Katsi

Hi,

I just wondered if anyone had advice on flying with young children. We are planning on moving over to Vancouver Island next March, at which point our children will be 3 years and 10 months old. We are currently trying to work out whether there is a better time and airline to go with, and how best to manage the flight and time differences with as little stress as possible! If anyone has any tips they would be much appreciated.

Thanks

kazbob

Hi Katsi,

We have just returned (Friday) from flying out to NS. Our children are 9 and 4. Two years ago we visited Edmonton which was a 9 hour flight. We have flown with Zoom and Canadian Affair and can thoroughly recommend both of them, they were really good with the children.

What I would recommend is taking lots of little things to occupy them. A couple of weeks before both trips I went and bought lots of little toys (puzzles, colouring in, books etc) and hid them, then whilst on the plane brought them out one at a time - never letting them see what else was in the bag.

Also, little snacks are good, like raisins and crackers.

As for the time differences we always adjust our watches to the destination time as soon as we get on the aircraft and on arrival stay awake until 10 or 11pm and try and get up at a normal time the next morning, try and do this with the children as well, although your 10 month old is probably still having naps throughout the day anyway. My children seem to adjust really quickly to the time differences.

Good Luck.

Karen

Souvenir

The scheduled carriers are BA and Air Canada. There are a few low-cost carriers (like Zoom) but they may not go to Vancouver at that time of year.

BA has traditionally had a very good reputation with regard to little kids. The crew were great when I took an 18 month old to Indonesia. I don't know if things have changed. I haven't flown BA for several years. Air Canada have much improved their long-haul service. I use AC to the UK quite regularly. The crew also seem pretty good with kids. Make damn sure you get seated where cots can be fitted to the bulkhead. And get your doctor to give you a little something for the kids.

username 34

as far as I know Air Canada doesnt do Skycots ..... and that would be a problem for me if I was travelling. When mine were under 12 months we always used the skycots with Virgin or BA and they were brilliant, otherwise you have a 10 month old on your laps the entire trip - not good.

Book a night flight if there is one,

Maple Leaf

hello!...i haven't flown with children before...but just wanted to say hi and a welcome to the island for when you do get here!...i love the island...i moved to Canada last Xmas..to Kelowna..which is another lovely area...however the Island feels more like home for me...:thumbsup :

I wish you all the best with your children and your moving..

Souvenir

I would not argue with the possibility that likes of Zoom can be just as good as the scheduled carriers in terms of service. If I were making a long journey with very young kids, I'd be more concerned with the possibility of lengthy delays. Zoom, for example, has a very small fleet, perhaps only 5 aircraft, that spend most of the time in the air. If one develops a fault, or gets held up somewhere, for whatever reason, long delays are pretty inevitable. BA and AC have much larger fleets and can call in replacements at short notice. As an example of that, the AC aircraft meant to bring me back from the UK earlier this year had a fault and could not take off on time. It was probably something trivial, like a broken toilet, but something that might take a few hours to fix. So it was swapped with an identical one, not due to take off until later. The delay was about 90 minutes, which is bearable (beerable). Small airlines can't do that.

Souvenir

Unlikely. Most scheduled flights from the UK to Canada are timed to leave mid-afternoon and arrive late afternoon or early evening.

steve666

NEVER EVER EVER! Fly with Zoom when you're taking kids.

Top Cat

Oh No!! just booked for November to fly out with young child. Why do you not recommend them?

Top cat

steve666

Because I fly with ZOOM and having kids days are over, I just wan't peace and quiet when I'm in the plane

Top Cat

Oh sorry,

dont fly on the 16th November or the 26th of january..... he he... you have been warned!!

Top cat

Lorna_D

Give them a break!

I'm not a lover of BA we flew to Miami with them about 16 years ago with a 9 year old and a 14 year old, they still allowed smoking on the planes then and although I explained that both the kids suffered with Asthma,they gave us seats in row 15 and guess what you could smoke in rows 1 to 14. The stewardess was also very impatient with children of all ages and at one time asked me if my son was always that unruly. He had asked her for a glass of water twice with a gap of 20 minutes inbetween. Ok that was a few years ago so things must have changed now - that's just my gripe.

I have flown to Orlando with an Autistic Grandson of 6 with cheapo airlines and they were great and he was very good. I also took my grandaughter to orlando last year (she was 6) and she was great. I made sure my daughter dissapeared some of her favourite things a week or so before and she was so happy to see them.

You know your children and what they like and don't worry about other people on the plane do - make your flight enjoyable and let others worry about theirs. safe journey

destinationnovascotia

Now you tell me! I have just come back from Ontario flying with Zoom. We thought we had really good (afternoon) flight times going over - for the first time in ages. We had a 15 hour delay. OK they fed us and gave us a hotel room at Manchester, but we had to have a 1.30am call to get up and queue to check in.

To add insult to injury we queued to check in along a corridor which opened out into the concourse. After 30 minutes we got through the doors the queue divided into 2 each the same length - as luck would have it we took the left hand queue. When we got near to the desk (another 20 minutes on) we noticed that people were getting turned away and going to the other queue. we asked why and were told that this queue was for premium passengers only, no signs for this, just telling folk as they got to the front.

By the time we had queued again in the other queue the seats we were allocated meant that my husband and 6 year old were on one row and my 12 year old and myself were on the opposite side of the plane about 12 rows back and each of us were seated alone on seperate rows.

Coming back we had a 4 hour delay. we were not told, just no-one boarded. When we asked we were told 1, then 2 hour delay. Later this was 3 then 4 hour delay. No announcements, no info on display screens, nothing unless you actually went to the desk to ask.

We had been allocated seats together this time, but when we got on the plane someone was in 2 of our seats. A family of 5 had been given seats together by the cabin crew, 2 of which were ours. We were told that we would have to sit seperately. As you can imagine we were not impressed so we stood our ground. The family of 5 would not move so eventually other people were moved to accomodate us.

The moral of this tale is therefore, ignore flight times - you could be flying anytime. And don't worry about allocated seats, just complain enoigh to the cabin crew and you can sit wherever you like!

steve666

That's ok, the next tiime I'm flying will be mid September, then in March next year.
Actually there were several small children on the plane the last time we flew. They were ok, except one of them when the plane descended, screamed his lungs out, probably ears hurting poor little mite, I blame the parents.

steve666

Let's face it, our own kids are little angels and other peoples children are the scourge of satan, on planes, beaches, restaurants, shops, museums blah blah blah.