Guest Post: Long Haul Adventures

The following post was shared by Rob, devoted Dad to a 6-month old little girl. Rob recently travelled to the Philippines with his wife and daughter, and he wanted to share some tips from their experience. Thanks Rob!

I wanted to share my recent experiences of flying long haul with our 6-month old daughter. My wife is from the Philippines, and we’ve been going home to her family every year for the last 4 years. This year of course was going to be different, as we were bringing our 6-month old with us and didn’t know what to expect! Many thoughts raced through our heads prior to the flight – will she sleep, will she be too warm, too cold, will she take her bottle, will she cry?

Looking back on it now, none of these things matter, you just do what you think is best and never mind about anyone else on the flight.  It was great on the day of the flight though. We arrived with little to no fuss, airport check-in fine, no delays, etc. Flying with a baby is certainly different – no more queues waiting to board, shuffling about, oh no – we were whisked away in a priority lift that brought us right to plane which was something neither us had seen before, so that was great!

Once on board, we got our baby all set and they informed us of the bassinet which will be attached to the wall soon after takeoff, so that was all fine.  Luckily our daughter was fine and did not seem to mind anything going on. I think it made a difference as well getting an evening flight, as by the time we boarded the plane ay 8:45pm she was out for the count.

So, 8 hours later we arrived in Abu Dhabi, where we had a 2 hour wait before our next 8 hour flight to Manila. Now this waiting time is a killer.  At this stage, all of us were tired and knew we also had a long flight ahead of us, so my advice would be to keep your baby occupied and awake if possible, as you really want them to sleep again on the next flight or else they can get very cranky, so tire them out! 

So overall, it wasn’t too bad, but air travel will never be the same – forget about watching movies, having a few drinks, enjoying all the on-board meals, etc, oh no – your attention is on one thing only and that’s your bundle of joy.