[NJCampbell]

Hi

My wife and I will be flying out to NZ early in the New Year, with our 8 month old daughter. She's a bit of a nightmare during daytime naps, although she's a really good night sleeper.

We'd appreciate any feedback on your experiences of how best to help our little girl manage the trip, and whether it's best to do it all in one hit and get it over with, or whether to stop off in LA for a couple of days to break the trip.


Thanks in advance
Neil

[nippa&pippa]

We flew out for reccie when our daughter was 9weeks old and our son was 2half years old. We chosen to not to break the trip as OH doesn't have much time off work, so we want to spent lots of time in NZ, rather stop somewhere else for a day or so.
Again we flew again for good to NZ when our daughter was 9months old etc. and having experience the flight with children, we chosen to not to break trip again because i found it easy to change the sleeping pattern, easier straight away without had to change sleeping pattern twice if had break halfway with our son. Our daughter just adapt easy as she is only baby.
Really it is down to you and your baby as baby is easier than young children to adapt the change of sleeping pattern.

[Park City Partner]

I flew to the States when my daughter was5 months and 11 months. The first trip was a breeze and the second was not as good. With that said, I would just go the whole way in one shot and get it over with. I think it probably has less to do with your child and more to do with what you as parents would prefer and can cope with....good luck!

[jubjub]

We did it at 6/7 months with our DS, and just did it in one long trip, its not for the faint hearted, but we felt it better over and done with, even though he was mobile, he still coped quite well with the bassinet confinement.

With our DS now being nearly 2, we would stop over somewhere I think... he would just have a meltdown otherwise!


I think it probably has less to do with your child and more to do with what you as parents would prefer and can cope with....good luck!

I agree... :yes

[Familyofmonkeys]

I would definitely agree with the getting it all out the way in one go. We flew with 3 sprogs....just 4, just 2 and 12 weeks. We only stopped 4 hours in Singapore, enough for kids to have a good run around and tired themselves out. Meant we only had to muck about with their sleep pattern once. If you do a stop over and baby is awake all night confused, you could end up too tired to do anything and it would not be a rest. This would be OK with a tiny baby who feeds and sleeps all day and night anyway, but at 8 months, so need to establish sleep pattern, so they know what to expect.

[flatshoes]

agree with all of the above, don't drag out the whole thing longer than necessary, "all in one go" is best with baby

[Rusty]

Agree with all the above. 3 years ago, we took a boy of 5 and girl 11 months. My son watched as much telly as he could and daughter slept the 1st leg and was generally passed around the cabin crew for the 2nd.
Only tip is we flew about 6pm at night, so they had food and she then slept.

[dharder]

Agree with the 'getting it over and done with' approach. I did the way back from Auckland to London with two two year olds a while back, and I was glad to not have to deal with more different time zones, more stuff schlepping, etc.

Good luck with the trip :)

Daniela

[aberdian]

I agree. Concentrate the pain :) All in one has worked for us, flew to NZ with a 1yo, then Aus with a 4 and a 1yo, then NZ a month ago with a 6 and a 2yo, all without (much of) a problem. The flights were easy, and apart from a couple of 3am wakeups, so was the readjustment.

YMMV

Ian

[Caroline and Dave]

When we first came over we stopped off for 2 days in LA,Never again.
We now do the whole journey straight through and as others have said you only get one dose of jetlag for a start.
When we arrived at LA it took over 2hours to get through the customs procedure of finger printing,photographs etc.(Not reccomended with kids in tow) Then when we left LA it was another 3 hours plus of queing.Add to that the fact that my suitcase got broken into and stuff stolen at LA baggage I would never ever stop off at LA again.(I was assured this was a rare occasion and the problem has now been dealt with)If you want a stop off then Singapore or Hong Kong is a much better option.
By the way, in case you did not know this,you still have to go through fingerprinting etc when you get off the plane and go to the transit lounge. The best thing here is to get off the plane as quick as you can so you are near the front of the queue.They may let people with children jump the queue but they certainly did not when we went through when we returned to the UK

Hope this helps

Dave and Caroline

[NJCampbell]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for responding - it definitely sounds like going straight through in one go is the preferred option, and we'll probably try that.

Thanks again
Neil

[Jo Jo]

By the way, in case you did not know this,you still have to go through fingerprinting etc when you get off the plane and go to the transit lounge. The best thing here is to get off the plane as quick as you can so you are near the front of the queue.They may let people with children jump the queue but they certainly did not when we went through when we returned to the UK

Hope this helps

Dave and Caroline

Oh no! Who did you fly with? When I flew with Air NZ via LA in August all the families with children were allowed off the plane first and I blithely assured my sister (who is flying out with her children next year) that that was standard practice with Air NZ, and now I'm worried it isn't. :(

[Caroline and Dave]

Oh no! Who did you fly with? When I flew with Air NZ via LA in August all the families with children were allowed off the plane first and I blithely assured my sister (who is flying out with her children next year) that that was standard practice with Air NZ, and now I'm worried it isn't. :(

We flew with Air New Zealand but it was a chartered flight as the New Zealand plane developed a fault in Auckland and we went on a qantas plane. and I think what happened was they forgot to let families with children off first.The best thing is to check with the hostesses.

[jubjub]

We went on a standard Air NZ flight and despite a screaming child didn't get any sort of priority... guess it doesnt happen for every flight, although most people with kids say they do get taken through a bit quicker.

[Familyofmonkeys]

We went on a standard Air NZ flight and despite a screaming child didn't get any sort of priority... guess it doesnt happen for every flight, although most people with kids say they do get taken through a bit quicker.

Singapore certainly do give priority to those with kids. You get to board and leave plane after the first class passengers.

[jubjub]

Singapore certainly do give priority to those with kids. You get to board and leave plane after the first class passengers.

I was just referring to the customs/fingerprinting queue at LAX transit.... everywhere else we were fine!

[Familyofmonkeys]

I was just referring to the customs/fingerprinting queue at LAX transit.... everywhere else we were fine!

LAX sounds like a nightmare....don't suppose airlines have much control there :exit