Sleeping arrangements for children on night flights?

L

Liquorice

Registered User
I'm flying back to the UK with my 1 year old for Christmas. It turns out there are no bassinets available on the flights we booked; both are night flights.

I am wondering how other people manage sleeping arrangements with children on overnight flights without a bassinet (soon we won't be able to squeeze him into one anyway), and whether it is better to take a day flight?

I have tried having him sleep on/beside me on a previous flight, but he didn't settle into it well at all.

Any advice or experience?
 
Did you get a seat for him? Mine slept in their own seat at that point (head on my lap, pillows, blankets, etc.), never fit in a bassinet past 6 months anyway, at least not the airlines we flown at that age. There aren't many other options, unless you want to take a car seat on board, some children do well with that.
 
no way would i EVER take a day flight if a night one is available! imagine trying to entertain a 1 year old for 10+ hours!!!
not fun, for anyone, parent, child or flight neighbour....
 
We have been lucky that even if we weren't able to book a bassinet or an extra seat, the flight attendants were nice enough to give us three seats provided the plan wasn't full. We'd request at check-in & even as we board. Your child might end up sleeping in your arms but you will be grateful for the extra space.

It also depends on what kind of sleeper your child is. If she /he sleeps in any condition (consider cabin lights on & in flight announcements) then you might get lucky with an evening flight. If your 1 year old is easily entertained, walking up the aisle & being passed on to flight attendants (I've seen this !!!) then you might be better off with a day time flight. Just bring LOTS of entertainment.
 
Cara - I'm the opposite, I tried a night flight to Australia once (it's only 9 hrs though) and found that baby slept, but I didn't - and when we landed at 7am, I had to be doing stuff all day and couldn't rest - I was a wreck!! After that, I've always taken the day flights. Yes you have to entertain the kids, but they always nap a little, plus when we land we can just go straight to bed and be refreshed the next day.

This Christmas though, we're going back to Australia and we're going to try the night flight again. I have two kids now - age 16 months (when we fly) and 3. They are both great sleepers, generally, so I'm hoping they sleep the whole flight back, and we can too. My 16 month old has dwarfism and because of that will still fit in the bassinet (there are benefits to dwarfism!!), and we have reserved the bassinet row - so hopefully that works out. I know it can always fall through at the last minute... The 3 year old has her own seat.

I'm not holding my breath for it to be a great flight, but I figure it's worth trying it again... plus it fit better into our schedule this time...

(oh and Liquorice, my daughter doesn't sleep well when she is held either. I have to put her down for her to sleep. So if we DON'T get the bassinet, it is going to be a long night, I'm sure!!)
 
when i took my two the first time, it was over 36 hours door-to-door. we got stuck on the tarmac on a plane for over 5 hours because of a blizzard. we could not get off, because it was a diverted flight and they didn't have security at the airport because they weren't expecting us. my kids were 2 and 5 weeks. i did: hk-tokyo-portland, or-vancouver-calgary-saskatoon (where we were diverted to)-regina.

i only WISH that it had been a night flight from tokyo to portland. it wasn't. so, my kids were awake right up until we were diverted to saskatoon. it was an absolute nightmare. i was by myself and so beyond tired, it took me hours to fall asleep.

the second time we did it, i took my helper. we had an evening flight to shanghai and then an overnight there. we were on the plane bright and early the next day (7 or 8 am flight). there was ZERO inflight entertainment for my then 4 & 2 year olds. i had to entertain them for 12 hours. then try to keep them awake for the next 3 legs of the trip once we landed in vancouver. by which point they were exhausted, i was exhausted and extremely grumpy.

the last time i did it, we left hk around 10am to beijing, then we had a couple of hours in beijing and direct to vancouver from there. my kids were now 5.5 & 3.5. because it was a 10-12 hour flight, and we borded at 3pm in the afternoon, they fell asleep at what would have been about 8:30-9pm our time. luckily this trip, we stopped in vancouver (no onward flights). when we got there, i was exhausted, but my kids were not too bad. they got some playtime in the playground with grandma and grandpa(we arrived in the afternoon) and i got to nap. the kids then woke up around 430am or so... the jetlag didn't affect them to badly... so i was able to recover much faster.

entertaining 2 kids for 12-36 hours in a small, confined space.. where they need to be quiet so they don't disturb others is NOT fun...

but it will depend on a couple of factors:
1) which direction you are travelling
2) how many timezones you cross
3) age of your kids
4) how well they sleep
5) if you will have help when you arrive at your destination to help you get over the exhaustion from the trip.

the length of the trip and the jetlag we all suffer going to canada is one of the reasons i will not go for less than 3 weeks...preferably more.
 
We bought a seat for our then 18mth old last time we flew to US. He is never a good sleeper, but got so tired he fell asleep. But he slept lying down with head on my leg (instead of sitting in his seat) so really not much fun for me coz I can't move. But it's just one "night" and you'll get through it.
 
I think also part of it is whether you are able to nap when you get there. When I first did the overnight flight, my daughter was only about 7 weeks old and was feeding frequently so I wasn't able to nap easily. It took me about 3-4 days to catch up on sleep!! This time, my two are older and can be looked after by other people easier so I should be able to nap when we get there...
 
I always fly during the day as i just cant cope with night flights and the lack of sleep.My daughter is very goon on long haul tho- last time she was 20 months we took an ipad and some new toys she hasnt seen before and she was fine. i find she was too big for the basinet at 10 months so never bothered with that. we got her a seat every time and i think that was a key to successs for both night and day flights. Why arent they any basinets? I assume you are flying BA? The have this great seats like Baby Bjorn for older kids instead of bassinets. Cant you ask to go on a different flight so they have thenm availiable? id not just take baby ergo or bjorn so you can strap the little one and its quite likely he will sleep on your chest and you dont have to worry about holding him etc.Plus it means yo have free hands to eat:) it will be ok.Ive done that flight 4 times on my own and althought i was exhausted it is doable:)
 
Thanks for your replies.

I was hoping that we wouldn't have to buy him his own seat for another year. On this particular flight, we can't really get him his own seat because we are flying business so too expensive. Anyway, the seat configuration is too separate for him to be near me if he's in a different seat. I doubt the company would pay for an additional seat for him. One thing we could do is get 3 economy seats.

Alfa, its Cathay and they only have 2 bassinets on that flight and both of them are booked already. Its our own fault because we changed our flight details quite late.The baby bjorn idea is a good one. I'll take that anyway because, yes, it will free up my hands at least so will be useful even when we aren't sleeping. I've flown on my own with him at 5 months, but different then because he just slept all the way. Now he is into everything I know it will be exhausting!

Still weighing up night flight versus day flight. If he sleeps former is surely better...but so worried he won't.

Carang - feel very lucky I don't have your journey to do!
 
If you fly business it's a flat bed so if you can get baby to sleep on one corner of the bed then perhaps you can squeeze yourself next to him/her depending on your size. Or try putting baby on daddy's chest?
 
I'm for night flights. For us it was much easier to keep our little one awake at the other end (UK) to help reduce the jetlag than keep her entertained on the 12 hour flight!
 
wah! if you are going business with a flat seat... i would definitely opt for night flight!... much easier than in economy!
 
If its bussiness I wouldnt worry just get baby bjorn or ergo and you wil be fine. I agree the seat configuration is not great to have a separate seat. I went bussiness a couple of time with my daughter and we kind of managed to squeeze in together on the seat. If I reacall there is usually one set of seats that are next to each other se if you can get those if not just get one that is the most private. Anyuway there might be a spare seat and it is quite likely the stewardesses willl let you use it.I assume you are flying with your hubby so you should be fine. For the future what I found the most useful (our company wouldnt pay for the bub until she was 2) was getting premium economy with three seats. The Quantas and BA have them.The food was way better than economy, the cabin was smaller and they had way more space. I also used t stress that people in Bussines Class would hate me for flying with a child but suprisingly everyone was really nice - most travellers were dads themselves so I even got one who offered to look after her when I went to the loo etc:)
 
I think it's funny to read these comments and think to myself, "I always fly whenever the ticket is cheaper." I usually don't have much to choose from--if the ticket is at night, it's at night, if it's in the day, it's in the day.

But, anyway, it's a 20-hour flight (of in-air time, not counting time spent on layovers which usually is between 6-10 hours) when we fly back to where I'm from so I pretty much just always have it set in my mind that it's going to be exhausting and overwhelming and then if it happens to be better I'm truly surprised. Flying on United States airlines is the worst too. When I flew with my 1-year-old it was a rough flight. I made the entire trip by myself (well...accompanied by my 1-year-old). He had his own seat coming back to HK but he didn't want to stay in it. All of the usual tricks (toys, games, food, video etc.) didn't do anything for him--he was just about as sick of being on that airplane as I was. The passengers on the plane did not take kindly to walking him around the plane (he was walking on his own by that point) as he tried to grab at things on their tables and was making noise so that wasn't so much fun.

But, basically no matter what it's a full 24-hour period of traveling for us so whether I leave in the AM or PM is kind of inconsequential. It doesn't really matter at that point because in a new environment my children are too excited to sleep. I basically didn't sleep at all the entire flight and he slept just a tiny bit. I was burnt out and exhausted when I got back but then again, that's what I was prepared for so it wasn't a big deal. Thankfully, I had family waiting to help me out after I got back.

I think that the most important is the arrival time in the OP's case. I would book my flight so that I can arrive at night so a strong bed-time routine can be established--for adult and child. It also depends on how long you'll be away for and as carang said how many time zones you're crossing. When I go back to where I'm from I switch days--so my body is on HK daytime and where I'm at is the middle of the night. If you're only going to be there a week then it probably doesn't matter that much to try to get over jetlag but if it's longer then it's good to fall into a routine and adjust your body to the new time zone from the get-go. Also helpful is to get out and get a full dose of sunlight the next morning and eat frequently and on schedule with your destination. Jetlag with little kids--especially if you worked really hard to develop a consistent schedule--can be a real pain. Good luck.
 
We have a one year old and have taken him on the UK connection 8 times. We are fortunate enough to go business and we always have a seat for him and we always fly at night. Did the day time flight once, never doing it again. Him and I have the two middle seat on BA which is the only airline that have seats close enough together that I can see, hear and touch him. He always used to sleep in his own seat but on the way back from Summer in Europe in Srptember (11 months) he slept half the night in his seat and half in mine as he us much more aware of his surroundings. The seats are wide enough that I can lie next to him. I am not saying you will sleep like a princess but it can be done. Cathay Pacific seats are too far apart and not wide enough - even in first class.
 
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