Travelling to Oz

[Blos]

Has anyone any experience of United Airlines and babies? I'm flying with them via SFO with my 4 mth baby in 2 wks time. I'm dreading this first flight - a trip to the local supermarket is bad enough!

Any tips or packing essentials very gratefully received. I'm BFing exclusively so hopefully this will help.

[NewYearsRacerLution]

bump for you. good luck

[MeerkatsUnite]

At least you're not going to use the transit lounge at LAX thank goodness as that place is hell on earth!. Think SFO's lounge is a bit more modern.

I take it as read you're flying from Heathrow T3, I seem to recall that United x-ray all suitcases before arrival at check in. This can hold up the queue somewhat. Give yourself plenty of time to both check in and go through security - better to have too much time than not enough.

I believe that you will each need one of the green visa waiver forms to complete even though you are transitting through the US. I take it as read also that your DD has her own passport.

United in my experience can either be very good on the day or absolutely dire. Seems to be no real middle ground with them.

Change her nappy before boarding the aircraft; there's not much room in the loos for nappy changing generally speaking.

Have you secured a bulkhead seat (this may be adviseable). Your 4 month old will not have her own seat (you will be given an extendable seat belt for take off and landing). Ask for help from the aircrew at every opportunity and take no notice of any other passengers who may scowl at you!. Hopefully most of them will be fine.

[eidsvold]

sorry but have never everhad a good experience with United Cabin crew were rude, unhelpful and at times aggressive ( and that was my first experience as I was escorting students on a trip from Aus to US) Sadly we were part of a huge group who used United for a lot of flights and group tours and that did not account for anything.


as to long haul flying - there are loads of threads - I had some fab advice from mnetters before our first flight to Australia.

will try to find some threads for you.

Second that LAX is horrendous and SFO is soo much better - from hazy memory.

Hopefully you will have a better time and can tell me that United are fab!!

[Kiwifruit]

Hi
I flew from London to NZ with an 8 week old at the end of November, and had a dream trip (think this might have been more good luck than good management though!). Had a bulkhead seat and a sky cot (a friend of mine was flying to the US on United with her baby and managed to secure a skycot - have you managed to do this?) - if you're travelling with your DH/DP and he is exceptionally tall, you might want to ask for both of you to have an aisle seat - you on the bulkhead and him on the adjacent aisle. We flew Air New Zealand, and dh is 6'5'' - the skycot wouldn't come down over his legs - you can imagine my dismay ! I held dd for most of the flight to LAX (and yes, LAX transit is hell on earth...), then they managed to find DH another seat, but not near me. From LAX to Auckland he sat directly behind me. DD is now a confimed tele addict, having spent 29 hours lying under a big screen watching the shapes move (which was a godsend, to be honest!).

I was told to bf on take off and landing, but only managed this once, and it wasn't ever a problem. Take a couple of changes of clothes for youself, and more for your baby. DD sleeps in sleeping bags, so I took one of those with me and put her in it when it was her bedtime. Drink loads of water, as the plane is really dehydrating anyway, and you don't want your milk to dry up! I took a couple of bottles of sterilised water for dd, but she didn't need them (just as well as she refuses the bottle more often than not!). Also, take a blanket that smells familiar to put in the skycot.

That's all I can think of at the moment - will post again if I think of anything else...