Need advice for a UK / RTW trip with kids

[Adrian B]

Hi all,,

looking for a bit of guidance and advice here about a 2011 trip..

DW and 2 ruggies (1 1/2 and 3 1/2 at time of travel) plus another relative will be flying to the UK for a holiday / family catch up around July 2011 (not happy, 5 miles from Farnborough, and it is the off year for the air show). DW and ruggies and rellie will stay there for about 6-7 weeks but I will only have about 3 weeks leave, so I will come back early. That said, I might look at making it a return via the USA with a couple of stops, maybe a bit of spotting. Something like New York, Down to the Cape, Texas, Seattle, then out via LA or San Fan.

A friend of a friend is a QF int F/A and suggested flying via Hong Kong , so we can break the trip up on the way over, and take the kids to Disneyland or something. Return flights from them will prob be without a break.

Who are the better airlines as far as kids go, and who will I need to buy seats for.

Is it cheaper to get a round the world for my trip

With rewards points, is there a good or bad to sign up wiht, given the volume of miles that will be travelled.

Thanks in advance.

[Bernie P]

Hi Adrian,

I did a RTW last year, but I HAD to go through Santiago as I was there for a conference. So I did Auckland & Santiago on LAN, then onto Madrid with Iberia, London with BA and return via Singapore with QF (A380). Of these flights, the only one I would avoid would be Iberia as I found the Hosties a bit dull...

Points were OK, nothing special due to class of travel I suppose!
From my observations, Emirates are great with travelling children, as was Finnair last month when I flew them from bangkok through to Berlin and Berlin through to Hong Kong! Everyone else I have flown (SK, QF, JQ, JL, IB and to some extent LAN) all seemed to only do the minimal.

I hope that this helps, and good luck!

[Greg McDonald]

Hey Bernie....do you need an apprentice? You travel far too much for one person!!

[Bernie P]

LOL... I must sit down and see JUST how many miles I did this past year...

• Doha x 2 via Dubai (EK) (Feb 09)
• RTW as above (July/Aug)
• Syd to Man London to Paris, Venice, Rome, Naples, Athens, Kusadasi, Alexandria and Cairo, Sicili Rome and return via Dubai (EK) (April/May)
• Syd to Berlin (BA AY & QF) (June)
• Syd Melb this last weekend QF (July)

Now I am looking at Doha again in mid September (Work again) via Dubai... It is amazing just how MANY applications I have had for bag carriers, PA's and now apprentices I have had!!!!

TIP: - Get into turf management if you want to travel!

[Matt D]

Adrian, We're halfway through a LHR-SYD-LHR at the moment with 9 and 11 yr olds. We also did SYD-LHR-SYD and two years ago and numerous

For us, decent inflight entertainment and night flights are the key to sanity when flying with kids. I appreciate your 3yr old is somewhat younger but my kids rate the SIA A380 entertainment and QF A380 entertainment very highly - purely for the games. They don't rate the QF B744 or A330 systems anywhere near as highly. BA gets the big thumbs down.

For my kids entertainment systems from gate to gate is great. QF and SIA A380 offer that. Not sure about the SIA B777's. Otherwise you have to entertain them for up to an hour from sitting down to getting a working in flight system.

I can't comment on other airlines as I haven't had them 'kid tested' recently.

This time we did QF LHR-SIN-SYD-HKG-LHR. It was 60% of the price of a round the world fare for us. We chose to break it in SIN and HKG and could only do two different cities on QF (without extra flights or extra costs).

Using the online QF multicity selector gave some ridiculous prices. A phone call to an agent halved these prices on exactly the same flights as we chose online.

Plenty in Singapore for kids and adults - Sentosa, Universal Studios, great food. Similarly Hong Kong - Disneyland etc. For us HK had the disadvantage of no QF A380 entertainment but night flights QF87 and QF29 help here.

If going QF be careful not to get a BA codeshare.

The summary from my perspective: Modern entertainment system and night flights

That's enough typing. Hope that gives some info. I'm sure others will share some info on other airlines/experiences.

Matt

[Grant Smith]

Just don't forget the gaffer tape...

You never know when a litigation happy seppo is going to be on your flight. Your f/a will appreciate your co-operation in this matter, as will the CEO of the airline of choice...

[Adrian B]

I hear that ear plugs around another three y/o could be handy as well.....