Tuesday, China Squeeze, China Bambina and myself fly about 15 hours from Shanghai to SF, go through customs and immigration, then another maybe 3 hours to Denver. We’re going cattle car. And since the airlines charge 75% of an adult ticket price for a 1 year old, we decided on choosing the 10% price for holding China bambina in our laps the whole way. Yes, that is insane, but also saves about USD1,200 on the round trip ticket. And yes, China Bambina is loud!
Any advice from seasoned international travellers on coping with the transit and later the jet lag?
I never let Cranky Jr have candy… except on a plane trip, I’ve been known to pack “safety pops” (lollipops that have a looped-string handle instead of a stick). You’d be surprised how content that can keep a little one for a few minutes. Granted, it gets real messy, but I decided I could live with the sticky mess given the benefit. To be honest, with close supervision I’ve let him have the ones with sticks, too.
Pack lots of little snacks that take a long time to eat. And practice stretching exercises that you can do on your laps, like stretching her arms out and then crossing them tight over her chest, doing same thing with arm and opposite leg, etc…
Pack more of everything than you think you’ll need (diapers, snacks, food, wipes, clean outfit).
Start playing with her BEFORE she gets fussy & bored.
And don’t sweat it too much if she is loud, or fussy. The plane is loud anyway. Despite what the crankier passengers may seem to think, babies are babies–she can’t help who she is. It’s louder to you than it is to them (your ear is closer). I’ll cross my fingers that she’ll sleep a lot for you!
I still vote for putting the child into the luggage compartment. Of course, if you have access to powerful enough drugs, that may not be necessary.
Or maybe you wanted serious answers…
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Make certain spawn has something to suck on to help relieve pressure build-up on the ears. Not just to stop other passengers from lynching you when spawn screams from the pain, but because spawn WILL scream from the pain if it has no way of relieving the pressure… do it for your kid (that this will reduce the decibels your fellow passengers have to put up with is a bonus).
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If possible, adjust spawn’s sleeping schedule prior to flight (I realize this is a bit late in the game for this) so that the longest portion of the flight is also spawn’s sleepy time. Much easier to have a sleeping child on your lap than a squirming one.
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Talk to the airline… try to get your cattle car seats in the very back row… not only is the tail section (marginally) safer in the event of a bad landing, but you will have at least one row of people less ready to murder you and spawn halfway through the trip if spawn acts up. Easier to defend yourself and spawn when there are fewer attackers.
When I first started posting here, one of the first threads I spent much time with was about horror stories of “other people’s” children on airlines. What inspired me to contribute to it then still holds – parents who think that it is everyone else’s responsibility to adapt to their spawn are arseholes… while some allowances have to be made for children being children, it is the parent’s primary responsibility to make the journey as painless as possible for not only their child, but for everyone else – you have custodial responsibilities…
God, I wish they still had smoking sections on plane… they tended to have a lot fewer children.
And I will acknowledge that some people and their spawn aren’t impossible to deal with. I recently took a flight from Toronto to Calgary (about 4 hours with delays) – after sitting on the tarmac for about 45 minutes, the last passenger boarded (with 4 year old and 14 month old in tow) and took the last empty seats on the plane (right in front of me). Despite my misgivings, the flight was fine. Mom kept the 4 year old busy looking at books, and little spawn slept the whole way through. 4 year old even remembered to thank the stewardess for her juice (something 9/10ths of the adults around me were seemingly incapable of).
Here’s bagkitty’s rule of thumb. If you are worried that your spawn might inconvenience everyone else on the plane, you are probably considerate enough that your spawn is as well trained as can be expected. If you have no worries about what is going to happen, you are probably going to be hated by your fellow passengers before the flight has been off the ground for more than an hour.
As per bagkitty above, yes, get the last row (less inconvenience for others and you’ll generally be closer to the galley and heads (and the flight attendants congregate back there in case you wnat anything /need alcohol badly.
Depending on how you feel about it, you might also want to either ask a paeditrician or do a search on minor sedation. My parents flew with me and my brother a lot when we were younger, and we generally got lightly sedated whwn we were younger. This might explain things now. 
Seriously, this can be a good idea and can be done with minimal impact-most people advocate using Benadryl or something like. Ask a doctor, though.
Sedatives.
Administer in generous qualities.
You might even want to give some to yourself in order to take your mind off the length of your time dealing with the Satanic forces at the airport.
If you can arrange seat assignments with the airline, I’d suggest the following.
Have your seats assigned so that there is an empty seat between you two. That way, you’ll have some extra space for the tot. Granted, there’s no guarantee that it’ll REMAIN empty, but travelers will prefer to take an empty aisle or window seat over an empty middle seat any day.
Then, call the airline 12+ hours before departure to reconfirm your seating assignments. If the seat between you is assigned, ask to be moved to similar arrangements on the plane. Chances are, if the plane is full enough so that the formerly empty seat between you is taken, then no similar arrangements can be made. But people cancel, no-show and change their plans, so you might luck out.
And the above suggestions are also wonderful!
…until you know how it affects ChinaBaby. Some kids get revved up by it. If you want to experiment, give her some now (when you’re not trapped on a plane) to see.
But generally, I’m not keen on this idea.
I suggest you fly British Air. They have a secret policy of not seating infants next to male passengers. Thanks British Air!
Thanks for the suggestions.
Just to confirm, seems like everyone thinks the LAST row is the best row. I always thought they put the families in the bulkhead seat, but I think the last row is a good suggestion.
United wouldn’t let us pre-book the bulkhead seats, so we are going to go to the airport early. I plan on having China bambina run a few laps around the airport to burn up a little energy.
She’s never had candy (or at least not to my knowledge), so that will be a big surprise. Don’t think we’ll try the sedatives except for a lot of alcohol for me. I mean, how bad can 20 hours be???
I can claim experience on this one. We travel by plane a lot with Mame Jr - she’s 4 and has been o’seas I think 6 or 7 times (3 of which were straight return type trips, eg Aus-Singapore and back, and the others mulitleg both side of the USA and nearby islands trips) and interstate in Aus maybe 13 times. We keep a special travel amusements bag* for her.
I wouldn’t use the sedative approach, but that is just a personal take. Ditto the lollies - what, you want a kid with an unaccustomed sugar hit hyper on the plane?
Recommend the drink bottle idea for relieving pressure change. There is a bottle available here called the “Anyway-up-cup” which has a flange in the spout so even if it is tipped upside down it doesn’t dribble. We’ve kept her toddler ones for use on planes, 'cos they require strong sucking to work - better to combat the ear-pressure plus won’t leak on you when they get dropped. I’m sure a similar thing must be available where you are. (But don’t forget to burp the drink container when the plane has levelled out, as the pressure change also affects them!)
I’m sure you’ve thought of taking any regular medications, nappies and wipes and clothing changes in your carry-on (take many more wipes and nappies than you think you need - the plane may be delayed or diverted, and most planes don’t carry spares), but I strongly suggest you add infant panadol (paracetamol), even if you’ve never used it before. You just need to be mid-air when she pops a raging fever. Not. (This one is from bitter experience.)
*Travel amusements bag. If you expect to do this a lot, you can get a kid height bag with wheels and handle, that converts to a backpack (for the parents) if the child finally tires of dragging it around the airport. Mame Jr’s cost $Aus12, which equals $USpeanuts, and is still going strong. We take a few favourite interactive toys and books and a few newies plus scratch paper and pencils/crayons. I can recommend specific items that have been very suitable for Mame Jr, but this has already been a long post!
Good luck.