I flew Malaysian airlines with dd4 when she was five months old, by myself. NEVER AGAIN. LOL. She was a difficult baby, though, cried a lot and wouldn't comfort suck.
The airline was great, the staff were very helpful, but I found that it was very disruptive to have her in the bassinette and settled only to be told I had to put her on my lap again when there was turbulence and the seatbelt sign was on. (How it was any safer to have her just in a little lap belt than velcro-ed into the bassinette was beyond me, but, oh well.)
At one point on the way back, they let me sit in business class for a while, probably to give the people in cattle class a break! Staff were great at holding her when I needed a toilet break.
I found it very helpful to check my stroller at the gate rather than through luggage, so that I didn't have to carry her. If I ever had to fly with a baby again I'd probably take a sling.
Another thing - it was hysterically funny trying to get a passport picture of her that would meet requirements. In the one that was accepted she looks like she's just been told she's going to be dropped from the plane at 30,000 feet.
Thank you everyone! There have been some really fantastic comments and some really useful information.
Roya - Thank you for your huge post, there's a lot of great info in there that has given us some stuff to think about. I seriously hope I don't have a chucky baby because I have THE biggest spew phobia ever, some mum I'm gonna be! And yes, I have even freaked over regurged breast milk, but admittedly not my own child. I hadn't thought of that though so I will def make sure we have clothes etc.
My husband is English and I have dual citizenship and lived there for several years so at least we know what we're getting into! I think we're planning to just get her Aussie passport and get her UK one when we get there since we'll be living there (yes, one way flights) but obviously I need to make a few phone calls and figure out the logistics of that given that we cant wait any longer to leave (major family reasons) and I will have to go into the UK on my British passport so not through the Aussie line etc.
We'll definitely still do the stopover - if we were doing UK to Australia we wouldn't because we'd be shattered with the jetlag but given its only a couple of hours time difference i think we should be alright, plus DH REALLY needs the downtime before it gets all full on again (long story).
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