Flights with kids - day or night, which is best?

[Hansonhouse]

I wonder if any of you could offer me your advice on the best flight times for travelling to Adelaide please?

I have read, with interest, the info regarding the different airlines but my dilemma (when it's time to book the flights) is, should we go for a daytime or a night time flight. The boys will be 9 and 11 and just wondered if any of you had children of similar ages and what worked (or didn't work) for you?

Just trying to work out which is best for getting used to the time differences.

Did you have a rest in the travel hotel or not? What would you all recommend?

Thanks

Roz

[cunnah10]

I wonder if any of you could offer me your advice on the best flight times for travelling to Adelaide please?

I have read, with interest, the info regarding the different airlines but my dilemma (when it's time to book the flights) is, should we go for a daytime or a night time flight. The boys will be 9 and 11 and just wondered if any of you had children of similar ages and what worked (or didn't work) for you?

Just trying to work out which is best for getting used to the time differences.

Did you have a rest in the travel hotel or not? What would you all recommend?

Thanks

Roz

Hi

We went on a reccie last year with 4 kids aged 2,6,8 and 10(birthday for eldest on the day we flew out)
Our flight was about 10pm so kids body clocks were all tuned in to begin with but that all means nothing after you have been flying for hrs and hrs and changed different time zones!
We thought great they will sleep on the first flight as body clocks with be perfect!How wrong were we!Did they bugger sleep(although were so well behaved - i was so proud of them ALL - even my 2 year old was fantastic)They were just so excited and having never flown before didn't want to go asleep!
Although when we arrived at Dubai and were met with a 5 hr + delay they were all flaked out on chairs and the floor in the airport!
I suppose it does depend on the kids though and if they have flown before!
When we book our one way flight i really am not bothered whether it's a night flight to begin with or an early morning!
Either way it's a LONG JOURNEY!

Good luck


Gill

[macu68]

Hi Hansons

Doesn't really matter what time you fly but it might be cheaper to fly at a different time, I know short haul flights work out cheaper later at night. I set my phone and watch to Adelaide time as soon as I got on the plane when I visited a few years ago. Didn't make any difference to my body clock though, my brain still pinged awake about 3am Adelaide time!!! Not sure if GP's will or can still prescribe melatonin for jetlag but the evidence to suggest it is effective is limited. I know that you can buy it in Singapore (don't know if you are stopping over) and in Adelaide if you feel that you want to use something like that. A friend in Adelaide suggested to me not sleeping when I felt tired but to just fit straight in with Adelaide times, did work but felt like crap during the second week and came home at the end of the 3rd week.

Good luck with the flight etc, maybe see you in Adelaide next year.

[katsmajic]

I'd recommend night flight for the last leg into Adelaide, we arrived at 7am, left Singapore at 11pm, kids - well all of us, slept straight through, it certainly helped us to stay awake on the first day - til 6pm, had a great nights sleep and didnt really have a hard time clicking the clocks over...
kids aged 4, 10, 15, 16 & 35.

[The Monaghans]

We did night flights as well. I think we took off from Heathrow at about 11.00pm and the kids fell asleep about midnight and slept most of the first leg. On the second leg however, they didn't sleep at all which was a bit of a nightmare, not just for us but for every other passenger around us.... When we arrived we managed to stay awake until about 6.30pm at which point we threw the children into their beds and collapsed into bed ourselves (I hadn't slept at all since we left Heathrow...) but of course the kids were wide awake by about 3.00am!!! We all settled down pretty quickly though, the kids adjusted even quicker than we did.

[foxychick]

I think they will just deal with it whatever time the flight is. Also you may not have much choice when it comes to actually booking flights, depending on airline schedule and availablity. The only flight from Singapore direct to Adelaide is 11pm at night - so you don't have any option really.

From experience, they will just sleep on and off and be fine, you can always put them in their PJ's for the long flight to encourage them to sleep, I did that once (don't think it made a difference). Good luck

[dinawayneandkids]

we flew last year in nov with an 8 years old 5 year old and my son who was 1 1/2 and we left manchester earlyish morning 8am but had to be up at 4 to get ready and get to the airport we stayed at melbourne for a week but we landed at 11.30pm and they lost the car seat so we had to wait around for ages when we got to our hotel at 1.30am the kids were wide awake and very excited (they had a few naps on the plane).
when we go back again this year we will be landing in adelaide early morning which we feel is better as we will all want to stay awake and start our new adventure rather than arrive in the middle of the night and try to get stuff done.
i suppose it is each to thier own and depends on the kids
good luck dina

[Selah]

Dear Roz,

At 9 and 11 you should be fine regardless. The inflight entertainment system is so good (games, tv and movies) that you honestly should coast through. We went last Autumn with our 3, 8 and 10 year old and left at night. I thought it would be better to have some sleeping time. It did waste a few hours (with the help of some phenergan) but with a 4 hour layover they were up for most of the second flight on to Adelaide. When we go for good - we've decided to definitely do a stop over just to get some sleep and have wondered about flying in the daytime so that the kids get more sleep in a hotel during the stopover than the interrupted sleep on the first leg. My older two were a dream the whole way through and I thought how easy it would be without the youngest! However, what any parent does if the inflight system is broken is beyond me!!!!

Good luck!

Liz

[Hansonhouse]

Thank you all so much for your replies, I feel so much better knowing that you have all had quite good experiences with kids of my ages, as you say at least arriving in Adelaide at 7am we can try and stay up until evening time and then crash.

Hopefully it won't be much longer until the visa arrives and I can get booking

Hoping that 1st July brings us good visa news and then we can book for our preferred date of Sept 4th

Thanks again

Roz