long haul with baby on american airlines

sootydog

going to san francisco, los angeles and las vegas with 10 month old grandson (& his mom) early september on american airlines. are they baby friendly - heat food etc?! will be on two flights (dublin to chicago, few hours on ground, then chicago to san francisco) about 20 hours - must be mad i know!! all advise welcomed!!

rubia1409_2

I work for an airline (not American!) and we always try to help parents. See if you can pre book your seats and go for a bulk head, bassonet poition, this is where you can get a sky cot for the baby so he's not on your lap the whole flight. If you can't pre book on the internet, try phoning the airline and see if they can help you.

Try and take the baby buggy to the door of the aircraft and ask the crew if they have anywhere to put it on board for you. It will make life easier for you in transit, and crew will usually try and help (it is always better if it's one of the smaller buggies rather than the huge 3 wheeler type).

Crew can heat food by standing the bottle/tin in hot water for a few minutes and will be happy to do so. We would rather have a content, quiet baby than a screaming, hungry one!

Above all, keep calm! As long as you are calm the baby will be! I have seen so many babies screaming because the parents are getting more and more stressed! Don't worry if he crys-that's what babies do! If you get stressed he will cry more if you keep calm he will keep calm. I'm sure it will all go very smoothly for you and you will be absolutely fine!

sootydog

thanks for reassuring me! phoned american airlines to try and pre book bulk head seats - the guy on the phone tells me it is 'first come first served' at check in. can see us checking in very very early!!

floyd

I am flying to Vegas with American and by registering on AA.com I could choose my seats online. They make no guarantees that you definately will get them but you can check in online so it may secure your choice but I am not 100% sure.

Voyager2002

Don't do it!

Quite a large number of Americans are very unhappy about travelling with babies on aeroplanes. You will receive a number of dirty looks, or worse, from your fellow travellers. And they will feel that their journey is ruined by your presence.

Best for everyone if you defer travel for a few years.

Angua2

When I travelled to America with 4-month-old my fellow passengers were great (we walked the aisles with the baby and people seated near us offered to take turns).

Worst dirty looks/manners (one woman even went so far as to ask us to change seats when boarding, without even a peep from my child, 4 yrs old at the time) have been from Brits, I'm ashamed to say.

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Don't do it!

Quite a large number of Americans are very unhappy about travelling with babies on aeroplanes. You will receive a number of dirty looks, or worse, from your fellow travellers. And they will feel that their journey is ruined by your presence.

Best for everyone if you defer travel for a few years.

Angua2

Sooty,

Try seeing (if you've got tickets to hand with reservation code etc) if you can manage your trip with Galileo ViewTrip. You should be able to select seats and inform the airlines of special needs for your party.

https://www.viewtrip.com/

lisawal1971

Hi

I think every experience is different on even the same airline, however, we flew to Boston with my son who was 4 months. I found the service on AA to be very indifferent. They sat us in the middle row with people either side, we had requested bassinet/ bulkhead a long time before, we also checke din 5 hours before check in but found that many passengers were transfers and had good seats reserved all the way through. We had to ask for the baby seat belt, no blankets available, generally a bad experience. That said, the return trip was great, we got the bassinet seat and even though my son wouldn't settle in it we were able to use it as somewher to put all of his things. Still wouldn't say they were family friendly. Don't be put off though, it varies with each crew/ route and I have heard good reports about AA. I would call them up again and ask when on line check in opens, that way you should be able to get good seats, ask for a supervisor if needs be.

On the positive side, when we got to the states we found the people falling over themselves to help us out- from the airport to the hotel, ski resort, all very good and family friendly. I would try and take your own car seat (if allowed) as we found the one offered by the car hire firm sub standard and ended up buying one from Walmart.

Lisa

sootydog

heading off this saturday - fingers crossed that all will be ok. thanks to all for the advise. will let you know if we survive when we get home - one good thing, baby and his mom flying home without me!! peace................stopping off in boston to recover!!