international travel with baby - what are the bassinets like?

Who has used the bassinets on international flights?

We're flying to europe in a couple of weeks, with DD who is 5 months old. I'm not sure what we need to take to put her to sleep in the bassinet on the plane.

Did you have trouble getting a bassinet after requesting one? I have no idea whether they overbook them or not?

Does the bassinet have a mattress in it that I can tuck a bunny rug around? Or do we need to bring something to be soft underneath?

Does it have some kind of harness so that DD won't go flying if there's turbulence? I got a baby b'air for when she's awake on our knee, but that won't be so good when she's sleeping in the bassinet.

Thanks!

We used one in June, when DS was just 12 months old. At that age is was actually a little small for him, but you will obviously be fine at 5 months.

In relation to your questions:

Did you have trouble getting a bassinet after requesting one? I have no idea whether they overbook them or not?

We had no trouble. We requested one when booking and arrived nice and early to secure it.

Does the bassinet have a mattress in it that I can tuck a bunny rug around? Or do we need to bring something to be soft underneath?

Strangely, I am having trouble remembering. But I do know we laid DS down in it without being concerned about his comfort level, so it must have had something soft-ish! One good thing we did was to take a second bunny rug and some clothes pegs and peg it over the bars on top to form a kind of nice dark tent.

Does it have some kind of harness so that DD won't go flying if there's turbulence? I got a baby b'air for when she's awake on our knee, but that won't be so good when she's sleeping in the bassinet.

It does have a harness. The one we had was like a kind of mesh of seatbelt material that pulls over the top. It feels kind of wierd putting your bubs under this contraption, but it is safe.

Have fun!!

She will fit in the basinette perfectly.

I travelled to the UK from Perth when DS was 11months and he fit in it then. I didn't take a mattress, but did rest his head on a pillow. You can't really put too much under them because you zip up a kind of cover over them (it doesn't touch them) but you can put a blanket over them before you put this cover thing over the top. OMG I need to do a diagram!

If you've already pre-booked the basinette, then they have to give it to you.

When they have turbulance (big turbulance when they put the seatbelt sign on) you have to take baby out of the basinette and put them on your lap with the special child seat belt you attach to your seatbelt.....whether baby is sleeping or not, and the turbulance could last 5 mins....that's pretty annoying! But rules are rules!

She should hopefully sleep well on the plane (my DS did and he was a rubbish sleeper at 11 months!)...the sound of the plane seems to lull them to sleep. It's good white noise I guess :)

Good luck and happy & safe travels!

Thanks for your replies.

I was planning to take several bunny rugs (as many as I can fit in the bag, basically - she's a spewy baby and it's a long trip - more than 24 hours by the time we reach Madrid). So I guess we'll have something to tuck her up with well enough too. I might take her sleeping bag on the plane - haven't decided about that because if she spews on it badly it'll be useless for the rest of the flight.

That's a good tip about the pegs, amberj, thanks for that.

MiniMax, thanks for describing how the cover works so clearly. I get it now, I think :)

Just a note as someone else was discussing this same topic on another forum and also my niece works in aviation......just because you request a bassinette seat does not mean you will get one. Those seats are allocated on a first come first served basis when you book in at the airport. Depending on the type of aircraft there are a maximum of five to seven bassinette seat available on any plane so my advice based on what the other ladies experienced is to get to the airport really early to book in....like 3-4 hour before the flight to make sure you get the seat you need......JMHO......

Thanks for that, melbel. I had already planned to get there incredibly early to make sure of the bassinet, as I know the flight will be an awful lot easier with it than without it.