Flying on Ryanair fom stansted

[mpac298]

Hello all,

In a couple of weeks my ds (3 months old) and I will be flying solo on ryanair from stansted to Italy and I'm seriously losing sleep over this.

• do you know whether there are changing tables in those tiny bathroom of theirs? This is my first child so i never cared to check.

• he has a british passport and I have mine, our surnames are different and daddy is not flying with us. How can they know I'm not smuggling a kidnapped child out of the country?

• any suggestions on how to survive the experience? Both of us? I understand that I better feed him during take off and landing, but anything else that could help?

Thanks a lot and sorry for the spelling - am currently being used as a pillow by ds and can't use both hands to type!

From memory planes I have been on haven't had a changing table in the loo? I changed DS on my lap.(I sat on the closed toilet).

Some may have. You will only be on the plane 2 hours or so - chances are you won't need to change.

There was a thread running recently about taking documentation for customs in cases of parents traveling solo with DC.

Feeding helps their ears balance the pressure. Or a dummy (if you use one). Take a change of clothes for both of you, in case of vomiting.

Try not to worry - if you get totally stuck there will be someone around to help you - if not staff, then other passengers will help - if you speak up :)

Take yourself a snack on board. I usually buy a Boots sandwich meal deal just before boarding - then you can eat when you like, and not when the food cart comes around (which will likely be when you have a sleeping baby on you :) )

I have been advised to bring along a copy of my DS birth certificate and my marriage license when travelling with DS, who has a different surname.

A few of my friends have had problems at airports (Heathrow) when trying to leave with their children.

Good luck and try not to stress too much. I am sure both of you will be fine.

Buy priority boarding. The gates in Stansted are a nightmare (and miles apart from each other) so watch the departure board like a hawk and make a run for it as soon as your flight gate is announced, then push through the scrum queue saying "Excuse me, I have priority boarding". I sort of hung around politely at the end of the queue and when I got to the front the man looked at me incredulously and said "You could have come straight through, why were you waiting?" You may have to literally push through people but hopefully when they see the baby they will be helpful.

When it starts flashing saying "Last boarding call" don't panic as long as you're vaguely near the gate, because that usually starts coming up about 5 minutes after they announce the gate number, and it takes everyone half an hour still to get through the queue.

Get a sling for the airport if you don't have one already and put your DS in it while you do this mad dash. Make sure your hand luggage has wheels!

I agree take your own food for the flight or eat before you get onto the plane. Changing will be a PITA so try to avoid doing it until you get off.

Take your DS' birth certificate just in case, but I didn't have a problem.

Good luck! :)

I have been flying Stansted-Italy since dd was 8 weeks.

Priority boarding is your friend. Worth every ££££££.

Get to the gate early, and just stand there. You will need to pointedly wave your priority bit around as Italians will not have priority boarding but will try and push you out of the way anyway. (dp- Italian- despairs of his countrymen at airports)

It is a long way from the departure lounge to the Ryanair gates- with a pushchair it is about 10-15 minutes. Lots of stairs as well (there are lifts) I reckon there are about 4 different floor changes between the departure lounge and the Ryanair gates. Don't sit in the central shopping hub until your flight is last-called. As soon as the gate flashes up, head off. There is a WHS and cafes and loos by the gates.

Change the baby just before you board if poss and you might last the 3 hrs. You might not, but you never know. When you get on, sit in an aisle seat. (travel psychology someone might clamber over you to get to the window, but if you are by the window, they will def bagsy the aisle seat. Ryanair do tend to fly full, so you are unlikely to have the whole row but you might strike lucky and get the middle seat spare where you will be able perhaps to spread out a bit, as the baby otherwise will be in your arms for the duration.

Take a letter of consent, google the zillion threads I'm on about this recently (travel along and used to work for immigration) you can download a consent letter from various legal websites.

Oh, and more psychobabble...... Italians are buggers for queue jumping but would not bat an eyelid at a screaming baby.

Ergo: put yourself with the Brits when queuing, but sit near Italians on the plane. Mr British will help you fold down the pushchair because he's been brought up to help lay-deez. Mr Italian hasn't but will happily jiggle the baby around while you do.

Italian pensioners are the best. They are all deaf from a lifetime of screeching across balconies and love all children equally.

Thanks a lot everyone, this is great info, I will be thinking about you while I run around the airport! :)

Reeally, don't get your knickers in a knot. It's easy flying with tiny babies - it's when they become mobile you have a problem

Honestly, you will be fine.

We never ever bothered with priority boarding, mainly because I think it's a total wheeze to extract more money. We've never had a problem getting seats on any budget carrier.

They do have changing tables in the toilets, but it's all a bit of a squeeze!

Yes to changing platform thing in the loos but possibly not all of them, the stewardesses will tell you.

Take a sling in case your baby falls asleep as you get on / off the plane and you might not get your buggy back until you get into the terminal at the other end, check with the staff so you know whether to wait at the steps for your buggy or to carry on to baggage reclaim.

As you will be sitting in one seat, I would think about whether you wouldn't just prefer to get on last and take the last remaining seat, less time to be sitting on the plane with a fidgety baby.

Take as litte as possible onto the plane with you, small enough to easily fit under the seat in front of you.

And don't stress if your baby is unhappy, it has happened to a huge number of parents and they all remember and understand!!

Priority boarding is worth it just to avoid standing in a queue for 45 minutes holding a baby who insists on being jiggled constantly! Nothing to do with needing seats since OP will be alone and hence only need one seat :)

I love the mental images from TheBirds' post

Careful with the size of the hand luggage, they will charge you for the wheels sticking out, £50!!! I will never ever again in my life fly ryanair, even if it the last flight out of a burning island, I'll swim.
Have some zip up/seal see through plastic bags for any fluids you take through the customs. Or don't bother and buy all from duty free area.
I agree, Italian grandparents are brilliant at helping. I think they have changing tables, but if all else fails, put the lid down on the loo, cover with hand tissue, put changing mat over and change away.
You'll be fine, enjoy the heat.

They have a changing table in one of he loos, but not the other... The time i needed it, it was locked. I queued, got in the way of the plane staff, queued some more and eventually asked. It was just locked . They let me in.

and you need one of these

Re the 45 minute queueing thing.... just... don't queue. There's no need. Just sit down until the queue has gone right down, then get on. If you watch carefully, it's only ever the large groups/ nervous fliers who queue to get on. Your businesspeople and other frequent passengers are all sat there reading their papers and drinking coffee

There weren't any seats near the gate the last time I flew Ryanair. In fact I'm uploading to my profile exactly what the scrum queue looked like. Each one of those four flights was to a different country and I couldn't work out where each one ended

Oh my god, Botts, is that the downstairs holding pen at Stansted? I've been in that bit a couple of times.

OP- remember as well, that when they say 15 kilos they do not mean one microgram over. (I also love the Italians having to unload their tins of tomatoes and kilos of pasta at the check in desk)

That said, and it shouldn't be so, but is male check in assistants are far more lenient than female ones and at least at Stansted, are so fecked off with the Italian tins of tomato non queuers, that they tend to wave anyone else through with hardly a glance.

I am coming home on Sunday in luxury- Easyjet. Only because Ryanair have changed their flight time to stupid o'clock.

Bring the long birth certificate ( a copy) incase they ask for it. Ask for help if you need it ..fellow passengers are probably more helpful than ryan air crew if you need a wee yourself ....

Oh and when you are in Italy go and get an ID card if you are entitled for your ds - you automatically get an international birth certificate issued by them and it is worth it if you are travelling alone with him a bit. Thing is you need dh there as well to get it or a form signed by him..maybe consider in the future ( obv if it is relevant to you)

Oh my, thank you all for the fantastic advice and the giggles! You are a great bunch, and if I even only for a little enjoy my first flight with ds it will be because of you! Thanks!

I've thought of another one!

If you walk over the tarmac to get on, get on the back. For some reason the Ryanair Great Unwashed all seem to lollop over to the front steps leaving the arse end totally free.

Perfect the art of changing nappies on your knee, then if there isn't a table you'll be fine.

We're flying with Ryanair on Sat so these tips have been great! Could I ask a question of my own - if I take a sling (an Ergo), they won't count it as my hand luggage will they? Or expect me to squeeze it inside my hand luggage??

No, just wear it round your waist, hanging down a la new kids on the block and they won't even notice it. But don't do what i did and nearly leave it behind on the plane because it was shoved so far under the seat in front.

Thanks Janek, that's my usual look!

So I know this has sort of been answered... but just to clarify... should I go for pre-booking seats or priority boarding? I'll be travelling with DH and 2 DC so it wouldn't be the end if the world if we were spilt up (and may even make a nice change from DH reading his book while I juggle both DCs!)

We have two dds and never book, just take a child each and hope for the best. That way we want two lots of two seats, rather than one lot of four, which is much easier to find (we also did this when dd2 was still an infant, so i only needed one seat, we never tried for three together).

On a recent trip dd1 and i sat one in front of the other on the aisle seats (she was 6 and had an i-pad to watch...). We couldn't have had a conversation and it was a little awkward to pass stuff back to her, but we got off the plane blimmin quickly when we got there. We were about twenty mins faster than dp and dd2.