UK to Australia with 18mo and 3.5yo

[Naetha]

Any tips on how to deal with seating? Should we get 18mo DD a seat of her own? Will she be too big for one of those cots?

The thought of a 24 hour flight is a little bit daunting to say the least - what have been other peoples' experiences of this? What should I look out for?

We'll also be buying a new pushchair to take with us (we're emigrating), so any advice on the best pushchair that's relatively easy to take on as hand luggage?

No, your DD will probably not get a cot.
It depends on the airline as they all have their own rules, but most of them say up to 10kg and about 70cm, which I imagine is smaller than her.
Also, many of them say that children who can sit/stand/crawl are no longer allowed to use them.
If you can afford an extra seat, it will make your journey more comfortable.
If not, you might be lucky and have an empty seat beside you.
People often chose to move if they are put beside a family with small children!!

It depends on the airline, but we booked a bassinet for our kids right up to when they were 2, whether or not they went in the bassinet was another story but at least we had the front bulkhead seats so space to put all their crap! We usually fly on Singapore Airlines and never had a problem with it.

Re the pushchair, you can't take it as hand luggage, what usually happens is that you take it all the way to the gate and then they take it, and with Singapore Airlines you get it back at the gate when you get off (this is not the same for all airlines as I found out with Qantas once and had to walk miles with child and bags to the baggage claim!)

If you do a search there are loads of threads on travelling longhaul with kids and loads of great advice...goodluck!

We'll be flying Singapore Airlines so that is good! Are the bassinet seats by the windows, or are they in the middle? DS REALLY wants to sit by the window!

DO you know what sort of planes Singapore airlines fly from Manchester to Brisbane?

Whether you can take your stroller to the gate and collect it at the gate at the other end depends partly on the airline and also partly on the airport. Some airports (Paris Charles de Galle, for one) are not so stroller friendly, especially if you are transferring.

Depending on the plane, there are usually three bassinets on one wall. One in the middle and one at each side.

To get answers to all these questions, you can simply call the airline. They will know what kind of plane it is and will therefore be able to tell you all of these points more reliably than we can.

Thanks for the reply - it was more thinking aloud than expecting people to know which plane flies which route!

Unfortunately we can't book the flights until the visa is all done and dusted (which makes sense really!) but it means that we may not have as much choice for things like bassinets and window seats.

What about entertainment? What will I do without cBeebies?!?!?!

If you are emigrating most airlines while give you additional luggage allowancebest to ask. Although lots of people prefer the bulkheads with the bassinets remember tha the armrests do not go up in these rows. We found that our dc could not strech out in their seats when sleeping, legs over me and dh. I would'nt get these seats again. Have only flown Emirates with dc and thay have screens and consoles for each seat.

DO you know what sort of planes Singapore airlines fly from Manchester to Brisbane?*

A380 or boeing (sp) 737 dh thinks

We had no probs at all with our 3 year old last year - largely due to the in flight entertainment. There were tons of programmes to keep him occupied. (He isn't normally allowed to watch so much TV but needs must). I think we took some additional things with us such as a couple of books, activity packs etc but it was absolutely fine.

When he was 12 months old, we went to Canada. Although this was a shorter flight, we couldn't keep him entertained the same because of his age. And it was a struggle because he didn't have his own seat. But it wasn't that bad really - just a bit more inconvenient.

would your 18month old sleep on you? we were lucky we have had spare seats when we have flown. Last year we flew singapore A380 from Lon-BNE. Singapore were fab, crew all very helpful adn we had 7 seats between us ma hubby, 3.5 yr old, 2 yr ol and baby of 10months ish. Had bassinet seat which was good to have stuff infront but agreee it would be useful to fold away arm rests to let kids lie, but to be honest kids curled up in 1 seat pretty well. The only thing which upset me was people who walked in front of us, between me and bassinet to get to toilet occasionally, esp if baby had just fallen asleep...if they bumped I would not have been please, but I found it quite rude how a number of ppl presumed to just walk along past us...There are play areas in singapore airport, we actually booked a room with cot at airport which was great to have breakfast, shower and let we one sleep ( and me :))
Wher you moving to ? Good luck x
Ps saviour on flights would be colouring stuff, snacks and occasional wandering, have wee things wrapped up, and if wee one still takes milk, just take bottle on board and fill and use when required, officially they won't porovide you with milk but we have never had a problem and flown over a couple of times( my hubby is australian and his parents inbrisbane)