At that age I wouldnt do long haul with a kid on my lap, not even to save $1400. We have flown long haul with kids at different ages and have done toddlers at 12mths, 14 mths, 18 mths and each time we have bitten the bullet and purchased a seat - best thing we could ever do.
They move so much and as it is there is barely any room for an adult. The sky cots have a weight restriction of I think 11 kilos so that is something else to think about and my DD2 who was 12 mths when we did long haul last year lengthwise was struggling in it, so a larger baby would not be comfortable at all. Just my thoughts tho.
We did the US when DS was 18 months. TBH it was much easier than I had expected, but I really had prepared for the worst so anything was going to be good LOL. If you can get night flights that will be much easier cos chances are they will sleep most of the way. We left in the morning and DS slept all of 2 hours over the 14 hour trip. But when we came home (which was at night) he pretty much slept the whole way.
They do give you meals for them, mind you I brought heaps of food on board, I found it was great entertainment (especially sultana's dished out one at a time) and just in case he wouldn't eat what they had for him. I also brought heaps of toys, activities on board, but found we didn't use most of them. The ipad with videos and games on it was a great tool though.
I would also recommend a travel pram that you can either take on board or check at the gate, that was a life saver for stop overs and just transitting the airport, getting luggage etc.
We also dosed him up with Brauers calm, which helped (I think). It was difficult and uncomfortable having a toddler on your lap, but hey it's only X hours of your life in the scheme of things. Mind you we were lucky, DS was under 11kg's and we got bassinet seats, so once I got him off to sleep we'd pop him in the bassinet. It was a squish, but because he tends to sleep all curled up he was able to fit.
Luckily, I won't be alone - all in all, there's 5 adults (me, DH, my parents and bro) to help look after DS and DD who will be almost 4, so I'm not too worried about her. I suppose DS can always be passed around 5 adults if we need lol!
We've already got a stroller and will take the carrier too, so if needed DH can carry DS leaving the pram for DD. We're hopefully flying Singapore airlines, and I might take their bathers as Changai airport has a pool, so that should tire them out. Unfortunately, the first leg is an arvo flight, but Singapore to London is midnight onwards so hopefully they'll sleep for a chunk of that.
Sammie - I'll try and remember about giving bulkhead for a spare seat, although I don't want to then be away from the rest of the family, or at least seperate from DH and DD.
Ang - I so much would rather pay for a seat, but as we're scrapping the barrell to pay for the rest of us, plus car hire etc over there, $1400 could go a long way elsewhere
. We have flown long haul with kids at different ages and have done toddlers at 12mths, 14 mths, 18 mths and each time we have bitten the bullet and purchased a seat - best thing we could ever do.
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