Flying to Washington DC with 9 month old - help!

[naturalobsession]

Hi All,
I hope you can help me...I am planning to fly to Washington DC in the next few weeks with my DS who is 9 months old...my hubby can't come so I am wondering if anyone knows which airlines are good/helpful/provide bassinette or cot for bub to sleep in?? I have heard horror stories about Qantas and BA and don't know who else to fly with? Air New Zealand?

HEEEEEEEELP!

Thank you!!!!!

[MamaLlama]

There is only Qantas, Air NZ and United that do the crossing unless you want to go to NW Canada (with Air Canada). The Aussie Govt doesn't let anyone else do the crossing. Total Qantas protection.

We've done it with QF and it was fine. They have the bassinets and extender belts for when you hold the baby on takeoff/landing. I didn't find the bassinet that great and wouldn't do it again. They only have them in the bulkhead row, middle section - the ONE row on the plane where the armrests won't rise. So if you have a spare seat you can't make much use of it and it was really hard to BF with the armrests down.

We're about to go Air NZwhich I've heard is very similar in style of facilities but better service. Cost is you have to take a longer flight and detour through Auckland.

I've never gone on United with our baby, only alone. They are nearly bankrupt which has advantages (often spare seats) but the food/service/general cleanliness is not as good, if any airline could be called good on those fronts.

OK so that gets you to the West Coast, probably LA though some go through San Francisco. Avoid LA if you're coming from Sydney (there are direct flights to SF), LAX is the most horrible airport on the planet. Seriously third world.

Crossing the US you will probably change planes to a domestic flight (QF does a few continuation flights but not many, mostly to NYC). US domestic airlines are MUCH LESS kid friendly than Australian ones. There will be no bassinets. No extender belts (they claim they've never heard of them) and tinier dirtier bathrooms. Bascially US airlines are on the brink of collapse and the rundown interiors, cost cutting and lack of service really shows.

We've lived here a while and have gone on Euro airlines as well as US an Aussie, and there is no comparison. BA is like QF..snotty but clean with decent facilities. Air Canada much the same. Lufthansa wasn't great but ok, Air France was a dream.

Anyway, when we did the Pacific crossing with a 6 weeks old baby and again at 3 months we used the bassinet for maybe an hour each way. It wasn't much use to us. Baby just wanted to be held, there was turbulence when you have to take them out anyway, it takes up your entire lap space and as I said makes it hard to breastfeed because of the seat structure.

The best advice I can give is checking everything through to the final destination won't work because you'll have to go through immigration on the west coast, so count on having to go through baggage claim etc and lug it around to re-check. A stroller may be great when you arrive but check it through, just use a sling in the airports, makes security a lot easier too.

Check the TSA website (www.tsa.gov (http://www.tsa.gov) I think?) for the latest rules on what you can and can't bring into the US. The rules change frequently and the baby exceptions for liquids etc bear no resemblance to common sense. Though I have found US airports more rational than Heathrow, where they make you open and taste everything in front of them (the fact this contaminates and/or requires refrigeration thereafter doesn't seem to have been thought of).

US online shopping is hugely more advanced than Austrlaia's and you can easily get supplies delivered to your hotel/home before you arrive to await you. Thus, do not take extra baby food or whatever for after arrival...just look online for a product and order delivery. Some require US billing address which is a pain but many don't nowadays. Sometimes you can phone them to get around that because it is just the online form that is no good.

GL! It is a big trip!:wave:

[MamaLlama]

Sorry I should say not all US domestic airlines are equal. The ones I've tried are:

American Airlines (like a rundown version of QF but fine)

United (better service in my experience and similar planes/frequency to AA), still kind of acts like it is a big player

US Airways (a cheapie, very rundown, would avoid with a child, tends to lose luggage and make detours probably to pick up passengers, fill flights and save dosh).

Continental - fine, pretty similar to AA and United, slightly worse service the 1 time I travelled on it but that may mean nothing.

There are a ton of others. Also you can look on www.orbitz.com (http://www.orbitz.com) to get an idea of the point to point fares and options to compare with your Aussie travel agent.

[naturalobsession]

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me all that info - fantastic!

I will probably not go for the bassinette then, but a row where I may get a spare seat next to me - I am BF as well so would be better to do that in comfort as I'm not sure DS will fit in bassinette anyway! I will just pray the flight isn't full and I can get the seat next to us blocked.

Thanks again for all the invaluable information!

[MamaLlama]

You're welcome! We live in NYC so I'm not so familiar with DC. A couple of familiar websites though are www.babiesrus.com (http://www.babiesrus.com) and www.buybuybaby.com (http://www.buybuybaby.com) . I also have looked at ikea delivery and got that when we travelled to the UK, it should be the same in the US. We got a high chair sent so that we didn't have to take one/manage without. Was great. www.Amazon.com (http://www.Amazon.com) is pretty good too. And if you search on google (without the au suffix) you'll find US websites galore.

If you're keen on maclaren strollers (or many other Euro products or even Aussie and NZ strollers) they are cheaper in the US by a big margin. Put it down to big market competition. We got a Maclaren for $150 and a Valco for $300. I think they were well over double in Australia. Perverse because Valco is Aussie.

Enjoy!

[misatok579]

we've flown ANZ over the pond to and from Oz with our twins (3mths first flight and at 5mths second flight). ANZ was wonderful!! they provided us with two bassinettes for our second flight unfortunately our flight was all crammed because Qantas had a plane break down but we still got our bassinette plus 2 extra seats - every time we've flown they've given us an extra seat to have more room so i'm ANZ all the way :) if you wanna know more about our flight, just message me or email me :)

[naturalobsession]

Thank you everyone for your advice - it was all very helpful. We're back now and I can't believe how good ds was!! We flew Qantas and I was happy with the service - we got a bassinette there and back, and on the way there an empty seat next to us. They didn't offer anything out of the ordinary but I can't complain either. All in all it was a fantastic trip and I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year! Thanks again!