Baggage Allowance for infant

[eidsvold]

We are off to Aus from UK in April with Singapore Airlines. Our dd is 6 mths old and I am wondering what sort of baggage allowance she gets. I realise she will not get a suitcase allowance but does she get some sort of cabin baggage allowance.

I am madly trying to sort out how much food and nappies and so on she will need for two days basically. As she is formula fed and still with bottles - I am planning to take those steri bottles so I can dispose of them after each feed.

Any other suggestions for travelling with little ones would be greatly appreciated!! This is our first trip away as a family - yeh we like to do it difficult - no little weekend jaunt for us!!

I could be wrong on this, but I thought that if your not paying for a seat for her, then she gets no allowence at all, except of course yours and DH's. Proberbly, someone here, who works in the travel industry, would be more accurate.
So in other words, ingnore me I know nothing, all I can go on is my own experience of traveling with our DS's, before they had a seat to themselves.

I don't think they get a baggage allowance either. You will probably need to carry all your bits for daughter in your hand luggage. One good thing though is that they will let you take the pushchair right up to the plane. I found a hippy chick, hip seat very useful.

again ignore me if i am wrong, but the last i knew you was not allowed to take any hand-luggage on the plane since what happened on sept 11th. best to contact the airline and check.

Again, I don't think they get a baggage or hand-luggage allowance. I have travelled a few times since September 11th, although onto to Europe, and have had no problems in taking hand-luggage on the plane, although obviously this may be different for long-haul flights.

I think you might be allowed the pushchair/car seat as additional weight allowance in the hold but do check beforehand with the airline. However ime I would agree with previous posts that her stuff would need to be included in your hand luggage allowance (often about 5kg each). They may be more flexible if the flight is not full.

hth

LizS

How much you are allowed to take also depends on how strict the airlines and your departure airport are. Some airlines allow 10k hand luggage while other only allow 5k. Our home airport is really strict abour allowances - my DH had to pay 330gbp excess baggage for his briefcase last year, so beware!! Some airlines also only permit one bag in the cabin, although I've always been able to get away with a day bag plus a largish handbag.

Eidsvold, we went to NZ with Singapore Air and took two rather heavy bags on as cabin baggage - nobody said anything, and we were well over the limit on our luggage as well. Singapore Air will supply formula and baby food, BTW (Heinz I think), and also provided a bib, wipes and a couple of nappies x2 - once on each leg.

Message withdrawn

We fly with Malaysian when going back to Oz, partly because they let you wheel the buggy all the way to the seat (very handy when take off is at 11pm) and then stack it in a closet at the back of the plane. They bring it back to us before we get off so we wheel DD off in it as well. Of course it has to be a really lightweight umbrella type buggy. Another good airline is BA because they have a car seat type thing that attaches to the bulkhead for kids too old to go in a skycot but too big to have on your lap. All of this too late for you, I know, but might help someone else making plans for a trip? We are also flying back at Easter. Hope its a better flight than our last one in which DD threw up over ten times. We had run out of changes of clothes for her and us by then (and I carry four changes for her and two for us). I still remember watching sick dripping from the tv screen onto my legs. Oh how lovely!!

I only started to do long-haul flights once DS turned 2 so I don't have experience with younger babies but I have found that all the airlines that I have travelled with (Malaysia, Singapore and Air New Zealand) have been really quite good with cabin baggage. The first time we came to NZ we had a 36 stopover in Kuala Lumpur and so I had to have 'overnight' things as well as stuff for the plane ... all our cabin baggage was too heavy but the lady at check in said to transfer some of it into duty free bags ... she said the reason for the limit was safety (if a heavy bag dropped out of the locker onto someone's head ...)
I have found that all three airlines are sympathetic to the fact that you need to keep little ones entertained, fed, watered, dry etc.
On the food front ... I found the cartons of formula on long journeys really useful ... better than sachets as you don't have to find water ... just cut off the top and pour into the bottle ... I took them when DS was two just because they don't go off like milk does!!!
Also you will find that you lose ballast as you go along!
The last time I travelled on my own with DS I was sitting next to another lone travelling mum whose bub was 6 months ... She has SO much stuff that even I (travelling light has never been in my vocabulary) was shocked ... AND she didn't have any food or bottles as she was B/Fing and the baby wasn't weaned yet!!!!!! I don't know how they let her on the plane but they did ... She was more surprised than me!
Will shut up now!
Hope you have a good trip!

The last time we flew to Oz, all we were allowed to take was a stroller, and a hand luggage item for the infant (we paid 10% for his ticket)....

We flew Singapore to / from NZ about 18 months ago when ds was 4 months and 6 months old. You don't get any baggage allowance for the baby but we did have quite a lot of hand baggage plus the buggy. I have to say that the airline was excellent. Staff were helpful, sympathetic and made a fuss of ds. We took the buggy to the gate and were able to pick it up at the gate, including for the stop over in Singapore so that ds could sleep and we could pile stuff on it. We were given a goody bag with toys and bibs (still the best bibs we have!) They provided nappies and wipes but quality not great so best to take your own. Also the selection of jars wasn't brilliant so I was glad that I'd taken my own tubs of puree etc. Best advice I had was to keep confirming with the airline that you want / need a skycot before you go because it's not guaranteed that you get one but it is invaluable - even if your baby doesn't want to lie down it gives you somewhere other than your lap for them to sit (though they're not supposed to sit in them). Be prepared for a lot of walking up and down the plane to keep them entertained. Someone told me that if you feed during take off / landing it helps the baby's ears adjust to the pressure change - mine still wailed (it made me cry, he was so upset!) but it might be worth a go! Apart from that he was great - but just remember if dd is miserable that it is finite and you will be able to get off at some point and you prob don't have to see the other passengers ever again!

One friend who recently flew from SA to Aus with 2 kids and was subject to a lot of delays was very persistant in complaining / reminding them they had kids and managed to mitigate by getting onto standby lists - worth bearing in mind if you have this problem.

The best toy we took with us for when we got there was one of those galt inflatable play rings. It packs down pretty small and kept ds happy when we were busy packing and unpacking when we were moving on to our next stop.

We took a travel cot and a favourite cuddly plus sleeping bag so that whereever we were ds had familiar things around and it seemed to work well (assuming you're travelling around).

You'll be fine, enjoy your trip!

Thanks for all your advice - I am sure the anticiption is worse than it will be overall. We are going to stay with family and friends so that will be easy ( possibly ) once we get there - DD is going to meet her grandma for the first time!!

Elderberry although our skycot is already confirmed there and back - you think I should keep calling to confirm that. We do havea contact as we had to originally postpone our Christmas trip due to dd's heart surgery!! I am sure that is who Dh got to do the booking. I assumed once it was confirmed on our schedule that I would not need to confirm until a few days before?!?