Flying with babies, zero to two. They fly free. How hard can it be?
The first thing to remember when you board a plane with your child is this: She has Every. Right. To be there. If they let her board, she’s as legitimate as anyone on the plane. Do your best to be a considerate passenger, for sure. But talkative aunties and loudsnorers are no more entitled to anything on that plane than you and your little kid. They don’t feel guilty, and nor should you. You’re not a selfish, anti-social monster. Your kid is not the Devil’s Spawn! You’re a travelling parent. That’s perfectly normal.
Flying with a child under two takes some planning. It will be tiring, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. The keys are good choice of flights, knowing your airport privileges, well-packed cabin luggage and (the fun part) knowing how to change nappies mid flight.
What follows is based on thirteen long haul flights and more than 25 regional flights with my wife and our now four year old kid. She started long haul flying at five months (Bejing-Europe) and by age two she’d flown that route and Beijing-Sydney three times, plus a lot of domestic China and Asia regional flights. By four, she’d added another Beijing-Sydney, another Beijing-Europe, and Sydney-Washington, plus more domestic and regional flights.
If you’re solo with child, which my wife has done long haul three times and regionally too, lean on the cabin crew and look for friendly passengers. Someone will hold her while you visit the toilet; just ask.
 Camping with 2 yr old |
 Baby Carrier |
 Mongolia with 2 yr old |
Choosing your Flights
Gone are the days when you just book the cheapest flight you see. It’s far better to pay a bit more for good timings. I learned that the hard way on our first long haul – instead of springing for Beijing to Copenhagen direct before our onward flight to Hamburg, I saved a few hundred dollars going via Paris first. This added hours to the itinerary and really wiped us out.
Now I know: look for baby friendly departure or arrival times that complement her routine. Think about the other end, too. It might be worth sacrificing a good departure to avoid landing at rush hour or 3am.
And live by this creed: small planes suck, and big planes truck. On a widebody you get more space, bathrooms, cabin crew and bulkhead rows. Your child may not sleep in the bulkhead bassinet, but she’ll play happily in the extra floorspace. Don’t assume longer routes have bigger planes. Big planes fly short routes; little ones fly long routes too. And beware the code share! The ticket might say ANA, but you’ll still spend 13 hours in a superannuated United 747.
When booking online, look for the numbers that describe the type of plane (you might have to click on “flight details”). Small planes are coded 73x, 757 and 319, 320, 321. If flying longer than a few hours, avoid them! You want a widebody: the big planes coded 77x, 74x, 78x and 33x, 34x, 35x and 38x. My personal favourite is the new Boeing Dreamliner – the 787-8 or 787-9. It’s so new that the cabin should still be in good shape. Made of composites and with advanced engines, it uses considerably less fuel. A lower carbon footprint means you can relax (a bit) about giving the world an extra mouth to feed!
small planes suck, big planes truck.
At the Airport
Here is where flying with a baby rocks. At check-in, look for the special assistance lines with short queues. Try not to gloat as you saunter past the 200 people on the same widebody you booked. And at Beijing passport control, and perhaps other places, you can use the diplomats’ line (“yah, my baby’s an Ambassador to the future”). On busy days this can save you 45 minutes. That’s a worthwhile reward for a year of no sleep.
Big shots with Platinum Status cards? Wink as you pass them for priority boarding! Late to the gate? Walk right to the front. Sure, be nice about it. Apologetic, even. But definitely do it.
Flying with push chairs and strollers
I don’t think it’s worth it, assuming you can carry your infant (like with a sling or a BabyBjorn type carrier) or your toddler can walk. A larger kid can stand for a little while or sit on the floor, and many airports have trolleys with kid-friendly seating anyway.
The times we flew with pushchairs – and judging by the experience of other parents we observed – it’s never entirely clear where you have to abandon the pushchair anyway. Check-in? Gate? It’s also never clear where you’ll get it back, and how long they take to get it off the plane (ever seen a huddle of parents by the jetway as you disembark? They’re waiting in hope for their kids’ pushchairs). Of course, if you need it at the destination then bring it, but don’t bring it solely for use at the airport.
The carbon footprint.
Yes, planes consume fossil fuel. It’s up to each person to judge for themselves their lifestyle choices (and if you choose to fly, prepare to be judged by others). Apart from not flying, you can:
– fly direct – planes use most fuel on takeoff and landing so the fewer of those you do per journey, the lower your personal impact. But remember, flying direct in a large, empty plane may be worse than making connections in more fuel efficient planes full of passengers.
– choose modern twin engine equipment (planes like the new 787 use a lot less fuel than previous generation planes like the 767 or the A330; twin engine planes like the 777, 787, A350 or A330 use less fuel than four engine planes like the 747 and A340 or the A380 which is worst of all).
– fly economy, because the more seats in a plane, the more people it moves for a given quantity of fuel. Business class and first class passengers have a much higher per-head carbon footprint.
– offset your emissions via one of the many programs for that
– decide to reduce your emissions in other parts of your life, for example by not owning a car as I did for 11 of the last 13 years (including now), or if you do own one, by using it as little as possible.
– not eat meat, one of the most carbon intensive activities around
– where practical and especially for shorter distances, taking the train or even driving creates fewer emissions than flying – assuming it’s a modern electric train and not a clapped out old diesel train (or if driving, assuming it’s a modern fuel efficient car full of people not a gas guzzling land yacht of an SUV). Flying is best for long journeys.
– remember that technology continues to evolve and large aircraft can already operate on alternative fuels, which will likely enter commercial operation in the near future. Fuel efficiency continues to improve.
– remember that international air travel has been one of the greatest forces for peace and cross-cultural understanding in the 20th and 21st centuries and don’t cut yourself up too much if you only fly a few times a year. There’s more to it than just the emissions.
Baby Cabin Luggage
You don’t need specialised luggage. What counts is how you pack. Bring a bag with a wide opening and/or some side pockets. Inside, stash small zipped organising pouches (mesh lids are helpful) with different colours for easy identification. Put fresh clothes and spare nappies in one, lunchbox in another, and mini bottles of all your baby’s creams (and meds) in a third. Have one more for nappies and wet wipes. This should be small – just a few “ready rounds” – so re-up from the main bag as needed.
With luck, you scored a bulkhead row, so there’s no floor stowage. Put your bag in the overhead bin with the opening or side pockets facing out, not up. When you need something, there is no need to get the whole bag down from the bin. Just stand up, open the bin and grab what you need from the opening or side pocket. Because you packed the essentials carefully, whether it’s nappy time or baby just ralphed lunch over her Hello Kitty shirt, you can just grab the pouch you need. Don’t be the person unpacking a whole Samsonite in the aisle!
Nappies!
Inevitably, your baby will need a fresh nappy. Especially early on, it’ll be hard to know when this will happen. My Airborne Nappy Duty has included a last minute run to the loo during which the plane started taxiing, and changing a fully loaded nappy during sudden turbulence (“ah, ground control, we have a Code Brown up here! Repeat, Code Brown!”)
Aircraft bathrooms are necessarily small. Don’t take your whole bag. Just grab your “ready rounds” – a few nappies and small packet of wipes – accessed via the opening you carefully placed facing outwards.
Show your baby round the bathroom first. Ours associated the bright light and plastic surfaces with the vaccination clinic, with predictable results. She was calmer once she realised it’s just nappy time. Get it done quickly; once she’s old enough to get it, make it fun. There’s little reason to linger over a nappy at the best of times. At 30,000 feet? Even less!
Every parent has their own list of baby essentials. The very basics for a flight should be something for your child to eat and drink (yep, airline food for babies is about as good as airline food for adults – bring your own so you can feed her when she’s actually hungry, not when the cabin crew think so), a full change of clothes, a sweater for cold air-conditioned cabins, wet wipes, and nappies. Flying in or out of Beijing, for instance, delays are almost inevitable. Don’t. Run Out. Of Nappies. You might also need some medicines for teething or rashes or whatever else your child picked up at nursery. Remember to put liquids and gels in a plastic bag, and be sure the bottles or tubes are less than 100ml. Security is sometimes a little merciful to parents, and will sometimes let a baby bottle of water go through, but rules are rules! Those baby bottles pressurise differently to the cabin, so untwist the lid to equalize it before opening the straw. Before! (Don’t ask me how I know. Ask the lady sitting next to me).
Don’t. run. out. of. nappies.
And now, for the next twelve hours…
The hard truth is, by the time you’ve done all that, the seatbelt signs are probably still on. There’s no getting around reality: flying long haul, you’re all going to be wasted by the end. But if you’ve planned carefully, you haven’t wasted time at check-in, passport control, and boarding. If you’ve packed carefully, finding nappies or clothes is quick and easy. Now simply coax her to sleep (if you’re able, breastfeeding works wonders in a plane), juggle adult meal time (do it in shifts, the crew will assist) and keep your baby entertained (even the hardiest “no screen” parents have been known to relent six hours out of Sydney…). Yep, it’s that simple.
Always remember, you’re all legitimate passengers. If you’re doing your best to keep your baby calm and happy, you can’t afford to feel bad if she’s crying. Let’s face it: if talkative aunty kept her awake past her nap time, and the loudsnorer woke her early, they can hardly complain if she expresses her disdain.
So, plan well (big planes truck!), pack well and learn how to handle a Code Brown. Work as a team with your partner, or with the crew if you’re flying solo. And above all, keep a sense of humour. Because to paraphrase the Colonel in Apocalypse Now, “someday, this flight’s gonna end”.
