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Original poster

Long haul flights infant twins? re booking extra seat

12 replies

Chozzer · 11/01/2006 08:47

Hi Everyone,
1st post on MN! DH family live in HK, do any of you have any experiences of flying with infants, we have been to prague but had lots of friends with us for help. ? is if we book 1 child seat what do think are the odds of us sitting together? ie one spare seat between 2 adults with infants on lap?
Thanks

OP posts:

fennel · 11/01/2006 09:21

how old will the twins be? we flew to HK and australia with one 10 month old without booking a spare seat, but the airline made sure we had a travel seat thing and/or a spare seat on each of the 4 legs of the journey. so personally i would risk it and not book a spare seat but it does depend on the age of the children.

katzg · 11/01/2006 09:22

can you book a sky cot thingy?

SoupDragon · 11/01/2006 09:24

You can run into trouble with the number of oxygen masks per row - if you don't have an extra seat then you will be 2 people over the number of oxygen masks and I don't think every row allows for that. If this is the case, you could be split up. You'd need to check with your airline.

Original poster

Chozzer · 11/01/2006 09:29

the boys will be 21 months

OP posts:

hana · 11/01/2006 09:34

they will be too big for sky cots
I'm sure you'll be sitting together, airlines try their best at this, even if directly behind or split by an aisle
I'd book the extra seat, might allow one of your twins to sleep or yourself with one on your lap!
good luck

Hausfrau · 11/01/2006 09:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Prettybird · 11/01/2006 09:41

At 21 months, I would definitely book an extra seat if you can afford it. That way, you have extra space for the twins to spread out into. They porbably won't be allowed to use the seat on take-off and landing - they will have to be on laps for that as they are still under two. But at least in between you will have that space.

With regard to getting the three seats to gether, I don't think it should be a probelm, altohugh it can't be guaranteed. We have flown to South Africa loads of times and have never once not had three seats together.

A lot of airlines now allow you to pre-book your seats (eg British Airways and Air France) - so maybe you could check if the airline you are going to be flying with allows that.

Just make sure to chekc in early - or if the airline allows you to check in in advance (like BA), do so, so that your seat is guarenteed.

Original poster

Chozzer · 11/01/2006 09:45

thanks for tips and advice, we are hoping that DH mother will stay will his brother and let us stay in her flat, sounds cruel turfing her out but it is a studio so bit small for all of us, that way the money we save from hotel bill can be spent on extra seat!

OP posts:

elastamum · 11/01/2006 10:16

Just make sure that you actually get the seat. We had a problem with this where the airline (BA) said they were overbooked and needed an extra seat and as we had one for a baby for the 10 hour flight, we should give it up as the baby didnt have to have a seat - even though we had paid! After much arguing we eventually got the seat but without the meal we had asked for. He was offered steak or chicken tikka masala by a very embarassed steward. We now travel mostly with Virgin!

mythumbelinas · 11/01/2006 10:27

In my experience, i've booked the sky seat before so you will be given the bulkhead seats. You get a little more space and will be vital with two 21m boys who will probs want to run around a bit!

Laura032004 · 11/01/2006 11:59

If you do book the extra seat, will you take a car seat as well? DS can settle a lot better in a car seat than a normal plane seat. Knowing they're strapped in means you can sleep too, knowing they're not going anywhere.

harrogatemum · 12/01/2006 13:14

I took my then 5 month old twins to Australia last year - most of the time it was fine but the one thing I would advise is to ring up prior to your flights and double check that they have both children down.

The reason is that having spoken to airline personnel friends - when a couple with a single baby book a flight, they tend to put the baby's name next to both adults. Therefore when twins are booked on the automatic response of the check in people is that there is actually only one baby who has been put on twice as per their normal practice. We had no sky cots on our first leg to Aus because of this - they had 12 babies on board and only 8 skycots...you can imagine how annoyed we were.

ANyway our boys are now 14 months and we may be doing another long haul when they are about 17 months, if we can afford it I would be very tempted to book a spare seat personally.

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