Category — Travel Tips

I don’t think I can consider myself a flight expert. But with a few international flights with kids under my belt, I think I have learned a few things or two over the years. As we plan a Summer trip to Thailand with our kids, I start to collect information and start planning. One of the first thing is to secure a ticket to fly back from the land of the free to the land of smiles.

Getting Cheap Tickets

There is a great article from Frugal Traveler on booking a flight the frugal way. What a perfect timing! So this post won’t be talking about how to score the cheap flight to Bangkok. Because quite frankly, I just use the Thai travel agent. I think they have provided the best price.

Things To Know Before Flying with Kids

Getting tickets is just the beginning of your trip. It’s something that I used to think that I can now relax and plan my itinerary on my destination and get to the airport with plenty of time to board my flight.

Oh.. How wrong was I!

There are a few things you must do before (way before) you trip to help ensure that you will have a smooth flight.

1. Sign up for that reservation notification – Flights DO change!

Once you have booked your tickets and received your reservation, go ahead and give them your information (email or phone) so they can contact you if there is any changes in your schedule. Trust me, you will want them to contact you. Or make it a schedule to check your reservation every other weeks to see if there is anything changes.

My recent trip to San Diego I didn’t know about the schedule change till it was closer to our departure date. By that time, I was too late to be able to assigned seats for us to sit together. I forked up a few more bucks for extra legroom so that at least one of us will sit with our kids.

And I just got off the phone with Delta to book myself and my kids on a new flight back from Narita to Atlanta. Why? Because the flight from Bangkok to Narita has new schedule and I will only have less than an hour for the connecting flight. Luckily, I received notification way before my travel date that we are able to get booked on the new flight and get a good pick of good seats.

2. Find the best seat and get it assigned

If you plan ahead and book your flight early, your chance of getting your seats together with your family and your kids is high. So don’t wait until the last minute. Go online and pull up your reservation to get the best seat you can get.

I typically use Seat Guru or Seat Expert to check out for the best seat. I have to say it doesn’t give much of the ‘Best’ seat but it will give you enough information to make a good decision.

I didn’t know before checking their sites that on one of my flight half of the economy class will be equip with power outlet. Traveling with kids in this digital age, power outlet is like pure gold. So I wouldn’t have known that with our economy class ticket we will get the privilege to have such amenity!!! Needless to say, I go ahead and get our seat in the front section to secure myself a seat with outlet. Now, if I know how to find it on the plane.

3. Online check-in but double check your gate at the airport

With the airlines charge you from checking your bag to checking in at the counter, it’s probably one of a must do before you leave your house heading to the airport. Checking in online will not only save time but money when you fly with your kids. You don’t have to wait at the counter and can proceed directly to the gate.

But one travel tip based on my own mistake is to double check your gate at the airport before you start marching down the walkway. We did that before.. Trusting in the accuracy of the boarding pass in my hand, we headed to the wrong gate. Luckily, the new gate wasn’t too far from the original one.

However, when we travel internationally I still need to check in at the counter. Since we will be checking in our luggage.

4. Find Things to Do at Your Airport Beforehand

There is no doubt that half of your travel time will be spending at the airport. And if you have bad luck like us you might get stuck at the airport for longer than you want.

So before you head out, do a little research to check out if your airport for your connecting flight or your departure flight has any family-friendly facility. There are several resources that compile an extensive list of children play area in the airport in the US and major international cities. The most comprehensive one that I have found is the Kid Airport Diversion guide from Cheapflights. But make sure to double check with the airport website for more update information.

With so many cut back and changes in airlines industry, it’s safe to say that delay at the airport or for your flight is something we have to plan for. If your flight is on time and you don’t have any delay, consider it’s a blessing.

Our recent flight from Atlanta to San Diego was a blessing. Thanks to some of the travel tips I have gather from more experience travelers. We didn’t encounter any issues at all.  Actually, I took it back. We did had an hour delay due to the glitch in the system. It was a blessing that we were able to arrive on time after all that delay.

However, the return trip was a total opposite. We had a connecting flight at Washington DC. After we landed and headed to our gate for our connection flight to Atlanta, we found out that there was a mechanical issue with our plane so we would have to wait 4 hours before the next flight. FOUR … FOUR hours in the airport on Thanksgiving Day nonetheless!!!

So how did we survive 4 hours delay at the airport with 2 kids? Here are travel tips to kill time without killing each other.

1. Explore

Airport is a big place. It’s like a city of its own. Since we just got off from the plane, it’s a great way to stretch out your legs as well. We walked around to check out the shops. But this could only last for so long. The little legs needed some rest. Plus we each had to carry our own carry-on so it was time for the next plan.

2. Stake your claim

Our next move was to find an empty and quiet area that we could sit back and relax. The area near our gate was too busy so we looked around a bit to find totally empty gate. We found our home away from home for the next 3.5 hours. A quick meal at the gate was all we did before the kids moved on to the next activity.

3. Play that game

This was the time to take out all those games and toys that we had been carrying around. We started from the card games which they really enjoyed. Then moved on to their personal Leapster games. Ah.. I couldn’t praise enough of how much I love Leapster® Learning Game System. It’s a life saver to many of our trips.

4. TV online

By the 3rd hour, there were only so many games they could enjoy. So I moved on to our next action plan – TV shows. Ok.. so the cat is out of the bag, my kids watch TV a lot during the weekend. They are Star Wars the Clone War fanatic. Luckily, we were traveling during the FREE Wifi Week. I was able get the internet access and get a few new episodes from Hulu. We didn’t bring any of the movie DVDs with us this trip. So Hulu definitely saved the day for us.

5. Stretch and clean up

Finally, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was time to pack up and get ready for our flight. We did another round of running and walking to stretch out our legs. We brushed teeth, washed our face and changed the kids into their PJs since the flight was now so late that we would arrive at around midnight. They were all ready and hopefully went to sleep on the plane.

I can safely say we survive and it wasn’t as bad as I imagine.

So how about you? Have you had any other experience with long delay during your trip? What other tips you can share?

I’m long overdue for this post… But it’s better late than never, right?

I have been nominated to participate in Tripbase’s “3 Best Kept Travel Secrets” game by our great Adventure Travel friends, Dave and Deb of The Planet D and my travel Twitter friend, The Word Wire.

“The aim of this game is to unite travel bloggers in a joint endeavor – to create an amazing list of top travel recommendations across the globe to share with the entire online travel community.” – Katie from Tripbase.com.

So here are our 3 Best Kept ‘Family’ Travel Secrets

1. Kids do NOT need a lot of toys to entertain themselves

Yes, when you travel with kids you MUST prepare some busy travel bag for them. But you don’t have to go overboard. A few toys that they love and a couple new toys will be suffice. Sometimes it’s better to use whatever available in your surrounding to distract them from boredom.

Our recent air travel, I was able to entertain Mr. Z for almost an hour with the safety document. He loved to study the whole thing. He sat there quietly and listened very carefully to the flight attendant during take off. He then continued to study all the exits and informed me that I had to put the mask on myself first before put it on to him.

2. Kids love to carry their own bag

I don’t know about yours but mine were looking forward to carrying their own carry on luggage even before our trip. I made a point to show them their luggage. I let them walk around the house a couple times to get used it but after that I put it away (you don’t want them to get tired of this new excitement before the trip). I also let them pick out their own outfits.

So if you plan any family trip, I strongly suggest considering having a carry on for each kid (probably will work best if your kid is already in school). It will give them the sense of responsibility and make them feel like a grown up. Plus who doesn’t want to save $20 per bag to check in the luggage.

3. Best souvenir is the one they make it themselves

Last week, I was talking about one of the best souvenir we bought from our San Diego Trip. It’s not only a cheap and very affordable souvenir but it also gave the kids a chance to see the whole process of making their own souvenir.

They picked what style they want. They pushed the coins in. They turned the wheel (a little bit of work out here). And voila, they had their own penny to put in their collection.

Now, I’m supposed to tag other bloggers to join in this fun. But since I’m so late to the game, I’m not sure if there is anyone else left that hasn’t been tagged. Here are my nomination and sorry if I double tag you. :)

- Jen @ Two Kids and a Map
- Mara @ Mother of All Trips
- Colleen @ Travel Mamas
- Bridget @ Family Adventure Guidebooks
- Jody @ Have Kid Will Travel