for example if you have a connecting flight you may be waiting in an airport for a couple of hours or so, so make sure you have something to occupy the children during this time.
Keep hold of your pushchair for as long as possible!
Ensure that your pushchair has an airline baggage tag attached to it at check in/bag drop but unless the airline insists, do not let your pushchair go with the rest of your baggage, you will need it - airports are big places for little legs! You can often take your pushchair as far as the departure gate (but see below regarding getting your pushchair on arrival at destination).
Liquids & security checks
At many airports, and certainly in the UK, you may not carry significant quantities of liquids through security – the exclusion to this is pre-prepared baby milk and formula - although you will almost certainly be asked to drink some by the security staff – It's well worth checking with your airline and the airport for the current rules on this.
At the departure gate
Arrive at your gate early, this is particularly important when travelling with low cost airlines – it can become a mad scramble to get the “best” seats on the aircraft. Some airlines give priority boarding for people travelling with small children, be sure to listen out for the announcement at the gate and take advantage of this.
If you’ve brought your pushchair to the gate, the airline staff will often take it from you just before you board the aircraft. Many times, despite the airline staff telling us that we’ll get our pushchair back at the arrival gate, we didn’t get our pushchair back until baggage reclaim (and sometimes it comes through on a special “outsized” baggage carousel).
The aircraft is an interesting place for children for about 5 minutes after that they just get board having to sit still in their seat (or on your lap) so now is the time to bring out the new toy to occupy their time. Remember there is not a lot of space on an aircraft so big jigsaws are out.
We found that our eldest child, even from a very young age liked listening to her nursery rhymes and stories which we'd loaded onto an iPod – if you have a video iPod or portable DVD player you can even put their favourite DVDs on there (assuming you can legally copy them). The only thing to note is that the ear bud type headphones aren't much good for small children (they're too big for their ears and keep falling out when they move) so we bought some over ear hook-on headphones which work much better. The other thing we do with our iPod is to set it so that the volume can't be increased beyond a comfortable level so that our little ones don't inadvertently increase the volume.
On long haul flights there's often video entertainment and it can be really great to occupy your children for a while.
If you have a window seat it’s great to let your child look out of the window and you can talk to your little one about the ground below, or the clouds.
Other ways to keep them occupied include reading a story (quietly so as not to disturb other passengers), playing i-spy type games, even going to the toilet or for a walk along the aisle can be entertaining – the key thing is to keep your little one occupied and entertained, unfortunately that means that you will not be able to sit back, relax and read a magazine on the flight – but you knew that!
Of course if you have taken a night flight you might be lucky and your children will sleep the entire time – it does happen!
We found that giving our children something to drink during takeoff and landing helps the pressure equalise in their ears which helps to minimise potential pain.
Not all airlines cater for children, some will provide a pack of toys and games for free, many won’t so don’t rely on it, although if you are desperate you can usually buy something on board.
If possible, ensure that you have completed any landing cards you will need at your destination on the aircraft, it will help making passport control at your destination a bit less stressful.
And finally, we've never been too concerned about what other passengers might think if one of our children is playing up - we do what we can to calm our little one down, we don't let them wander about by themselves, we don't let them annoy other passengers but we don't let other peoples thoughts or opinions stress us out either - it's their problem, not ours!
Ensure that you have your passports and landing cards easily to hand for passport control, there is often a long queue so be patient.
Where's our pushchair?
It is highly likely that you will not get your pushchair back at the exit of the aircraft (despite airline staff promises at departure) and it can be a long walk from the arrivals gate to passport control and on to baggage reclaim before you see your pushchair again.
In baggage reclaim, if your pushchair does not appear on the carousel, check if there's a special outsized baggage section in the reclaim hall, your pushchair might be there. Always take a baggage trolley, even if you have a small bag – it’s just easier!
If you've rented a car, a reputable rental company will also rent you a child car seat but the quality of these tends to vary, again for peace of mind take your own.
We can’t promise that following our tips will ensure an entirely stress free flight, but hopefully you'll find one or two of the suggestions helpful and they will help you start your holiday in a good frame of mind.
Copyright: Kinderpods 2010
Pre-flight checks
Before leaving homeEnsure that you have sufficient toys, crayons, paper, books, food, drinks etc for both the journey to the airport, whilst at the airport and on the flight – and on arrival at your destination.
You may find that everything goes really well until you arrive at your destination and your baggage takes an hour or more to emerge onto the reclaim carousel or worse still not arrive at all! (so make sure you have a few essential items in your hand luggage just in case)
We find that bringing a new toy that your child has never seen before can be a great way to occupy them when they start getting a bit fidgety.
Also you may wish to give your older children the responsibility of choosing and carrying their own toys in a little rucksack – a rucksack is sometimes preferable to a wheeled bag or little suitcase because they are almost certainly able to carry it on board and it won’t take up too much space in their seat area.
Many airlines give you the opportunity to check in online for your flight and change your seats before travelling – this is invaluable, and is highly recommended. Remember to try to get the bulkhead seats – if these are not already allocated. Checking in online means fewer things to do when you get to the airport.
Getting to the airport and parking
Don’t forget any of your paperwork, booking references, itineraries, passports and pre-printed boarding passes. Make sure that you set off for the airport in plenty of time; we find that it's better to be waiting airside at the airport than getting angry because there's a traffic queue and you might miss your flight. Remember the advice about valet parking; use it if you can afford it.At the airport
Get to the airport earlyIf you are travelling with one of the low cost airlines, it can make a lot of sense to get to the airport early (so early that you are waiting for check in to open) because this means that you will often be one of the first to board the aircraft and therefore be able to choose your seats to sit together. Although the seats by the emergency exits may appear attractive because they have lots of space around them, it's possible that the cabin crew will ask you to move if they're not sure that the exit mechanism can be operated by the people sitting there (including your little ones) so on low cost airlines it is better to try to get seats near the front of the aircraft – at least this way you will often leave the aircraft first.
Drop off your bags as soon as possible!
Many airlines offer online check in and if you did this then they will have somewhere for you to drop your bags off. Our suggestion is to get rid of your bags as soon as possible but ensure that there's nothing in your checked in hold luggage that you might need on the journey. Depending on the length of your flight this can be many, many hours so think carefully about what you will need at each stage of your journey – for example if you have a connecting flight you may be waiting in an airport for a couple of hours or so, so make sure you have something to occupy the children during this time.
Keep hold of your pushchair for as long as possible!
Ensure that your pushchair has an airline baggage tag attached to it at check in/bag drop but unless the airline insists, do not let your pushchair go with the rest of your baggage, you will need it - airports are big places for little legs! You can often take your pushchair as far as the departure gate (but see below regarding getting your pushchair on arrival at destination).
Liquids & security checks
At many airports, and certainly in the UK, you may not carry significant quantities of liquids through security – the exclusion to this is pre-prepared baby milk and formula - although you will almost certainly be asked to drink some by the security staff – It's well worth checking with your airline and the airport for the current rules on this.
At the departure gate
Arrive at your gate early, this is particularly important when travelling with low cost airlines – it can become a mad scramble to get the “best” seats on the aircraft. Some airlines give priority boarding for people travelling with small children, be sure to listen out for the announcement at the gate and take advantage of this.
If you’ve brought your pushchair to the gate, the airline staff will often take it from you just before you board the aircraft. Many times, despite the airline staff telling us that we’ll get our pushchair back at the arrival gate, we didn’t get our pushchair back until baggage reclaim (and sometimes it comes through on a special “outsized” baggage carousel).
In-flight
Make sure that you ask for a bassinet (if you need it) as soon as you get on board (this assumes you have a bulkhead seat).The aircraft is an interesting place for children for about 5 minutes after that they just get board having to sit still in their seat (or on your lap) so now is the time to bring out the new toy to occupy their time. Remember there is not a lot of space on an aircraft so big jigsaws are out.
We found that our eldest child, even from a very young age liked listening to her nursery rhymes and stories which we'd loaded onto an iPod – if you have a video iPod or portable DVD player you can even put their favourite DVDs on there (assuming you can legally copy them). The only thing to note is that the ear bud type headphones aren't much good for small children (they're too big for their ears and keep falling out when they move) so we bought some over ear hook-on headphones which work much better. The other thing we do with our iPod is to set it so that the volume can't be increased beyond a comfortable level so that our little ones don't inadvertently increase the volume.
On long haul flights there's often video entertainment and it can be really great to occupy your children for a while.
If you have a window seat it’s great to let your child look out of the window and you can talk to your little one about the ground below, or the clouds.
Other ways to keep them occupied include reading a story (quietly so as not to disturb other passengers), playing i-spy type games, even going to the toilet or for a walk along the aisle can be entertaining – the key thing is to keep your little one occupied and entertained, unfortunately that means that you will not be able to sit back, relax and read a magazine on the flight – but you knew that!
Of course if you have taken a night flight you might be lucky and your children will sleep the entire time – it does happen!
We found that giving our children something to drink during takeoff and landing helps the pressure equalise in their ears which helps to minimise potential pain.
Not all airlines cater for children, some will provide a pack of toys and games for free, many won’t so don’t rely on it, although if you are desperate you can usually buy something on board.
If possible, ensure that you have completed any landing cards you will need at your destination on the aircraft, it will help making passport control at your destination a bit less stressful.
And finally, we've never been too concerned about what other passengers might think if one of our children is playing up - we do what we can to calm our little one down, we don't let them wander about by themselves, we don't let them annoy other passengers but we don't let other peoples thoughts or opinions stress us out either - it's their problem, not ours!
At your destination airport
A useful thing to carry with you is a soft carrier or sling for babies or a hipseat for older children to help get from the aircraft to the baggage reclaim – these two items take up very little space but anyone who has been through Heathrow Terminal 5 or Stansted will recognise the need for them. They can be used when out and about with your little one both at home and whilst travelling. These are particularly useful if your children are tired and dozing.Ensure that you have your passports and landing cards easily to hand for passport control, there is often a long queue so be patient.
Where's our pushchair?
It is highly likely that you will not get your pushchair back at the exit of the aircraft (despite airline staff promises at departure) and it can be a long walk from the arrivals gate to passport control and on to baggage reclaim before you see your pushchair again.
In baggage reclaim, if your pushchair does not appear on the carousel, check if there's a special outsized baggage section in the reclaim hall, your pushchair might be there. Always take a baggage trolley, even if you have a small bag – it’s just easier!
Onward travel
If you're being collected at the airport, you should ensure that the person collecting you has a suitable child car seat (or you could take an Inflatable Car Booster Seat by Bubblebum or you can always take your own rigid car booster seat from home – just check it in) – it's a legal requirement in many countries and it simply makes sense from a safety point of view.If you've rented a car, a reputable rental company will also rent you a child car seat but the quality of these tends to vary, again for peace of mind take your own.
We can’t promise that following our tips will ensure an entirely stress free flight, but hopefully you'll find one or two of the suggestions helpful and they will help you start your holiday in a good frame of mind.
Copyright: Kinderpods 2010
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