Long haul flight with 7 month old

I've just booked a flight to Germany for myself and my baby who will be 7 month old at the time.

Now I've just read on the Thai Airways website that bassinets are only provided to babies who weigh less than 10kgs (no idea who much a 7 month old weighs, she is 2 months now and approx 5kg)
But it also says that bassinets are only provided for babies up tp 6 months.

Has anybody else travelled long distance with a baby around that age and has any tips on how to handle this? I can't imagine holding her for that length of time!

We have always requested a bassinette in advance and got them right up to 12months old. Flown thai before too. At the very least request front seats so you have the extra room and the fact that that is where the bassinettes hook on is an added bonus.

Try and organise it a head of time and get to check in early on the day so that you can make sure you can get your seats and verify it all. If it is 3 hours before be there 3 hours before so you are at the front of the line.

Good luck, travelling with a baby is hard but 7 months is a good age. Between 12-30 months is the hardest. Heres hoping your baby sleeps most of the flight. We did long hauls 2 times a year on average with two out of three of my kids at various baby and toddler ages

Also if you are travelling thai look into getting a hotel room in the airport for your stop over. Even if you are only there for a few hours it is worth it. Just having a shower and freshening up and maybe having a lie down or blobbing in front of the tv without having to be on show for other people.

I flew to the UK on my own with DS who was 7 months (8 months coming home). We flew Air NZ and their policy was that although we had our name down for the bassinet, they wouldn't confirm it until check in, that preference would be given to younger babies but it was also first come, first served (I still can't figure out how they manage to cover their bases!).

As it turned out, the bassinet was great for storing stuff, but no use whatsoever for DS, who was crawling and mobile by that age, so unless he was fully asleep I couldn't have him in the bassinet as he would try to climb out. He ended up sleeping on me most of the way there and back. which was fine. I was (am) BFing which helped a lot. There was one period of about 5 hours on the way there where he wriggled on my lap hard out for 5 hours flat, but aside from that he was awesome. He didn't cry once in 36 hours on the return trip (although I did ) and for the most part was happy.

I generally don't fly Air NZ, and I found staff on a couple of legs to be outstanding and on the remaining legs to be, quite frankly, p*** poor. Fellow passengers were a Godsend, a huge help. And after all, even if a baby does end up crying, aircraft cabins are noisy enough anyway and most people have their headphones on. They tend to seat those with children in the same part of the cabin, so there was a bit of solidarity going on

ETA DS didn't hit 10kgs till he was about 11 months. He fit the bassinet fine, but was too determined to escape it!

Edited by Gardengirl

We had a bassinet for a 13 mth old. She only just fit in it (her feet hung over the sides a bit!). We had requested one on booking but also when we went to check in (and this happened at all the airports we went through) we didn't have to line up for long - they don;t really like passengers with young children and babies to have to line up and wait for ages, probably for the sanity of the other passengers! Front packs/wraps are really handy to have with you too :)

Hi there,

Just back from a trip to the UK with my 9 month old. Just a couple of pointers...
* bassinets are never a guarantee
* even if you do get one, your bubba may not like it.
* even if you do get one and your bubba does like it, you have to remove them every time the seat belt sign goes on.
* great for storage ;)
* the cabin temperature seems to fluctuate between freezing and roasting, so be prepared with muslins and a merino wrap.

Any questions, just shout

Hi susyl

can i ask where did you book ur flight? We are going over to germany in june and ds will be nearly 15 months old. He is now 9 months and 7.27kg far from 10kg

Yup, very annoying if you've just got bubba to sleep and you have to get them out the bassinet and then try and get a seatbelt and round you and them I just slept with him next to me for most of the flights as it was easier and I didn't have to worry about the seatbelt sign coming on.