travelling to singapore with kids - which airline?

[meysey]

Hi

I am visiting my brother in Singapore later this year and would love to know which airlines are best for kids (18months and 5). The little one will be on a lap unless we can scrape together enough for an extra seat, so seat pitches are important.

Any tips please?

Any tips for long haul travel and things to do when we get there also appreciated as brother has no kids.

Singapore Airlines, no question

there are HEAPs of threads on what to do with kids on long haul flights, just check the archives, you will get lots of good advice, my top tip being choose a flight with take off time an hour before the kid's bedtime

There was a very recent thread about which Singapore hotel and this developed in to things to do and see with the kids

Main thing to remember is it will be very hot and humid so don't do too much trekking about.

I think you will most likely get a unanimous Singapore Airlines here. Out of interest Malaysian Airlines have the largets seat pitch but I doubt it's a noticeable difference. In fact, I know it's not since I have flown both Malaysian Airlines and Singapore Airlines.

Definitely Singapore Airlines.

singapore, singapore, singapore!!!

Join frequent flyer club - even have a junior one for kids over 2!!

we stopped over last June on our way back to Aus.

Things to do - enjoy hte hotel pool - ours had a toddler pool as well as the adult pool. Our dd1 ( who was almost 2 at the time) loved cruising the river on the bumboats, the zoo, sentosa island for a day.

cable car....

shopping in air con!!

But as suzy said there are a number of threads on Singapore... if you just do a search.

yes,singapore airlines,we went when ds was 3 and dd 6 months and they were brilliant,very,very helpful,it was a night flight so they both slept most of the way

yep, Singapore Airlines, definitely!!

singapore airlines has the best service of the lot. but as a result they are very busy. malaysian airlines - not as good a service and food not as good either although not that bad compared to say, british airways. downside is you have to transit in kuala lumpur which would probably add about 2 hours to your journey. upside is it is cheaper and tend to be less booked up so the chances of getting an extra seat unpaid is much higher. when we went last summer, both on the out and inbound flights, on check-in, we managed to request and book out the centre section for dh, ds (2.5yo) and myself. so, ds could spread out on 2 seats and went to sleep (for 8 hours straight!!!). the flight was actually quite empty as we did not fly during the peak time so dh ended up being able to sleep across 4 seats behind us. i'm comparing this to when we flew singapore airlines and ds slept for a total of 1 hour, or seemed like it anyway (but then he was a baby which could be the difference)

another vote for Singapore Airlines! They've spoilt us now for all the others.

Singapore airlines gets my vote. We did a cable car ride up a mountain there I think. Also did a boat trip and I think there was a kind of lion statue that we went to see one night.

redsky - was that the merlion at the mouth of the river... we did that little ride and then wandered around and caught the bumboat back. As we stayed at Clarke Quay on the river - lots of bum boat rides much to dd1's delight. The cable car goes out to Sentosa ot up to the mountain. We went over to Sentosa and then on the way back went up to the mountain for an icecream and then back to the start.

Depends on when you fly. When we flew last June the flight to Singapore was almost empty. We had booked a seat and sky cot for dd1 and we had her car seat. As health and safety did not let her car seat be put near an aisle - we had an entire row to ourselves.... the four in the middle for dd to sleep etc and then the three on either side - one set for her seat and me and dh has the row in front. Most people had four/three seats to themselves - people were spread out all over the plane and sleeping across seats. It was the noon flight from Heathrow - and it was midweek if I remember correctly.

It was more crowded on the Singapore to Brisbane leg.

There is loads to do for children on Sentosa Island. DH and I had our honeymoon there but can't wait to take our children to Singapore and Sentosa Island in a few years time.

On Sentosa there is an aquarium, a beach, a monorail that goes around the whole island, hmmmm, oh yes, if you are over there when it is dark, there's a wonderful magic fountain. There are performances at set times and they play music and there's a sort of laser show which accompanies the fountain. It brought a tear to my eye but probably because I was missing dd who was a baby at the time and left at home with grandparents.

The night Safari is also great for children if they stay up late enough. It takes place at the zoo.

I am sure you will have a wonderful time. When are you going?

thanks so much for all the advice. singapore airlines it is then (hopefully!)

we are going for Christmas (wince) so the next issue is when to book. I want to make sure I get the cheapest deal available, which won't be that cheap, and I doubt we will be able to get extra seats as it will be quite full I expect.

BUT there is now a possibility my brother might get transferred away from Singapore, so I am worried about booking too early. At the moment flights for Christmas seem to cost about £760. Is it likely they will just go up in price from now on?

We are quite flexible on which day we travel.