flying to chilli with ds' 4 and 3 months?

[booyhoo]

OH is in the navy and started a tour when ds2 was 11 days old. he wont be back until november. he has a 2 week stand down in september where the families have the opportunity to fly to chilli. as much as i desperately want to see him and know he wants to see us, i'm just not sure that going with such a young baby and a preschooler is wise. i am in N.I so it would mean flying to mainland and then to chilli on my own with them, our luggage and a buggy. also he reckons the flight to chili is about 9/10 hours. is this a no brainer? should i even be considering it?

Do you mean Chile? No direct flights afaik. You will need to change somewhere. Usual route is via Madrid. I assume you can fly from Belfast to Madrid direct. Should be doable if you request help in advance to transfer planes. It is a beautiful country.

yes, doh, i mean chile. i knew that was spelt wrong. im not sure what way the flights are, the navy pay for them so im not sure if they arrange them aswell, i have already told OH i dont think its very practical so he hasnt found out whats happening. but i dont want do dismiss it completely without getting opinions from others.

I've flown long-distance with 2 toddlers a couple of times , not a baby though, could be tough.
With a decent airline the groundcrew and flight crew are usually really helpful, helping get your bags off the carousel etc.
Is there anyone else you know that's going,maybe you could arrange to go together, help each other out ?

As a Forces wife I would go for it. Life is just too short - and apart from seeing dh it would be a great trip to see a beautiful country.

thats a point lovestent, there are other partners going so i imagine there would be someone to help if i needed it. does anyone happen to know how long the flight/flights are to chile?

Well, I wouldn't consider it with children that age for only 2 weeks. It would be very tough. We do a similar journey with small children every year and it really takes it out of you. You would have to fly to somewhere in Europe like Madrid or maybe Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Milan (I'm not sure which airlines fly to Chile)or maybe straight from Heathrow to Santiago. The main flight would be more than 10 hours. Just flying from Heathrow to Sao Paolo in Brazil is about 11 hours and then you have about 4 hours on to Chile.

I think that if you have made it through to September you should hang on until November, even though you are desperate to see each other.

Plus, and I appreciate that this is being a bit panicky, swine flu is really rampant in Chile and Argentina at the moment. Brazil has advised people not to travel to either country, for example. They will be coming out of winter in September so it may well have died down but I wouldn't want to be travelling there and back on a plane with very small children if I were only planning on staying 2 weeks.

Go for it! How do you think HM Forces families move houses? We can't say 'No, we can't move as the DC's are too young'

No direct experience but I have friends who went home to Australia a couple of years ago. Due to flight costs and his job, they had to fly separately. She went two weeks earlier than him - and took DS1 who was something like 22 months and DS2 who was 10 weeks old and wearing leg splints.

She said it was one of the easiest flights she ever took - sky cot for DS2 was great and crew were very helpful on plane and during transfers.

never heard of a sky cot!! nearly tempted to go just to experience that. (ive lived a sheltered life) i have emailed OH and asked him to find out all he can and get back to me. really do want to go now ive been talking about it again.

This site tells you about flights to Chile:
here

I would do Aer Lingus to Paris from Belfast first. or if you could get to Dublin - Easyjet to Madrid.

puffling thats really helpful. longer flying times than i thought, i think maybe too long for little ones for such a short holiday.