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Small children and long haul

Small children and long haul

Old Dec 15th 2005, 10:33 pm
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Default Small children and long haul

Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
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Old Dec 15th 2005, 10:36 pm
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Originally Posted by nurselindsey
Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
We did a night flight from the USA as we stopped there for a bit of a holiday. I had 4 kids with me between 16 and 3 years and it was fine as they slept most of the time. Just make sure that you are organised with snacks and treats to break the journey when they are awake and you will be fine.
Enjoy.
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Old Dec 15th 2005, 10:40 pm
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

we've just come over with a 20month old girl .. who has a very short attention span

she was fine .. we went with emirates from bham to dubai to singapore to brisbane

each leg was about 6-7 hours and she seemed to cope very well .. we took loads of toys etc .. and the people on emirates were wicked .. taking her for walks up and down the plane and everything

one thing tho .. our stop at dubai was for 9 hours .. you can book the airport hotel by the hour but as we didn;t do it before .. we didn;t get a room .. .. well worth it to get a bit of sleep and to shower up etc

good luck
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Old Dec 15th 2005, 10:42 pm
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Originally Posted by nurselindsey
Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
Lindsey,

We flew in August from the UK to Melbourne with a 3 and 5 year old. We were fortunate that our company flew us Business Class so that did make a difference. However, Singapore Airlines were fabulous and they have entertainment systems for all passengers. We took a night flight (8pm) so the kids stayed awake until about 11pm (they watched a couple of films and had tea) and then they fell asleep. Both slept solidly until 60 mins before we were due to land. We stopped in Singapore for a few days and then took another night flight to Melbourne. Again the kids watched a film and then slept until we landed.

We took a large bag full of toys, games, tapes, books etc and never once got it out. Combination of night flight and tv helped settle them.

Perhaps we were lucky.

My Mother has just flown Emirates and she thought they were excellent also.

Cheers and good luck.
Col
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Old Dec 15th 2005, 11:24 pm
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Have flown Emirates and Singapore with kids,they coped well both times but Emirates get the thumbs up from me.
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 12:12 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Originally Posted by nurselindsey
Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
Hi we did the flights in September with children of identical ages.... we decided to fly Emirates, ie 3 x 7 hour flights, we had a holiday in Dubai and 3 nights in Singapore, so took our time getting here!!... 2 flights were night flights, the Dubai - Singapore was a day flight which we were dreading... but it turned out to be the best leg. The kids were great, the 4 year old played games, watch films and had a load of activity packs which I brought along, stickers, colouring etc... the staff were great too. The little one was ok, but a little harder!!... Luckily on each leg we were next to other families with little ones, again this helped the time go by quicker and entertained the boys.

We found the night flights difficult, tried drugging them, but the medicine tastes fowl so had trouble administering it!!, there was so much going on we didn't get masses of sleep... just try and sleep when they do...

Good luck..

Julie
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 12:49 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Lindsey,
We flew over in August with a 22month and 5 year old. Flew Singapore airlines, and had a mid day flight. It was OK. Singapore are great with kids. We had a 2 hour stop over in Singapore, which was ideal for us, as we wanted to get the trip over and done with. A mid day flight also worked well, as you only have to entertain them for a short while before they go to sleep. They have to wake up early UK hours in singapore, and when they got on the singapore to perth flight, they slept all the way. We did drug the littel one, and it worked well.

As most people will mention, you believe its going to be hell, and it turns out to be alright.
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 2:13 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

We had a five year old boy when we did our reccie, two years ago and we stopped over at Dubai AND Singapore. It breaks the flight up into 3 nice even 7.5 hour legs. Also you are not switching airlines (it's all Emirates) which adds to the expense.
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 2:25 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

We did the flight with Cathay, who were marvellous, and broke up the journey by stopping in HK. Did night flights both times after trying a day flight and night flight to the US earlier in year.
Our daughter was 9 months when she went to the US. She slept most of the way on the night flight and was awake most of the way on the day flight requiring constant entertaining. So we opted for night flights for the HK/Sydney trip when she was 14 months.
Mostly it was fine. Bought her a seat so she had room to play but she hated sleeping on it and took up most of our seats too! Medised (from the UK) helped with the sleeping.
My main tip is STICKERS! For the older child. Keeps my daughter entertained for ages on the plane - sticking them all over the seat and herself etc. The stewardess gave her some and it was a life saver.
Also if your travel agent says they can't book seats for you, call the airline direct and explain you are travelling with kids and need the bassinet and bulk head seats. They won't guarantee them but will request them and its worth doing as have turned up at the airport expecting to get those seats and have found single people with no kids have already been given those seats as they have requested them in advance.
Good luck!
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 6:24 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

We went Qantas to Perth last Feb with our daughter who was 18 months at the time. Went via Singapore and stayed two nights on the way there and one night on the way back. With hindsight, would have stayed longer in Singapore to adjust to the time there, because when we arrived at my sisters our little one hadn't adjusted yet and we kept my poor sister up for the first few nights which we felt bad about. When we go for good we will stay at least a week, probably Singapore again.

I had flown Emirates the first time I went to Perth while I was pregnant and I didn't like them at all. Despite requesting at every possible opportunity that I needed an aisle seat because I was pregnant and needed to pee all the time, they stuck me in between two huge men! Very unsympathetic. Also, the departure times from Dubai to Perth are pretty child-unfriendly, something like 2am!

I also noticed that on the Emirates flights I was sprayed several times with bug spray which I really didn't appreciate (exactly which bugs from England are a threat to UAE?!?!), but nothing via Singapore.

This time we left at around 9pm flight, and it takes them a good 3 hours to do dinner, drinks, duty free, and a bunch of faffing around. So next time we will try to get a 6pm flight, so by the time they finally switch the lights off, that'll coincide with bedtime-ish!

We used rescue remedy in her water bottle, and also used a herbal infusion called passiflora, both worked very well to calm her down so that she could succumb to sleep more easily. Both of these are diluted in water so have no foul taste :-) and great for adults as well! Our homeopath will also give us something for jet lag to help her adjust better this time.

I am already stockpiling loads of new toys and yes, loads of STICKERS!!! I agree they are great. Our daughter has loads of energy and is now getting to an age that you can kind of reason with her on a basic level, and loves chatting to other people, so that helps for flights, a bit...
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 7:53 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Thought we'd done it best with the three 7 hour legs but friends came over recently having done Singapore stop only. They arrived at 5am stayed up till 8pm and were pretty much on a normal sleep pattern immediately whereas the kids and I had struggled for 5/6 days to get over the time difference.

Kids will be OK for the flights whichever you take as they can only play up for so long before either they sleep or someone else clonks them over the head with their travel bag. Actually I've rarely heard of a kid who didn't behave on the trip.

Good luck - it's worth the journey (oh and as I've said before take some caremats for those little accidents - it's horrid sitting on wet seats for 7 hours).
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 8:07 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Emirates get the thumbs up from us too,our youngest kids were 6&3yrs& to be honest i wouldnt worry too much about day or night flights,their body clock will be all over the place anyway
I worried about our youngest as shes a right wee minx (at the best of times )but she was as good as gold,coped brilliantly(gave her daddy a showing up )

Try not to worry.

Donna.
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 8:43 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Originally Posted by nurselindsey
Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
When Jonah wa 3mths old we took him to Aus via Singapore with Singapore Airlines. We had a stopover on the way & I would rec'd Singapore to anyone with kids. Its clean, food is good & it is very child friendly. Plus Singapore Air are the nicest & most considerate toyou when you have small kids! When we gret pur visa (hopefully) we are going this way again.

Claire
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Old Dec 16th 2005, 12:21 pm
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Originally Posted by nurselindsey
Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
We did our validaiton in October with a 14 month old. We flew with Emirates and I must admit I wouldn't fly via Dubai with one that age again. Mainly because you have a 7 hour flight (fairly long) followed by a 10 hour flight (long!) Ben coped really well but we are def always going to go via Singapore or Kuala Lumpar in the future so that you know you have one long flight but that the other is relatively short.

We flew at 2pm from Heathrow which worked out perfectly. We arrived in Perth at 5.25pm the next day and so ben was just about ready for a really long sleep (he didn't sleep much on the flights) We returned at 10pm which was a bit too late as Ben had got past the tired stage when on the plane so wouldn't fall asleep! - we arrived back in UK at 12.30pm so he had a bit of a sleep on teh way back to Bristol and then went to bed only slightly earlier than usual for the UK.

I think we were quite lucky but personally I would go for an afternoon flight - timings depend on the length of stopover as well (we had 2 hours eachway)

Hope this helps make your mind up if you want any other ideas on flight give me an email / PM

Lucy
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Old Dec 17th 2005, 12:41 am
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Default Re: Small children and long haul

Originally Posted by nurselindsey
Hi there we are in the process of booking flights for our reccie to Perth - March 2006! Questions those who have done this with small children, which is better, a day or night flight from the UK? (flying from Manchester) We have already decided that we are gonna bite the bullet and fly direct (well as direct as you can) but where do we stopover the two best prices I have found are with Emirates and Singapore so which is the best route for flying times - Dubai or Singapore? Sorry questions, questions - by the way the little ones are 4 and 16months. We are gonna buy the 16month old a seat!

Lindsey
Flew direct, night flight, Edinburgh to Sydney. Kids 2 1/2 and 4 1/2. Slept most of the way. Took toys and treats. Were stars, and that was other passengers saying that.

Cheers and enjoy.

Ginny
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