Five tips for finding family-friendly flights

I’ve been writing a few more stories on travel planning recently, and here’s another with information you need before booking flights for the family.

These days, now my children are older, I wish I’d taken some advice offered years ago:

‘Don’t fly with babies and little kids! Avoid it like the plague!’

In fact, we have flown all over with our kids from when they were babies and I must say we have had some awful flights.

Sydney-Singapore with my eldest when he was 9 months old still makes me shudder.

Sydney-Nadi with two year old twins was an experience not to be repeated.

Here are some of my thoughts though about how we could have suffered less.

1. Never fly overnight unless you absolutely have to. Break up long journeys and stay overnight, or chose to fly a different route to avoid a night flight.

We will NEVER fly Bali-Sydney direct again until there’s a daytime flight! I’d go via Singapore to avoid it. That flight home with four kids destroyed the zen calm the holiday had given us!

2. Buy new books/craft/pens/drawing books and have them ready to pull out. Even if you fly an airline which offers great kids inflight entertainment, the novelty of a new toy/book/craft can be a lifesaver.

3. Send older kids as unaccompanied minors, and travel with the younger kids yourself.  Does this sound harsh?

I once sent my older boys to Scotland two days ahead of the twins and myself as I knew they’d enjoy the independence and that they’d find the twins a potential embarrassment if they misbehaved.

The boys were 13 and 11 and the twins were 3 or 4. It worked out very well with the big boys being well looked after and arriving safely to be collected by my sister.

4.Take heaps of food and drink as much as you can.  And at least two changes of clothes and plastic bags to put the messy clothes in. Just accept that a lot of that food and drink will be spilled… just get used to the idea.

And be grateful if you only get food and drink over you. Rusty Rocket once vomited all the way from Dubai to Glasgow and was helped off the plane into a wheelchair wearing only a blanket. And I didn’t smell too good either!

5.  Pick the airline that offers the best family-friendly options. It’s not likely to be a budget airline! Save up a bit more and fly a better airline.

Use this handy checklist to see which are the best kid-friendly airlines.

Long-haul flight can be made a whole lot more enjoyable for parents if they know what to expect in advance.

Cheapflights.com.au has prepared a breakdown of ten international carriers judged in terms of their child-friendliness.

You will see that free stroller check-in is nearly standard across the board. Generally reduced ticket rates also apply for children aged under two who are able to sit on their parent’s lap and sleep in a bassinet – usually around 10% of the adult fare.

In most cases, special kids meals can be booked in advance (usually no later than 48 hours ahead of departure) while most legacy airlines offer free advanced seating arrangements.

The list also adds a social media response category to show which airlines were shipshape in addressing queries over Facebook so you can get in touch with the carrier directly to double check the details for your particular flight.

I hope you have more luck finding family-friendly flights than I did when my kids were little!

We did get to travel business class a lot at various times when the older boys were babies, but even that was stressful. The disapproving looks!

Take care when choosing flights and go for family-friendliness and not just the lowest cost. It’s worth it in the end.

Do you have a horror story of a joyful flying-with-kids story to share?

Good luck in the air!

This post is brought to you in association with www.cheapflights.com.au.  Thanks for supporting this blog and its readers!