Flying with a baby

Long haul flights are probably the most dreadful part of traveling for parents – the thought of angry co-passengers giving you the look just makes you want to not travel at all. That’s just one of the many worries when it comes to flying – airport security, carry-on restrictions, inflexible and expensive tickets… the list is long. On top of that, if you live in a place like California, which is far, far away from most of the Old World, you are looking at an average flight duration of 11 hours, and some destinations can be as far as 26 hours of flying time.

Since our baby’s birth 18 months ago, we’ve visited 5 countries. It wasn’t easy, but it was most definitely fun. I tried jotting down all the things that made traveling with the baby a bit easier and it resulted in two blog posts: Flying with a baby (this post) and Traveling with a baby (it covers everything else – hotels, local transportation, planning, etc.)

Choosing the right route and departure time

We strongly prefer direct flights – the time and effort overhead with layovers and changing flights is enormous. Other disadvantages of flights with connections – managing baby through multiple takeoffs and landings, increased risk of delays and luggage misplacement. In addition to travel time, we also look at departure times while picking the flight. With infants – who usually just take several naps and don’t really sleep long hours – the timing might not matter much. But with toddlers, the difference can be night and day (literally and figuratively) – If your toddler can sleep through the flight, you will most probably have a much better flight.

Choosing the right airline

When it comes to airlines these days, the bar is very very low – the flight staff shouldn’t be rude. Bonus points if they are baby/kid friendly (strollers, bassinets, accommodating with meals, etc). When we were planning our Tokyo trip, ANA (All Nippon Airways) had some good direct flights between SF and Tokyo and we read that ANA is family friendly and their service is much better than average, so we decided to book with ANA. When dealing with airlines, I always do thorough research and read the fine prints. ANA and United have an alliance and they codeshare, so I actually checked the official routes and schedules on ANA’s website. At that time, ANA had three routes between San Francisco and Tokyo (Narita and Haneda airports), out of which two were operated by United. After some terrible experiences with United crew on long haul flights in our pre-baby era, there was no way we were booking United for this trip. So we specifically booked flight NH8 to Narita and flight NH7 back to SFO (both are always operated by ANA).

Well, and fares…

Families with kids need cancellable tickets the most, but the pricing for cancellable tickets is just ridiculous – seems to be driven mostly by the corporate market. We have always booked changeable but non-cancellable tickets, especially for the long haul flights. For shorter, cheaper flights, we have paid extra for having the flexibility and peace of mind.

Choosing the right kind of fare class is tricky – Should you spend double for business class for more room and less crowds? Is it ok to get an infant in business class? Should you buy an extra seat for the baby and travel in economy instead?

Most of our bookings have been in economy:

When our baby was 10 months old, we booked in economy and called up the airlines and asked for a bulkhead seat. They provide bassinets which can be attached to the bulkhead. The bassinet can be used after takeoff and before landing, and is optional – if the baby wants to move around between the seats, you can ask the flight attendant to remove the bassinet. Be sure to check for height and weight restrictions for the bassinet. At 10 months, our baby barely fit in the bassinet.
When the baby was 17 months old, he was way bigger than the bassinet. On long haul flights, we didn’t want to carry him on our laps. So we got three seats in economy. Most medium to large planes have a 3 seat section in economy (might not be the case in first/business class), so you get the whole section to yourself – parents in the window and aisle seats, baby in the middle. We had to pay the infant fare for the baby’s seat – it’s not that much cheaper – usually a 10% discount on the adult fare. We didn’t carry a car seat. Didn’t want to lug around that heavy thing. For take off, landing and turbulence, we just put the baby on our lap. They give you an infant seat belt which attaches easily to your seat belt.
After the age of 2, most airlines require you to buy a seat for the toddler.

What to carry and what not to carry

When our son was an infant, we used to carry a lot of baby food and milk. This is a bit of a hassle at airport security – all of that is allowed, but they will test the liquids (water, milk). At some airports, they asked us to take a sip of the water, at some, they just sniffed it, and at some airports they made us wait while they took the milk bottle to a different section/office for testing. Packaged baby food needs to be put in the liquids tray, but they usually don’t do any further inspection. Putting all of these things in transparent bags made our life easier.

The following things can come in handy on the flight (carry-on):

Water, esp for toddlers. Might want to buy it after security to avoid the hassle, but definitely carry water. Don’t depend on the airline to give you enough water whenever needed. Keep the baby (and yourself!) hydrated.
Baby food pouches (we like Plum Organics).
Milk/Water Bottle and/or pacifier. Using it while taking off/landing might help the baby with slight ear pressure changes.
Cheap, small trash bags for wet diapers and other trash. We use these Sassy ones.
Odor trapping bags for dirty diapers. We got “Be Free”.
Inflatable foot rest pillow (baby bed). We got this one by HOMCA
Sanitizing wipes. We use Babyganics. In the infant phase, when he used to put everything in his mouth, we used to wipe literally everything – airport lounge chairs, flight armrests, trays, our hands, baby’s hands – we weren’t embarrassed 🙂
For very long travels (taking the entire home-to-hotel time into consideration):
- Nasal saline drops
- Forehead thermometer, and infant tylenol

What to pack in check-in luggage:

More food, formula, diapers, wipes – if you don’t want to spend time/effort shopping for those at your destination. For small infants, you might not want to experiment with different formula/food brands in a different country (possibly speaking a different language), so you might want to be on the safer side.
Same deal with things like rash creams, ointments, medicines, etc – tried and tested reduces the variables you have to deal with.
Nose Frida or similar snot sucker. We absolutely always carry it.