Long haul flight with 1 year old

[joyofliving]

I agree that the option of the armrest going up might be very useful for making her sleep, feeding her and also keeping her toys etc, so might not opt for the bulkhead seat afterall. My daughter does sleep for 11 hours from 7pm- 6am waking up occasionally from discomfort as she is teething. But otherwise is a sound sleeper and so the timing of the flight couldn't be more perfect )
Kiwiinoz I have sent you a PM.

 

[Sleuth]

We flew that Air NZ route (HK to Auckland) about a year ago, in economy, with a 22 MO and it was fine. We did have a seat for him and we take a car seat (a Sit-n-Stroll, actually). The crew was great and the flight was great.
Only some of the seats had armrests that went up, though.
One thing, though, is that our son has been flying long-haul routes since he was 3 MO and is used to the whole airplane thing, which really helps.

 

[Buckeroo]

Agree with everyone about the extra seat.

If your child likes his car seat, then by all means, do take it with you on board (assuming it fits). This is the safest option. I don't know about other airlines, but CX is pretty helpful. If you let them know ahead of time and if they have the manpower to spare, they can even arrange for someone to help you carry the car seat all the way to the gate. We arranged for this upon departure from HK and also for our arrival back here. They even walked us all the way to the car park (which is quite a trek!).

Even without a carseat, an extra seat gives you all that extra room. We had done this and raised the arm rest and got our baby to lie across, with the seat belt on somehow. One drawback to this is that when the Fasten Seat Belt sign is on, you'd still have to pick up the baby and belt him in, attached to your own seat belt.

Best of luck.

 

[carey]

Hi aussiegal, I guess with three adults traveling and you've got extra hands to help with the baby. It's is a great plus and can save buying a seat for the baby.

In one of my long haul flights ( Air Canada or Lufthansa, can't recall), I saw a mother with a small baby ( guesses less than 6 months) sitting on an aisle seat with a man next to her at the window seat. The mother and child just cramped into one seat. The plane was quite full and I only realized she was alone when the baby started crying and she was not getting a helping hand from her neighbor.

In the end, I think someone offered to exchanged a seat with her so she got more room.

 

[MommyTo3]

Carey - You're right, I think that's the key these days. You never know how full the flights are. Some routes they keep capacity fairly low to keep flights full instead of having too many flights with empty seats. Especially these days when cost are important, although with the recent economic crisis things keep changing daily I guess. Although most airlines will try to keep seats empty next to children (or by all means ask them to block an extra seat if the flight is not full). Most people are happy to move anyway, if they can, when they're too close to children !

Once you are outnumbered by your children (especially when they're still young), that's when it gets tricky in my opinion although it gets easier once you do it more often.