Long haul to New Zealand

[Ellieisdancing]

Hi all, I just wanted some advice/feedback on a predicament myself and my partner are in. My father in law and his wife are due to emigrate to New Zealand in the next few weeks, our baby isn't due till next year but they are already making arrangements for us to visit them. I understand everyone is excited and wants to meets baby and we will have to travel at some point. But I'm not overly eager at taking a new born on either a full 27 hour flight or two 12 hours flights. Can anyone share any advice or suggestions?

My first thought is, if they want to meet the baby, can they not fly over here instead of you flying over there.

I did it alone with my 6 month old. 5hr flight followed directly by 17hr flight.

It was ok tbh

I would wait until baby is a bit older.. but before 2 so you don't have to pay full fare

I had both dc in London and I'm from Aus. I took both home once they were 2, that was the age I felt comfortable doing it.

Having seen lots of babies fly the long haul distance to Aus and most tbh seem distressed by it, I would say do it only when you're comfortable doing it. The IL can fly back if they want.

We flew London to Sydney this year and wasn't as bad as I expected though wouldn't have wanted to do that with a baby. I would get them to fly over here if possible. If not had a friend that did it and she said to get somwhere for baby to sleep - think there's seats with bassinets. On BA these were at the front of each section.

How old will the baby be? I took DD on my own London to NZ when she was 5 months and it was fine, though I'm from there and am comfortable with the journey.

I wrote a post on here of my lessons learned if you'd like me to link it in case there are any things you find useful?

Here is the post I wrote. Rereading it brought back some memories! It was actually a great trip and the baby DD really enjoyed it as well, so it's totally doable.
But as with anything, just if you're comfortable with it and don't let them push you into visiting if you don't feel comfortable.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/longhaul/2893504-My-experiences-from-a-long-haul-trip

Hi, thank you for your reply and great response. Baby isn't born yet, she's done in April. Grandad is due to come and see us in May but he wants us to go perhaps later in the year or at Christmas so she'd be about 7/8 months. At the moment it does feel like he's forcing the issue and making it feel that we would be stopping him from seeing his grandchild. Myself personally hate long haul flights. We've found a route that takes us 13 hours from UK to Hong Kong and the Hong Kong to New Zealand. Thank you fir your advice :-) once baby I b orn and we are settled it's certainly something we'll sit down and talk about

I went through Hong Kong on the way out, and it was fine. Singapore is similar timings and the airline was slightly nicer, though all were good.

You're welcome to PM me later on if you want to ask more or anything.

Most of all though do what you feel is right. It went well for me cos I love flooring, love airports, and really wanted to go see my mum. DD picked up on that, I think and was excited too.

It's hard living far away when there are grandkids, but it's them moving, and it's your life anyway.

Best of luck and I hope it all goes well.

I love flying, obviously...not flooring...

I flew London to NZ with DD1 when she was 2 months old. I flew straight through, as I was on my own, so easier to just keep going, get there when I'd have help with bags and someone else to mind DD whilst I slept.

We just flew to New Zealand via Doha with an almost 2 year old and it wasn't too bad. Although I did tell dh that if he doesn't pay for business class seats, I'm not going