Ben sleeping on the airport floor in Bali before our midnight flight home. He was carried on the plane and hardly woke up. He later declared the flight to have been the "shortest flight" ever. He also said that it lasted about "one minute." We wish, bud. We wish. :)
Before moving overseas, we were not a family that did a lot of flying. It's just a lot cheaper and easier to travel via car in the U.S. Living here, there is so much to see and do in the region, but it requires relatively short and cheap flights. We're taking advantage of those, and we're doing some bucket list trips, plus going back and forth to the U.S. to see family.
All that to say, we're getting a lot of time in airports. A lot of time.
Here are a few tips I've learned along the way for successful travel:
1. Buy a cushion for your posterior end if you're going to be on a flight lasting longer than 8 hours. I had a bruised tailbone on our move here from the U.S., and I was not ashamed to be blowing up a cheap, inflatable donut pillow about a third of the way into the flight. At this point, I've upgraded to
this beauty, and I don't ever regret it. It'll barely fit into my backpack, but I'm ok with that. If necessary, you can just take half of it, and that would be fine.
2. Always sit facing your gate, just in case they don't call your flight. We learned this the hard way when we missed our connecting flight from Istanbul to Malta in the early morning. They didn't call the flight, and it was a small gate, so we'd taken seats at the next gate over. The only ones left weren't facing our gate, but we figured we'd hear them call the flight. Nope. The flight left without us, and about 8 hours later and several hundred dollars poorer, we finally left Istanbul for Malta. We weren't the only hapless travelers in this situation, and no, we got no sympathy from the staff in Istanbul. So, don't assume they'll call your flight, especially if it's a small one leaving early. They might not. You'd better be watching.
3. Check to be sure that you've bought plane tickets for every member of your family more than 4 hours before your flight is scheduled to leave. Perhaps you bought 5 plane tickets for 5 members of your family. Perhaps you (or perhaps your husband) bought two tickets for one of your children and no tickets for one child. More than 5 hours before your flight would be a good time to check and make sure that you have a ticket for each family member. That would be far better than frantically making phone calls on the way to the airport to see if there is any way that someone will have mercy on you and switch the tickets around. Yes, we received mercy from the wonderful staff of China Airlines in Manila and made our flight, and we are beyond grateful, but let's just say that Christmas in New Zealand might not have happened the way that we'd planned.
4. If you lose your blonde haired child somewhere in an airport in Taiwan, it'll probably be ok. He'll stick out enough from the crowd that kind people who don't speak English will notice your panic and point you in the right direction.
5. There is no parenting award for not letting your children play video games for 24 hours. Just let them. Our kids now look forward to the long flight to the U.S. They know that they can use the power banks until there is no more juice left on their devices, and then they can switch to unlimited movies. This is like heaven for them and for us, honestly. Just do it. It's really ok. You just need to get there.
6. Do not wake your exhausted child for a crummy airplane meal. He was only going to eat the cookie or the roll anyway if you were lucky. And you won't be lucky if you wake him up. He'll just confusedly cry and cry and refuse to eat and keep trying to go back to sleep. You're going to have to try and wake him up to get him off the plane anyway, and that's going to be hellish enough. If he can sort of walk himself to baggage claim and fall asleep on top of the luggage cart, you've won! :)
7. If you've got over the head earphones for your younger kids, bring them on the plane. Most airlines don't offer anything but earbuds, and those are hard for our kids to use for movies. They end up holding them into their ears.
8. Trust that it's going to be ok, and you're going to get there, and it will be fun. Flights leave way too late at night or way too early in the morning. Flights get delayed or missed altogether. You're going to get through it, and you're going to have some great stories to tell. You'll be so proud of the great travelers that your kids have become through all that practice, and you'll tell them so. Vive family memories!
