Well this is something I never thought I’d write about. Never in a million years did I think I would have a baby and a couple of months later, be like ‘hey I’d really like to take my baby on a long haul flight…’ But having a baby has actually given me a lot of confidence. Heck if you can get through labour, you can get through anything. It’s certainly one way to quickly learn that you’re way stronger than you ever thought.
The planning of the holiday and organising what to take was far more stressful than the actual travelling. And attempting to pack with a two month old constantly wanting cuddles or fed was a whole other ball game! I’m amazed we made it to the airport on time.
I’ll confess now, I wasn’t travelling on my own but with my mum and dad too which definitely helped take some of the stress away but I’m ultimately responsible for little baby A.
So looking back at the trip, these tips are what I found really helpful and enabled me to actually enjoy the whole experience. Who thought that would happen, eh?!
Check if you can book your seats for free
When travelling with an infant or child with British Airways, everyone in your party can book their seats for free. Considering nowadays you literally have to pay extra for everything on a flight this takes some of the stress out of worrying that your party will be split up if you don’t choose to pay the small fortune to book the seats. Your child would never be sat on their own but if there are two adults travelling, one of you could be with the child and the other at the back of the plane. If you’re travelling with a lap held infant like I was, you can see where the carry-cot/ bassinette seats are on the seat map when you go to book your seats. These are at a bulkhead where a ‘table’ folds down and you can secure a carrycot or for slight older infants, a bouncy-style seat (both provided by the airline) on it. These seats are brilliant because it means there’s somewhere for your baby to sit/ sleep other than just on you. Or if your baby takes one shot in the carry cot and start screaming, it’s a great place to store all your stuff!
Check the prices for premium economy
Being on mat leave can mean more flexibility when choosing travel dates so definitely check to see if you can score a great deal. It’s worth checking premium economy because during low season it can sometimes cost just a little bit more than economy. The seats are a bit wider and there’s more legroom plus it’s a smaller, quieter cabin which made the whole experience a bit more relaxed.
The only slight negative was that there are solid seat dividers so when I was feeding the little one, he kept kicking off the sides which made for a fun battle. Once I’d figured out the perfect angle to sit to avoid this, it was fine. One of the most exciting parts was the tuck box in the galley that you could just help yourself to – perfect for those mid-flight munchies! I’ve never turned left on an aircraft before so this was a real treat!
Don’t worry about other people
I kept imagining the sheer horror on fellow passenger’s faces as we arrived in the cabin with a baby but it couldn’t have been further from the truth! Approximately five minutes after boarding we’d had two offers of babysitting and numerous cabin crew cooing over the baby. With the noise of the engines, the general noise from the cabin crew and other passengers chatting, a baby is one of the quietest things around!
Take spare clothes for you and baby
Little A had already spat up on outfit number one before we’d even taken off from Glasgow! To be fair I was probably jiggling him a bit too much in my excitement/ nervous energy… Luckily it didn’t go on me at that stage but we still had 11 hours of travelling to go and I really didn’t fancy sitting in soggy clothes if I didn’t have to. With infants you are allowed to take an extra piece of hand luggage so there’s plenty of space to take extra clothes just in case.
Leave extra time to do everything
Everything takes that bit longer with a baby doesn’t it…and when you’re trying to catch a flight it increases the pressure even more?! Arrive at the airport with plenty of time to check in, get through security and get to the departure gate. You can board first with an infant, and while I hate spending longer than necessary on a plane it really does help having that extra bit of time and space to get sorted on board. If you need to transfer, try and leave a good chunk of time if possible to do this. We landed at Heathrow expecting to have tons of time to hang around but after getting off the plane, having a nappy change, having a feed and catching the bus to another terminal, there was just enough time to grab a cuppa and a sandwich before heading to the departure gate.
Decide how to transport your baby round the airport
I was wary about handing over the buggy at the aircraft door as I wanted to be able to pack it with a bit of protection so opted to use a sling to carry baby A around the airport. This worked pretty well because he loved watching everything going on in the airport.
Take all necessary documents
Ok, so this is pretty obvious but because Little A and I don’t have the same surname I was worried there may be issues. I took the full birth certificate and also a note from my partner saying I have permission to take my own child out the country. How kind. I don’t agree with having to do this but I’m not about to have that discussion with border control. I’d just like into the country please. Weirdly there were no questions getting into Canada but I had to show it all coming back into the UK.
Avoid Heathrow Airport
Living in Glasgow it is a massive bugbear that it’s quite hard to get to a lot of places, particularly in low season, without connecting somewhere. I haven’t flown through Heathrow for ages and this trip reminded me why. Anything they could do to make travelling with a baby stressful, they went out of their way to do so. Some highlights included being refused access to a lift “because it was for wheelchairs only” and made to use an escalator. There was just one wheelchair using the lift so this made no sense at all! Being made to wait in a huge queue at border control because a baby passport can’t be used at the electronic barriers but then watching all the adults whose passports wouldn’t work at the barriers skip to the front of the queue. And a particular favourite, standing for five minutes while they tried to take a photo of the sleeping baby whose closed eyes were all you could see as he was smushed against my shoulder before I was let back into my own country. After a 10 hour overnight flight with no sleep this was a wonderful welcome home! Thanks.
And finally, enjoy the experience!
Heathrow aside, not in a million years did I ever think I’d enjoy flying with a baby. I thought my stress levels would go through the roof but the flight actually gave me time to enjoy lots of cuddles but also some me-time. The white noise and gentle motion of the aircraft is the perfect setting for sending baby off to sleep. Food and drink is brought to you so just sit back, get comfy and enjoy a film, a book or a snooze. Perfect!
Get us outside 