Danaamatrix

Hi Everyone,

I have been given an amazing opportunity for 3 weeks fully paid (Wages, travel and accommodation) with my family to see if the job I want suits me and vice versa.

The only stumbling block is our 20 month old child. She is loving & happy but also gets bored very easily where she turns into the spawn of satan.

What have been other peoples experiences of flying with a 20 month old and what airline should I go with? Are you able to walk up and down the aisle? Are there TVs in the head rests? Who is the best airline? Are the children catered for both in entertainment and food?

Please be a truthful and frank as you can be, I need to know otherwise I am going on my own and I think I would go nuts without seeing my wife and 2 daughters for 3 weeks. (Honestly I will)

Thanks

caliburn

We flew Singapore Airlines to Sydney with our 23 month old son. Service was excellent. Book early so you get bassinet seats. Walking on aisles was not a problem for the toddler. Please note you have tell the airline early to carry baby food as per your child's preference.

I heard from other members here that they found Emirates and Cathay to be quite good too.

quoll

Flew to UK with BA and back to Aus with Qantas with my granddaughter (and her parents!) at 19/20 months both airlines were excellent. I was a cheapskate and booked a bassinette rather than a seat and because she is very petite that worked out OK for us. She too is like a bee in a bottle as a general rule but we got late night flights in each direction and she slept most of the way. She had a good long walk and run around Singapore airport and slept on the second leg as well. We took food for her and she also helped herself to her parents and my meals. She was toilet trained and people were very good at letting her jump to the head of the queue if she said she needed to go.

Both airlines were helpful and pleasant, she got a lovely selection of backpacks with stuff in them (Qantas was the best though as it had a magic doodler in it and her own magic doodler had died a death on a flight from Switzerland). She did a few laps of the plane on the outward flight as it was slightly earlier in the day and we did some stretching at the back of the plane but generally with a few books, a favourite toy, the personal tv and some drawing she was very happy.

I'd travelled with my own kids when they were little too and never had a problem either so we werent expecting trouble.

LittleKittyCat

We have flown with our children with both Qantas and Singapore Air, and found them both to be fine. They were 2.5yrs and 6 months the first time, and almost 3 and just 1 the second time. The first time we flew, we got a midday flight from Heathrow and to be honest it was a complete nightmare. Neither of them slept, and by the time we got to Singapore I was ready to get back on a flight to London! Our toddler is bored easily, but because she was tired because she wouldn't sleep it was 100 times worse. The only good thing about the flight was that we arrived in Sydney early evening. That meant that by the time we had done passport/quarantine/collected cases and got the hire car and driven to the hotel they were really tired. We had a bath, room service meal and then slept soundly until the morning when we woke up and suffered from no jet lag at all.

The second time we flew, we went with Singapore Air on the A380 - great because we had a power supply for the laptop which meant that we could use it for her own dvd's and things. We also sat on the top deck so it was a bit quieter. I would recommend lots of little toys (we got bob the builder duplo and things - lots of things to build and keep her busy but we did lose a couple of pieces), we had a bag with lots of little toys in - some pocket money toys and free toys from the fronts of magazines that I had collected. They were allowed one toy every hour if they had been good, and they were also useful as a distraction if they started to act up. We got the night flight this time which was fantastic. They both slept fairly well on the first leg to singapore, then we stayed in the transit hotel at singapore so that we could catch the flight that got us in to Sydney in early evening. We found it much better to break the journey up in to two, others might disagree. It did drag the traveling out a bit, but it was lovely to have a shower, feed and a sleep in Singapore and then get on to the second flight in the morning refreshed. It gave us time to run them round the airport to run off steam and they were incredibly well behaved on the second leg, with just a small nap meaning that by the time we got to Sydney they were ready for bed. No jet lag again!

I would also recommend taking lots of snacks, biscuits and things. Our two wouldn't eat the airline food. Although it meant they ate rubbish for the flight, at least they ate. Didn't hurt for one day.

Hope that helped a bit.

Broad Shoulders

we flew with our 20 month old (boy) and 3 year old boy last Xmas. Our 20 month old is a complete fidget and we didn't bother paying the extra $1500 for a seat for him (which in hindsight was a BIG mistake). If someone else is paying then I would make sure she gets her own seat.
Whatever you do make sure you get an airline with decent on demand entertainment. We flew with Cathay, which for the London-HK leg was great as when the kids were awake they just watched kids programs whenever they wanted. But the HK-Brisbane leg was an older style aircraft where the entertainment was limited and on a fixed loop.
Many of our friends suggested Phenergan for the kids if they had trouble sleeping or were irritable. We were against the idea, but after a few hours we realised that it wasn't a bad option. Might be worth taking it along with you as backup, even if you are against the concept.

PS. We got a seat with the fold down bassinettes, which were useless for our little one as he was too big for it. Unless your daughter is tiny for her age she will not fit in that

Rosscarbery

Everyone's experience is different but I have vowed never to fly BA or Qantas long haul again with or without children. I'm flying to the UK by myself in September and I paid more not to fly with them (and I am a serious bargain hunter). If you want the rudest staff you could ever meet in your life, slapdash service and management who really couldn't give a stuff when you complain go for it, otherwise fly with a nice airline like Singapore who are great with kids and polite to everyone.