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Original poster

Travelling long haul with 4month old

12 replies

Ginger1195 · 05/10/2022 12:19

I am so confused. We will want to take our baby to visit my parents from the UK to Thailand when he is about 4 months old but many airlines don't offer bassinets and if they do they are on first come first serve, which is a risk. So another option is to book him a seat and take his car seat on board, but baby's of 4 months old shouldn't be sat in a car seat for more than 2 hours in a 24 hour period (so I have read) so how can they travel long haul in their car seat? Does anyone have any advice on the best course of action? Also, has anyone booked their flights via skyscanner and still managed to request a bassinet via the airline later on? Thanks in advance :)

OP posts:

Caspianberg · 05/10/2022 12:24

They don’t get own seat at that age. So most babies are just on parents laps being held or a comfy sling

If you want to book baby own sets and take car seat, then that’s your choice. But they don’t stay in in the whole journey, it’s just somewhere to put them down whilst you eat etc. So usually you would hold, feed, play with baby on your lap on plane, and just pop in car seat on and off as convenient

2 hr rule is to stop babies being left in car seats hour son end and getting lack of space to move and stretch. And breathing issues with newborns. But for one day they aren’t going to get spine issues if they use a bit longer, and you will be cm from them so would see any breathing issues ( mainly newborn)

Sago1 · 05/10/2022 12:37

Call Dial a Flight, my daughter and partner travel long haul a lot with their young children.
They are really good at getting the best flight times and give really good advice, they are also very competitive..

Original poster

Ginger1195 · 05/10/2022 14:04

@Caspianberg This is a long haul flight of 18 hours so the baby will need sleep during that time as well as being played with sat on my lap!

OP posts:

Caspianberg · 05/10/2022 15:13

@Ginger1195 - yes i understand. But baby can sleep on your laps as well as car seat. They won’t be in a car seat 18hrs straight. They usually have to be on your lap for take off, landing and turbulence as well

StillNotWarm · 05/10/2022 15:28

Dont book through Sky Scanner. Book direct through the airline.
Take a soft sling with you, and check in early to try and get a bassinet.

We always got a bassinet outbound - possibly because we did an internal flight first, so were one of the first to check in at the airport (you never used to be able to get a bassinet with online check in). We usually got one homeward.

I don't believe there are many UK carseats that meet airline regulations.

catlady1234 · 05/10/2022 15:39

We travelled around the world for 3 months with our 4 month old son. The bassinets were a life saver. Meant we could eat and he slept loads.

Check the airline's policy on bassinet. We found Asian airlines generally had them and were really good. Compared to American Airlines which didn't offer them. Some airlines you can book them in advance.

We flew Lot airline to Sri Lanka, Singapore air from there to Philippines and Cathy pacific on to Vancouver and they all offered them to us.

If you don't get one you will just had to hold the baby and they will have to sleep on you

Han888 · 05/12/2022 16:30

Hello :) we've just booked London to New Zealand with a 4 year old and 4 month old (dear god), and needed a basinet for the 4 moth old. The whole journey outward and return is with 3 different operators and we've had to contact each of them with our flight references etc to request a)the row of bulkhead seats where the basinet would go and b) confirm there will deffinately be a basinet on board for us. Some airlines have been easier to do this than others (and charged extra for these seats) but we got there in the end. We are also taking our baby sling to be hands free. I've heard basinets are a god send for long haul, was just a faff for us to contact each airline for the request in advance :)

TizerorFizz · 05/12/2022 17:07

It’s not 18 hours direct to Thailand from
uk. Book direct and pay for a seat with a bsssinet. BA do direct flights. Book the seats you need and be flexible with dates. Cheaper than separate seat. Car seat would have to
be hold luggage.

Mooseoff · 05/12/2022 20:06

BA only fly direct to Bangkok from Heathrow, and I don't live in London so that's not an option (not to mention the ridiculous cost they're currently charging for that route!)

BookwormButNoTime · 05/12/2022 20:16

Don’t book through Skyscanner. There’s a reason the prices are so cheap on most of the sites. I had an awful time trying to rebook cancelled flights.

TizerorFizz · 05/12/2022 23:13

@Mooseoff
Theres better value 11 months out from when you want to fly. I would expect to pay more for direct flights. Definitely would to book the bassinet and a seat! Flights have really gone up in price. Cheap ones won’t get you what you want and a horribly long journey but it’s your choice. You need to be flexible on dates.

Ivyblu · 06/12/2022 09:41

I think you can pay for an extra seat I've read people say so on here but apparently if the airline need to use it they can. I think at 4 months your baby will sleep at least half of it good luck OP I did it with DS but shorter flight at 19 months 10 hour flight! It was so much worse at that age.

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