Is there a best seat to have when flying with children to Thailand?

When flying with children getting the seat you want/need should be the most important part of your planning, this should never be left to chance. After all the thing you will be doing most on your flight to Thailand will be sitting, so make sure it’s the best seat in the house.

Before booking your flight.

To check on seat availability, you should call the airline direct or check and see if they have an online seat locator. If using a travel agent or flight booker, make sure you let them know that you want to book your seats at the time of booking your flight. This should not be a problem if you have children in your party, but some companies will get you to call the airline to book the seats yourself. If this is the case, don’t buy a ticket until you’ve check you can book a seat on with the airline.

We’ve now taken to booking our seats direct with the airline and reserving our seats at the same time. Sometimes we could have got the same flight a little cheaper if going with an online travel agent but having the seat booked before we get to check-in stops a lot of worry.

Bulkhead seats.
If you are traveling with an infant make sure you get the bulk head seat so you can have the bassinet. A special point to note here is check what type of inflight entertainment your aireplane has. Screens at the front, above the bassinet, won’t help in settleling your baby to sleep. Bulkhead seats are usually near a kitchen or the toilets, this can get noisy sure, but more importantly is the number of people comimg and going all night long may make your own sleep a little more than disturbed.

Window seats are good for sleeping in, with the window providing a perfect place to rest your head, should you get a chance to sleep. On internal flights in Thailand window seats are great for sightseeing; as soon as you leave the hazy smog of Bangkok you get wonderful views of Thailand from the air.

Aisle seats let you stretch your legs once in a while but you do risk getting bonked by other people’s elbows and hand luggage. Fellow passangers in your row, going for a walk or the toilet, will make sure you dont settle confortable for long as well, and if you leave those legs stretched out for long guarentted someone will trip, or a carte will remove a few layers of skin for you.

Front or back?

Back row passengers usually board first giving them first choice to the overhead luggage space but if traveling with children then most airlines will call families first anyway. If at the back, you should remember that it may take some time to get off the plane, with impatient and excited children this can make the wait seem like eternity.

The further to the back you go the less choice you’ll have when the food carte gets to you. Not a problem if traveling without kids, but a nightmare with picky eaters. Airlines now provide children’s meals, but usually these come with a supply of toys, pencils and other knick-knacks to keep the kids distacred away from the food.

Other considerations when booking your seat

Some other points I feel you should take into consideration before booking your seat.

1. Bulkhead seats have their tables in the arm rests making them fixed. This reduces the width of the seat overall making your seated position fixed. You cannot lift the arms up to create wider sleeping areas for children either.
2. The seats at the back should have a special mention for it often turns into a gossip gallery as all the flight attendants gather up and swap stories. Great for a bored passenger, not so great as a tired child.
3. If you couldn’t get the seat you wanted in advance don’t despair, just keep trying when you arrive at the airport check-in and all the way to the gate agent in charge of your flight.
4. A handy Web site called SeatGuru is worth a visit before you book your flights. It provides seat plans for all the aircraft used by most major carriers, providing useful information about seat width and pitch as well as some other funky stuff.

So do I have a perfect seat to fly with children to Thailand? No not really! When we travelled with only 3 of us we would book three seats together on the side, if it had 3 that is, this gave us the option of creating a bed in between me and Emma. Now there a four of us we get the 4 together in the middle. We always use airline that have seat back TV/ entertaiment units. For us, at last, bulkhead seats are a thing of the past, other than having the bassinet and some extra leg room, there is no benifit to having these seats. I find the fixed arms make for an uncomfortanble flight and the children can’t drape over you to fall asleep, and the close proximaty to the toilets and kitchen keeps everyone awake most of the flight.

I hope this post has helped, if so then please let me know in the comments box below or grad my RSS feed above.

The thought of flying with children can leave some people with a chill running down their spine, especially if the child is not yours and just happens to have the seat in front, behind or beside you. These worries are the main reason many people holiday in their home country or a driving holiday, but it doesn’t have to be that bad if you plan well for it. I have gathered some information from friends, forums and from my own experience and with this post and the next few in this catagory I’ll try and pass on as many hints and tips as I can.

All airlines use the same criteria when determining how much your child will be charged for flying with them, 0-2yo is an infant, 3-11yo is a child and 12yo upwards is a full adult when it comes to pricing. Infants will not be given a seat therefore the cost will be either zero or up to about 10% of the adult ticket. This will differ from one airline to the next so check what each has to offer you as a travelling parent of an infant. Children will be given there own seat and can be charged anywhere between 50-80% of the adult ticket, again this will change with airlines so check prices of a few different ones. Once your little ones reach 12 they will be paying full adult prices for them, so take advantage of their younger years and fly early.

I have travelled with children on long haul flights to Thailand when they were as young as 3 months and have learned something new on every trip but the overall piece of advice I can give is to prepare for your trip in advance and make it like a military operation, at some point it may feel like you are in a battle. Be early for everything! Be the first at check in, be the first at the departure gate, be the first to get on the aeroplane, be the first to get overhead luggage space near you.

If your child is in the infant bracket it’s best to book your flight early and make sure you get the bulk head seat to book your bassinette, or they will be on your lap the whole flight. They may be there anyway but should they fall asleep you have somewhere to put them.

Direct flights are always best if you can get them if not think about what time you will be stopping and what your little one will be like at that time. Now if your little one is an infant this is no problem but if they are older they will not thank you for that midnight stroll around some airport in the Middle East.

Taking off and landing will be the most stressful time for your children so plan for that. Make sure they have a dummy to chew on, a bottle to drink from or some lollies and sweets to suck on. This will help with equalising the pressure in the ears naturally. For younger children and infants it may be best to try and give them some Calpol to help with and ear pain but I’ve never found that to be necessary, yet!

During The Flight make sure you have a large pack of wipes for all those accidents and if with an infant ensure you have enough bottles, nappies and changes of clothing for a 24 hour period. If the child is young enough have them in baby grows the whole trip this will be the easiest way to change and it also protects them from the cold AC on flights. It may also be an idea to pack a light change of clothing for yourself as well, projectile vomit is not a very good ‘arrival loung’ look this year, or any year.

Infant food on airlines is a complicated issue these days so any advice given here is best checked first with the airline. When me and my wife travelled with our children we had with us a supply of ready made formula milk in cartons, some people have said they take the powder and get hot water while on the aeroplane to make up the bottles but we thought that would be a hassle. We found sterilised disposable bottles, so all we had to do was open the packet pour the milk into the bottle and get the stewardess to heat it for a few seconds, but as it was he was happy to have the milk without heating, so happy days.

I’ll stop now as this is getting a long post but in conclusion I would say you should really try and relax and prepare for your fight as much as you can. It will be stressful, especially if your little one cries a lot during the flight, but a crying baby is stressfull when not on a flight so do what you would do normally to sooth the baby. If the children are older then distraction works best but that is for another post.

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Thailand Travel Situation Update – Official Statement from Thai Government

As many of you will know, shortly after the yellow shorts ended their protests the red shirts started planning theirs. So once again Thailand was in the news for not such pretty reasons, but again the troubles were mainly concentrated in and around Bangkok. It has now all subsided and the following is an official Statement from the Thai Government aimed at tourists arriving to Thailand or already there.

Current Situation Update

The messages Thai Government would like to convey to all the tourists who are planning a visit to Thailand.

• The situation in Bangkok has returned to normal. Residents and visitors to Thailand are enjoying the Songkran Thai New Year celebrations throughout the Thai kingdom, including in Bangkok. (The Thai Government extended the Songkran festive holiday this year)
• On 14 April, the leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) called off their anti-government protests. By mid-afternoon, all of the protesters had dispersed.
• Shopping malls in Bangkok re-opened as of 13.00 hrs on 14 April and have continued to operate on a normal schedule since.
• Hotels throughout the country are operating as normal.
• The BTS SkyTrain, subway services, public utilities and communication services continue to operate uninterrupted.
• The Emergency Decree is only a temporary measure. Representatives from Thailand’s travel and tourism-related trade associations are scheduled to meet with the Thai government on 17 April to discuss the lifting of the Emergency Decree at the earliest possible time. (src)

Lets hope this wonderful country sorts out these political battles without destroying the great holiday destination. From what I’ve heard from friends still in Krabi and Phuket you would hardly notice the country was in turmoil.