Got a longhaul flight next Thursday and now panicking........

[HRHQueenOfQuotes]

about the 'only essentials' for hand luggage.

We've got an 11hr flight to South Africa, a 5hr stopover there and then another 2hr flight to our final destination in Zimbabwe. From time of check-in at Heathrow to arriving in Zimbabwe and actually getting hold of our bags again is going to be nearly 24hrs.

How on earth are we going to cope?? What if the boys are sick/have accidents - we won't have any changes of clothes for them - and as for 'entertainment' - what do we do with them????

I can just about live with the fact I won't be able to change my knickers for over 24hrs - but don't know how we'll cope with the boys and no 'emergency' changes/entertainment in our luggage [panic]

on board shouldn't be too bad - it's an overnight flight - and there'll be in flight entertainment - I've been led to believe that Virgin (who we're flying with) is pretty decent in term of providing for famlies with young children.

It's more the fact that we'll have no emergency clothing for them until we get there (and what if the bags are delayed????) and the long wait after checking in, the 5hrs wait at another airport I'm worried about..

you can buy clothes in the airport at Jo'burg but obviously, you'd have to pay for it.

I know it's warm here but it will prob be quite cold in Jo'burg (and it will be evening here when you leave, so not that hot) so you could get the boys to where quite a few layers (say a short sleeved T shirt and a long sleeved one) then once you are through the airport and on the plane, take off one of the layers and keep it aside for emergencies.

to wear not where ggrrr

jsut thought, why not put two sets of clothes on them until you board the plane, then take one off - spare clothes!

kelly, you are too slow girl

lol, oh well. I was thinking abt it while hoovering and popped back!
I mght do that with the dts tho.

fantastic idea about the double layers - shall do that .

CF - I doubt very much this will be over by next thursday - it's only a week away! We'll be leaving our house at 2pm on Thursday afternoon, and presuming it doesn't take too long to get through immigration in Zimbabwe should arrive at our hotel around 3.30pm on Friday ARGHHHHHHHHH. The DS's (2 and 5) have never flown before either eeek

poor you QoQ - it's not a great flight for kids but hopefully, yours will be so excited, they'll fall asleep at some point!

Last time we went on Virgin to Jo'burg, they had quite a few (children friendly) computer games on the seat back entertainment thing aswell.

oh fantastic FIS - it's good to speak to someone who's done the same flight (or the long haul part of it) with the same airline we're flying with....

Now I just need to worry about whether I can take a page of puzzles to do enroute (saw a women on one of the TV articles putting a ripped out Sudoku puzzle page in her plastic bag............)

meetin g being held later today to decide how long the ban on hand luggage in going to last.

Please let it end before tues
Please let it end before tues
Please let it end before tues
Please let it end before tues

When we went on a 10 hour flight at easter DS was sick all over himself within minutes of take-off and I didnt have spare clothes for him so stripped him to his pants with his fleece over the top washed his trousers and t-shirt in the toilet sink with normal soap rung them as well as I could and hung them over the back of the seats in front of us to dry moving them periodically. By the time we started to descend they were perfectly dry due to the ferocious airline air-con. So if the worst does happen you can try that. Hope it all goes ok. Am already having kittens in case the hand luggage thing is still going on for our next hols so can sympathise. Incidentally we are also going with Virgin next time and have been told by many people that their kid in flight service is second to none HTH.

Just seen on the lunchtime news that you can still buy whatever you like in the shops after customs to take on board it is just items being brought in in hand baggage that is restricted so you can at least buy comics, puzzle books, colouring books and pens etc from WH Smiths and the like - phew!

ARGH. What are you guys doing for food? My dd's 7 month - will they provide food on board?

HRHQueenofQuotes: you could "layer" clothes yourself (two pairs of knickers even?! ) and then take then off when you get on the plane (or even after yuo've gone through secuirty) - that way, you'll also have fresh stuff to put on when you get to Jo'burg/Zim.

Also, make sure to spread everyone's clothes acorss your cases (I presume you'll be checking in more than one). We forgot to do that the last time we went out to SA, and when one of the bags didn't arrive, we realsied that we had all of dh's clothes in one and mine in the other, with fortunately ds' stuff spread acorss the two. It meant that we had to buy shorts for dh as soon as we could - although he did wear my shorts until we could get to a Woolworths - being late November, it was far too hot for him to wear the heavy trousers he had travelled in (we'd also had 10 hours in Paris, so had dressed accordingly)!

See Californianfrau's thread on ideas on hwo to entertain the kids - althigh I think going to SA/Zim, you'll have more scope to buy stuff once you have been thorugh security.

sunshinedays - I think you can take baby food/milk on board, but they will make you taste it yourself before you get on. I read this on the BBC website yesterday but I'd check with your airline to make sure.