Most parents tend to scared themselves a lot when thinking to travel with small children or babies because the most difficult part was to fly in the airplane with them. Lil pumpkin first rode on an aircraft when she was 13mo. I was so nervous and panic and of cos I did so much research and end up bringing whole lots of useless stuff into the plane just in case anything would happen and we can only struggle in the plane without any emergency stop button available at all. This time is lil pumpkin second time riding on airplane and we are now getting more comfort to travel. By sharing this post today, I hope we can help other parents what and how to handle small children onboard without having too much stress for their vacation.
During my uni years, I travel alot as I was studying in fast track college and I had frequent short holidays in between semesters. One of the reason also because my mom work with airlines during that time and I always travel using staff rate. As I normally travel alone, my worst enemy onboard was baby, kids and fat ppl. I think most of us travellers know the reasons why. And when we first travel with lil pumpkin, I think I had my karma back to me. You know the feelings of guilt when everyone in the boarding hall looking at you as if I can read their mind saying "Oh NO! there is baby onboard this flight!! FML!!" I know, because everyone showing me sour face before we board. l0lz! and surprisingly, lil pumpkin was so easy going with her first flight ever and she did not even make a fuss out of it. not even during take off and landing. So when we landed and everyone stand up and getting ready to get out. Few of the passengers around us looking at us smiling and say our baby is adorable. Some even try to play with her. (im sure if lil pumpkin did scream and cry, it wouldnt be the same ending anymore. HAHAHAHA)
This was taken during her first fly early this year.
She slept after taking off till landing during our flight to Taiwan early in the morning. Thing we were so glad we brought along is her lil smelly bolster because she was sedated by the bolster right after taking off. l0lz!
After 2 trips traveling to the same place. I've summarized some tips for parents who planning to fly with their babies.
1. Check the flight time. If you had any choices, best to take your flight around your little one's sleeping/nap time. This way, they would sleep thru it and is easier to handle.
2. Book your seat in advance. If you're traveling with infant under 2yo, you are only paying a minimum amount of fees and infant will not be given any seat. It means they have to sit on your lap the entire flight. Ive done a little experiment for this 2 trips, there are normally 3 seats in a row for flight to Taiwan thru AA. From KK to TW. i booked our seat as A and B(refer to seat row 1). Which is near the window. and when return i booked B and C(refer to seat row 2) to the aisle. For both trips, whether it was coincident or not. There are always someone sitting next to us if I booked A and B. and there was always an empty seat if I booked B and C. So in order to have an empty seat for lil pumpkin. I will always certain that booking seats like B and C can do wonders. This only applies if you're traveling domestic or short flights. If you're traveling thru AA X, you can actually pay more to have an empty seat next to you. Or even better pay more for premium seats.
3. Bringing toys (old and new) I brought along her smelly bunny just in case she wants to take a nap and get sedated l0lz. Also I bought something new to attract her attention in case she gets uneasy in flight (which is quite useless because I did not have the chance to take it out this trip, she behave real well in flight). She was either sleeping or watching ipad with her daddy. Ipad was actually new to her too hahaha. she wasnt allowed to watch ipad at home thats why.
4. Some snacks to bite on. I did not prepare any warm food or meals for lil pumpkin in flight. But I let her drink her milk after we took off to the air. and if she still not sleepy yet, I let her have some finger food biscuit to munch on. Lil pumpkin is a food lover and never say no to any food offered to her so she was kinda happy when I took out her biscuit for her. Tips: Bring along a hot thermos with your own hot water because you never know where and how the hot water in flight came from. And also, you will not be able to ask for hot water before take off and landing. Custom will not bother you too much when they see you bringing a baby with you. I have a bottle of hot water and 2 bottles of mineral water in my hand carry. which I easily went thru the custom check. ;)
5. Stroller can be drop off at the boarding gate. We are the only one who bring along a stroller this trip. I think we were the only family with babies too during our flight to Taiwan. And upon arrival, our stroller was wide welcoming us after a few steps off the aircraft. Feels like VIP. haha! and what makes us more VIP is that in Taiwan Airport, we did not even queue for anything includes passport check, custom check and baggage declare as we were given priority all the way till we are out to the airport doorstep. Loving Taiwan for this kinda service. And when we arrived KK after our trip, we queue like shit with bad queuing lines and so hot and crowded with another flight arrived 10 mins before us. =( and further more, our stroller can only be collected at the baggage belt together with all other luggage. Talking about efficiency. =.=
6. Prior to flying, please used up all your little one's energy. l0lz!! During our flight back to KK, lil pumpkin wanted to walk herself from check in counter till departure gate. Which we happily let her do so because we wanted to used up all her energy and then get tired and sleep in the flight. So that we could have some rest too.
Refer Hand carry to bring list here
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