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Flight Advice
Flight Advice
Hi
I am flying out at the end of May with my partner and our (will be) 6month old son. We are booking our flights through our villa company and they will be with monarch.. on the villa company site it says that infants will not be allocated a seat but will sit on parents lap. On Monarch's website it says enquire at time of booking, and a seat may be available (in which case we can take our car seat), or a 'sky-cot' may be available. Has anyone experienced flying with this or similar airline with an infant who can help at all - just curious that the company seem to think that he must just sit on our knees, but if there is more available we want that, yet we won't be the ones booking the flights.
Many thanks
I am flying out at the end of May with my partner and our (will be) 6month old son. We are booking our flights through our villa company and they will be with monarch.. on the villa company site it says that infants will not be allocated a seat but will sit on parents lap. On Monarch's website it says enquire at time of booking, and a seat may be available (in which case we can take our car seat), or a 'sky-cot' may be available. Has anyone experienced flying with this or similar airline with an infant who can help at all - just curious that the company seem to think that he must just sit on our knees, but if there is more available we want that, yet we won't be the ones booking the flights.
Many thanks
Hi Carole
The airline will provide you with a seatbelt to put around your baby on your knee,
But in my experience with charter airlines, skycots will not be provided unless you specifically request bulk head seats at time of booking and these are not usually available on short haul flights. When you check in, it is worth asking if the plane is full and if not, can you have a spare seat.
The only other option if you don't want your baby on your knee is to purchase another seat and take a car seat/maxi cosy.
Hope this helps
Tricky
The airline will provide you with a seatbelt to put around your baby on your knee,
But in my experience with charter airlines, skycots will not be provided unless you specifically request bulk head seats at time of booking and these are not usually available on short haul flights. When you check in, it is worth asking if the plane is full and if not, can you have a spare seat.
The only other option if you don't want your baby on your knee is to purchase another seat and take a car seat/maxi cosy.
Hope this helps
Tricky
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Carole - I am afraid it is not really that easy - we have done this a lot with my two (now 6 and 3). Unfortunately as far as airlines are concerned you as a family are now second class citizens.
Monarch is at least not quite a 'charter' airline so at least you get a reasonable amount of room. I have not, however, seen them use skycots in the past.
The law is that a child under 2 MUST be on a parents lap for landing and take off - if you are lucky and have a spare seat next to you then you can put them in there for the rest of the trip - but the chance of that seat being empty is variable and a catch 22. If an extra seat is expensive, the flight is probably full and therefore chance of a spare seat is low - conversely if you could buy an extra seat for £50 or so then the flight is most likely only half full and you would probably be lucky anyway.
This is one of the downsides of having seats allocated at check in - if the airline puts someone next to you they will sit there. If you use a budget airline that has a 'free for all' system then the seat next to the squawking child (I recommend 'helping' them squawk during loading) is almost definitely only going to be used by someone as a last resort.
Unless you are flying off peak it is therefore likely that your little one will be on your lap for the entire flight. In our experience you can improve your chances of having a spare seat next to you bu booking the very last row - no one wants to be at the back near the toilets so if there is only one empty seat on the plane it is likely to be this one.
However - don't worry - good advice on how to cope with the flight can be found here :
http://www.badmothersclub.co.uk/jsp/ind ... atureid=12
The one thing that we did discover is how long it takes from the plane lining up on the runway to actual take off - childless people would say this is only about 20 seconds - it is probably nearer two minutes as you will discover if you let small person have their milk to help their ears equalise as soon as you think the plane is about to take off - they will have finished the milk before the plane has even got half way down the runway and therefore will be unable to equalise their ears once you are airborne - so hold the milk until you are actually in the air!
Moving on, can someone help me?
I am always peeved that as an adult with British Airways I can check in online and bagsy the best seats 24 hours in advance. I can use the fantastic system at the airport for printing out a boarding card in seconds and avoid all the queuing. I can also get me BA miles automatically added to my frequent flyer account.
Sadly, when I travel with the children, despite paying the same fare as an adult, I don't have access to any of these facilities. I know why (though I don't agree with the reasoning), but my question is - if when booking the tickets I put down my two sons as adults, would anybody either check, notice, or take any action if they did notice?
Monarch is at least not quite a 'charter' airline so at least you get a reasonable amount of room. I have not, however, seen them use skycots in the past.
The law is that a child under 2 MUST be on a parents lap for landing and take off - if you are lucky and have a spare seat next to you then you can put them in there for the rest of the trip - but the chance of that seat being empty is variable and a catch 22. If an extra seat is expensive, the flight is probably full and therefore chance of a spare seat is low - conversely if you could buy an extra seat for £50 or so then the flight is most likely only half full and you would probably be lucky anyway.
This is one of the downsides of having seats allocated at check in - if the airline puts someone next to you they will sit there. If you use a budget airline that has a 'free for all' system then the seat next to the squawking child (I recommend 'helping' them squawk during loading) is almost definitely only going to be used by someone as a last resort.
Unless you are flying off peak it is therefore likely that your little one will be on your lap for the entire flight. In our experience you can improve your chances of having a spare seat next to you bu booking the very last row - no one wants to be at the back near the toilets so if there is only one empty seat on the plane it is likely to be this one.
However - don't worry - good advice on how to cope with the flight can be found here :
http://www.badmothersclub.co.uk/jsp/ind ... atureid=12
The one thing that we did discover is how long it takes from the plane lining up on the runway to actual take off - childless people would say this is only about 20 seconds - it is probably nearer two minutes as you will discover if you let small person have their milk to help their ears equalise as soon as you think the plane is about to take off - they will have finished the milk before the plane has even got half way down the runway and therefore will be unable to equalise their ears once you are airborne - so hold the milk until you are actually in the air!
Moving on, can someone help me?
I am always peeved that as an adult with British Airways I can check in online and bagsy the best seats 24 hours in advance. I can use the fantastic system at the airport for printing out a boarding card in seconds and avoid all the queuing. I can also get me BA miles automatically added to my frequent flyer account.
Sadly, when I travel with the children, despite paying the same fare as an adult, I don't have access to any of these facilities. I know why (though I don't agree with the reasoning), but my question is - if when booking the tickets I put down my two sons as adults, would anybody either check, notice, or take any action if they did notice?
One of my worst experiences when travelling with children, was when we took our 12 month old twins plus 3 year old on holiday. My husband had one baby, I had the other and our 3 year old sat on the third seat.
I know we should've probably gone to Wales in Caravan,
but the sight of the air hostess standing over us with three red hot inflight meals still fills me with dread. Especially as she got quite grumpy when we couldn't immediately take them from her.
The best experience was travelling with BA to Barbados, when we had bulkhead seats with skycots and they slept the whole way!!!
Tricky
I know we should've probably gone to Wales in Caravan,
but the sight of the air hostess standing over us with three red hot inflight meals still fills me with dread. Especially as she got quite grumpy when we couldn't immediately take them from her.
The best experience was travelling with BA to Barbados, when we had bulkhead seats with skycots and they slept the whole way!!!
Tricky
Graham - my children often go as adults especially where there is no discount for children and I have always done that as even without a discount airlines, hotels, themeparks, restaurants, whatever will other fob them off with something inevitably cheap and nasty - so both of mine have been booked in online and boarding passes printed off without queueing at Heathrow when we have flown into Lisbon. Just don't even think about a emergency exit seat and they don't seem to care.
Also with hotels, if the underoccupancy ends up costing as much as paying for one or both of children being adult - I make them adults and always have, that way no put-u-ups or nasty allocated in some dank corner.
And if there is a discount for kids - it has to be a pretty decent amoint to make it worth taking a dive to being a second class citizen!!
Maddi
Also with hotels, if the underoccupancy ends up costing as much as paying for one or both of children being adult - I make them adults and always have, that way no put-u-ups or nasty allocated in some dank corner.
And if there is a discount for kids - it has to be a pretty decent amoint to make it worth taking a dive to being a second class citizen!!
Maddi
Carole - if you have not yet booked your seats and are flying from the South-East why not try a scheduled flight.
TAP from Heathrow or BA from Gatwick have roomier seats and less children so increased possibility of a sky cot and often are little or no more expensive than the charter flights. Free drinks also to calm the nerves !!
TAP from Heathrow or BA from Gatwick have roomier seats and less children so increased possibility of a sky cot and often are little or no more expensive than the charter flights. Free drinks also to calm the nerves !!