Airlines

OK so I have a *bit* of experience with travelling with kids (Miss Maya has made more than 2 dozen flights ) and I've always flown Qantas. Not entirely sure why, as we've always had minor little niggles with them, but Dad is a platinum frequent flyer with them so I guess that helps.

Well the last time we flew Qantas was when I went to Oz in January and they were an absolute and utter disaster. To cut a long story short they assigned the bassinette (the one that we had confirmed at check-in to a 16 mth old who exceeded the weight limit, and were *kind* enough to give me a spare seat next to me to sit the eight-week old gremlins on . Oh and Maya's meal was inedible. PLus their customer service processes suck majorly.

So I vowed never to fly Qantas again and we came back Air NZ. No problems there, just your standard run of the mill flight, but we did get a bassinette.

But getting to the point of my post, yesterday we flew back to Syndey on Emirates. It's the first time I've ever flown Emirates and I can't even begin to go one enough about how GREAT they are! They gave us not one but two bassinettes, Maya got a great kids pack with toys etc, and her meal was not only healthy (spag bol) but must have tasted OK coz she polished the lot, our meals were pretty OK too, and they even gave me Johnsons packs for the gremlins with rattles and bibs and baby powder/wipes. Plus the crew were super friendly, and the customer service director even took Mercedes for a walk arouund the plane for a good half hour while I gave Maya some attention.

So if anyone is thinking of travelling in the near future, I say go Emirates - and the most bizarre thing of all is that Emirates are actually cheaper than Qantas and AirNZ, yet you get a much better package!

Yep!

That sounds great! Hopefully it wasn't a one off and they are always like that!

emma - are you not supposed to be on holiday..??? get off the computer and stop looking in on us, you'll be fine without us.

i have always heard good things about emirates...

How come you fly so much?

Ive had bad experiences with AirNZ and freedom, said i would never fly freedom again. I dont think emirates got to oz from CHCH cos we looked at them last time but if that changes then i will def give them a go

I'm a staunch Emirates flyer, we only fly them on our trips to oz. They have a great kids club for the older ones, and I agree the service is superior to the other airlines. My only boggle is the times they fly in and out of Oz to NZ

oh dear don't say Air Nz is no good as we are going to Uk in less than 2 months with them and on the way back via USA. we hve already got the bassinet booked - as were allowed to prebook due to Rhyley being under 8months. So we have booked all our seats and meals for Rhyley and Brooke.
Only complaint I have about any airline that I have flown with (qantas,singapore,British airways, Airnz) they never had anything for the likes of my son 13 who is too old for the kids pack but still likes things like that in his own age. They could give them something like a pack of cards or something after all we pay adult fare for them.
Maya I want your job so I can travel... what job took u to UK for PR?

AnnC - The London trip wasn't PR, it was to work on a book project with an English guy and a German guy, and so London was the best place for us all to get together (couldn't convince them to do Auckland!). I couldn't leave Maya so she came with and took my sister who was on holiday from uni to look after Maya while I was working. Waaaay back in the depp, dark dungeons of OHbaby! history (Nov 04)there are some pics.

I didn't find Air NZ too bad, but that was only short haul. Flew Qantas/BA codeshare to London and the Qantas legs were dreadful (they wouldn't let Maya sit in the bassinette and she was too long to lie properly in it so I had to nurse her all the way from Syd to Bangkok) But the BA legs were OK coz they have different basinettes and she fitted much better,

If you want to guarantee a seat for her then you do have to pay a normal child fare, but if it's not a full flight they generally block out a seat next to you so you have more space. Maya was 20 mths when we went to London tho and she still was entitled to a bassinette. As I said she was too long to lie in it, but I was able to prop her up in it a little so she could sleep (not that she did much of that ) The weight limit on the bassinettes is around 12kg (luckily for us Maya was small!), and they usually assign them to the youngest baby on the flight (hence why I was so mad that they gave it to a 16 mth old last time) but the 747's have several bassinettes so you have a good chance of getting one.

Toni_akl wrote: We're looking at going to London in August/September. Caitlin will be around 13/14 months then. Any suggestions for us as I know she'll be too big for the basinette then If she has a seat does she still fly for free?

When we went to America in June, we flew Quantas and they were great, my sister got upgraded because of a mix up with allocated seats so I was left alone with Xanda and the staff were brilliant, they took him for a walk so I could eat my breakfast and go to the toilet. We also had some problems with the old couple next to us, they were stuck between me and another lady with a baby, and as soon as the lady sat down she said "those babies better not cry the whole time" the flight attendent heard her and told her it wasn't nice for her to talk about us like that while we were sitting there and maybe she could be polite to us. The flight attendent then had to come back when the old bat was complaining about not being able to go to the toilet because she was stuck between us and the bassinettes were down on each side, so she couldn't get past.

We also flew Emirates to Oz in September and found them awesome as well, they were all friendly and offered a lot of help, and didn't mind Xanda crawling around their feet while they trying to push the trolleys up the aisles.

Toni - when we flew we still had to pay for Xanda even though he wasn't taking a seat, it was 10% of the airfare plus normal taxes.