AONE4 with Baby-on-Board

[jamesatfish]

As promised in a thread a few months ago, I thought I'd share a trip report from my first AONE4 with our 6 month old daughter in tow. This is her first set of flights anywhere and she is our only child, so we've got zero experience traveling children.

Given the polarizing nature of the 'kids in premium classes' topic I hope someone at least finds our experiences interesting.

CBR - SYD : QF704, Business

This was our very first flight with our daughter, so we were particularly nervous about how she would handle the flight. We are carrying on two bags with 90% baby stuff - one with bottles, food, nappies etc, and a second with toys, blankets, clothes and a few parent bits and pieces (like my laptop / iPad). We bought a baby bjorn carrier for our daughter so she is strapped to my chest around the airport, leaving both hands free for luggage and boarding passes.

We were seated in 4A & C on this flight - both cabins were quite full. Our daughter is still breast feeding so that was our takeoff/landing strategy to combat pressure changes. As we'd been at the airport since about 7:30am, and QF704 was late boarding by about 30 minutes, bub was falling asleep in the carrier only to be woken repeatedly by the cabin PA announcements. When passed over to Mum for the flight we strapped her into the lap belt and she promptly fell asleep.

No need for the landing / takeoff feeding on that flight - she actually slept the whole way.

SYD First Lounge

Obviously not an actual flight, but worth a mention due to the fantastic treatment we got from the staff there. The restaurant staff went out of their way to find us a suitable table when it was fully occupied, and without any prompting the front desk staff found me in the restaurant and asked if my wife would prefer to sit in 4A rather than 5K (I have our daughter on my booking so I was allocated 5A which is the bassinet, and 4A was already allocated at the time we booked). Everyone went out of their way to help which was a huge relief.

 

[jamesatfish]

SYD -LAX : QF11 First

This was the flight I'd been worrying about most - 14 hours traveling with a baby who had never flown before, in a cabin where people probably feel the most entitled to a quiet nights sleep. Thankfully the flight was as good as we could have hoped.

I had planned after boarding to introduce our daughter to our immediate seat neighbours just to clear the air and let them know that we are going to do our best to keep her well behaved for the flight. Turns out that most of them come up to us to say hello, with several even reassuring us that they had been in the same situation with their own children in the past so they would not be worried by the occasional scream and baby tantrum. Several flight attendants including the CSM all offered to take care of her if we wanted rest or a sleep. Certainly not the hostile welcome we'd expected.

She didn't sleep for the takeoff this time, but did take a small feed and was generally settled. We planned to keep her awake until after dinner, when we'd follow our usual bedtime routine, but she got a bit cranky and fell asleep about 30 minutes into the flight. With the First suite layout my wife and I sat in the same seat (one in the jump seat) so we could pass her between us and spread the baby stuff over the table in the middle.

Seat 5A has a bassinet, which is a very clever cut-out in the wall between the seat and the window for which a cover is removed after takeoff. A 'grid' made of seat belt material serves as security for the baby - when in place it's basically like a soft fabric cage stopping baby from flying out or hitting the bassinet walls in turbulence. Unfortunately it's a really cramped, unfamiliar environment for a baby used to sleeping in a larger cot, and our daughter lasted no more than 30 seconds asleep in there on the occasions we placed her in it. It's probably best suited for babies around 1-4 months old - anything more and the space is too enclosing for them to be comfortable.

It turns out that dinner service (and thus cabin lighting) continued for much longer than our daughter's pre-sleep routine, so I took her up to the Business lounge which was thankfully empty, allowing me to turn off the reading lights and put her to sleep.

TBC - next flight just about to depart...

 

[jamesatfish]

What we've learned so far:

*Whilst 5A is the bassinet seat, I wouldn't pick it next time around. At 6 months our daughter was too big to sleep in the bassinet, and the proximity of that seat to the galley and the FA's clothing cupboard (both of which have bright lighting) meant our daughter stirred from her sleep on a few occasions due to the sudden change from dark to light shining in her eyes.

I'd go for 5K next time - still the most private row for breast feeding but it seems like much less traffic through that aisle and no cupboard next to the seat.

*Try to bring forward your bed-time schedule so that it's about 4 hours into the flight, which is when the lights are dimmed for sleep and after most of the cabin disturbances (including the FAs making up the beds) have finished. It's much easier to get our daughter to sleep when the environment is darker.

*If bottle feeding, plan at least 30 minutes ahead. Our daughter needs one supplement bottle before bed so we asked an FA to heat the sterile water for us. It took about 20 minutes for the bottle to come back, at which time the water was too warm so we had to wait a further 10 minutes to cool down. If you're used to a shorter reaction time when baby starts crying for a feed this is quite a shock.

 

[jamesatfish]

LAX Transfer and AA Lounge

LAX was our first encounter with baby-related travel delays.

Our first problem was listening to the TSA usher at the US immigration queue, who directed us into a 'special assistance' line on account of our baby. Turns out this is just a ploy to keep us from holding up the 'normal' travelers - 45 minutes is the longest I've seen to process 10 people in front of us in the queue, none of whom appeared to speak English. For future reference, ignore the usher (especially when first off the aircraft) and use the regular queues.

After waiting for our luggage (again first flight I've done that for a long time) we had to wait in the quarantine queue to declare the baby formula we were carrying. After 10 minutes there someone decided we weren't a quarantine threat and let us bypass the xray and inspection process.

Finally we had to recheck through security in T4, which was our first encounter with the liquids scanner. Another 10 minutes there to determine our water was not dangerous, but at least in the US you don't need to take your baby out of the baby carrier which is standard procedure in Australia.

Finally we reached the AA lounge, only to be told that as a WP I could only take 1 guest into the Flagship Lounge - apparently my wife and daughter count as 2. It took me digging out my daughter's First boarding pass (you get a pass as an infant, with no seat listed) to grant her access on the merits of her incoming international flight - at which point the lounge agent became more confused as my status is printed on my daughters boarding pass - so now the agent was wondering where my 6 month old daughters OW Emerald card was... All sorted in the end thankfully - and another sleep for my daughter once inside.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Finally we reached the AA lounge, only to be told that as a WP I could only take 1 guest into the Flagship Lounge - apparently my wife and daughter count as 2. It took me digging out my daughter's First boarding pass (you get a pass as an infant, with no seat listed) to grant her access on the merits of her incoming international flight - at which point the lounge agent became more confused as my status is printed on my daughters boarding pass - so now the agent was wondering where my 6 month old daughters OW Emerald card was... All sorted in the end thankfully - and another sleep for my daughter once inside.

Dragon of the year I think.

 

[medhead]

Finally we reached the AA lounge, only to be told that as a WP I could only take 1 guest into the Flagship Lounge - apparently my wife and daughter count as 2. It took me digging out my daughter's First boarding pass (you get a pass as an infant, with no seat listed) to grant her access on the merits of her incoming international flight - at which point the lounge agent became more confused as my status is printed on my daughters boarding pass - so now the agent was wondering where my 6 month old daughters OW Emerald card was... All sorted in the end thankfully - and another sleep for my daughter once inside.

Ahh my dream situation to which I have been practising my reply: "ok the baby will wait out here while we go inside" :lol
Unfortunately everyone let us in with our children and they have now grown up to the point that they can almost look after themselves.

 

[blueflamenco]

Ahh my dream situation to which I have been practising my reply: "ok the baby will wait out here while we go inside" :lol
Unfortunately everyone let us in with our children and they have now grown up to the point that they can almost look after themselves.

Hehe I like it

 

[jamesatfish]

AA 1954 - LAX -SFO

This was the final leg of our initial trip from Canberra. After waiting for about 4 hours in the AA lounge we finally boarded the 737 to SFO.

By comparison to the QF 737, AA's aircraft was far older, far tattier inside and much noisier both on the ground and in the air. Coupled with being at the end of a very long day, the noise really got to our daughter and she was much fussier on this leg, probably only sleeping for 20 minutes or so during the flight.

Interestingly AA do not provide the lap extension seat belts for infants, so their 'safety mechanism' is just to hold them tightly during the flight.

AA 18 - SFO-JFK

For this 5 hour flight we had originally booked a daytime journey, but with a last minute change of plans we ended up on the 11:15pm redeye service (delayed a further 15 minutes for good measure). We arrived in SFO way too early - about 5pm - but luckily the AA check in desk was open for other flights so we managed to offload our baggage. Unfortunately we were also dropping off someone who was on the QF flight back to Sydney, for which check-in didn't open until 7:30pm, so we had to spend a few hours ground side. SFO doesn't have the cleanest bathroom and change facilities so that didn't help things either.

After making it through security (another plus for the TSA allowing us to keep our daughter in her carrier so she actually slept right through the process) we stopped by the Admirals Lounge, but apart from the very friendly desk staff there was little of value there. The SFO lounge is way to small for the numerous redeye departures late at night, and the baby change facilities in the mens room are not only located in the only stall but are quite tatty as well.

Thankfully the United terminal is much nicer, and the 7 minute round trip on the moving walkway from security to the red carpet club entrance was a great way to put our daughter back to sleep.

The flight itself was quite pleasant - we flew on one of AA's 3 class 767s so the seats had a reasonable recline and with daughter on my lap she slept for pretty much the whole 5 hours (plus the subsequent 90 minute commute to Manhattan through peak hour traffic ).

So far so good with our travels - major screaming episodes have been contained to the airport lounges and all related to tiredness / loss of routine, so they've been easily fixed with a walk or a quick feed. I had originally tried to avoid night time flights so as to minimize disturbance to other passengers but so far it seems the shorter night flights actually suit an infant the best.

Next week is a redeye to LHR so we'll see if that theory holds.

 

[Batesy]

Dragon of the year I think.

Agreed, what a cow, I would have been giving said dragon a few choice words that included, please let me speak to your supervisor.

 

[anat0l]

Agreed, what a cow, I would have been giving said dragon a few choice words that included, please let me speak to your supervisor.

BA dragons can be notorious for the same thing.

Some of them are more forgiving for infants (i.e. under about 2 years), but once they are about toddler up to about 7 years then it's almost impossible to get into a BA lounge without them counting the kids against your guest count. And the difficulty is magnified when more than one kid is in tow.

 

[jamesatfish]

Agreed, what a cow, I would have been giving said dragon a few choice words that included, please let me speak to your supervisor.

I wish I'd had the presence of mind to respond with some of these glib replies...

Thankfully we weren't asking for favours or exemptions to the access rules, so it was easier just to present First boarding passes for everyone, baby included, than argue the toss with the lounge staff. But very stupid policy none the less.