Yes we flew Ryanair with a 7 month old! CRAZY I know but there isn't much choice on flights between Lanzarote and Seville so it was both ways with the notoriously difficult airline. But kudos to them, they are actually improving and I would definitely fly with them again - in fact we're going to shortly for four long hours back to London. Here's the lowdown.
Checkin and baggage allowance: We paid an extra £25 for a 20kg bag since we were going to be there for a couple of weeks as well as £10 to carry our car seat. We later found out the carseat could go along free because you're allowed to carry two baby items without charge but not to worry!
Boarding: Last time I vowed to not carry much with us in the form of hand luggage but once again I was with sombrero in hand, too many toys and an overkill of spare clothes. I promise this time I have learned my lesson. So much so that the hat is still in Seville having quickly been adopted by a family member on my murmur that I might not take it.
Here's the big thing about boarding with Ryanair though - they overbook their on-board luggage allowance so if you're at the back of the line you may have to handover your bags for storage with the checkin's. Also as I've mentioned before Ryanair doesn't give priority to those traveling with babies so either hightail it to the front of the line, hang out at the counter until the gate is open (yeah right!) or spend the paltry fiver to get priority boarding. I feel in the deepest parts of my soul it would have been worth the cost. But on to happier things.
The flight: As usual you'll be handed a baby seatbelt as boarding - I had a gangly teenager looking chap hand me the belt with trepidation as instructed by his trainer as he enquired as to my prior knowledge of how to use it. I've waved myself through a self proclaimed expert, having used it once before. Nobody should really need to be instructed on how to use this thing. Okay so, when we first flew with the wolf he slept blissfully for most of the flight. That was at five weeks, at seven months not so much. He slept, kind of, awkwardly on my arm, then on his Papis...a seven month old no longer snuggly fits on your lap on an aeroplane chair. It's an uncomfortable time. I have ideas for how to get around this on our next flight which is next week so stay tuned. We did one nappy change - I sent the men off to do that alone so can't report on it, a couple of terribly uncomfortable breast feeds, quiet songs and games before we shoved a Kindle Fire in his face. Thankfully we had a cryer two seats up so any noise our guy was making was drowned out by what for us is merely background music now. Not so great for the SINKS and DINKS.
The disembark: No dramas either way. Much nicer if you have someone keenly waiting to take your child at the other end. Coffee with free hands just tastes better.
A little side note for the practicalities. This time we skipped the slings as we had our pram. Both are good options but having tried both, I'd say for little babies a sling (they sleep through most of it) and for bigger a pram as they are more keen on watching the action and are a hell of a lot heavier. We also always travel with laptops and other electronics so this time we had the laptops, kindle etc at the bottom of the pram so that as we approached the belt we scopped them up to thier trays and collapsed the pram. Then they went back into the main bags on the other side. This seems like a small thing but for some reason it made a difference because we weren't trying to take laptops out of cases in the midst of collapsing the pram and having no free hands.
Checkin and baggage allowance: We paid an extra £25 for a 20kg bag since we were going to be there for a couple of weeks as well as £10 to carry our car seat. We later found out the carseat could go along free because you're allowed to carry two baby items without charge but not to worry!
Boarding: Last time I vowed to not carry much with us in the form of hand luggage but once again I was with sombrero in hand, too many toys and an overkill of spare clothes. I promise this time I have learned my lesson. So much so that the hat is still in Seville having quickly been adopted by a family member on my murmur that I might not take it.
Here's the big thing about boarding with Ryanair though - they overbook their on-board luggage allowance so if you're at the back of the line you may have to handover your bags for storage with the checkin's. Also as I've mentioned before Ryanair doesn't give priority to those traveling with babies so either hightail it to the front of the line, hang out at the counter until the gate is open (yeah right!) or spend the paltry fiver to get priority boarding. I feel in the deepest parts of my soul it would have been worth the cost. But on to happier things.
The flight: As usual you'll be handed a baby seatbelt as boarding - I had a gangly teenager looking chap hand me the belt with trepidation as instructed by his trainer as he enquired as to my prior knowledge of how to use it. I've waved myself through a self proclaimed expert, having used it once before. Nobody should really need to be instructed on how to use this thing. Okay so, when we first flew with the wolf he slept blissfully for most of the flight. That was at five weeks, at seven months not so much. He slept, kind of, awkwardly on my arm, then on his Papis...a seven month old no longer snuggly fits on your lap on an aeroplane chair. It's an uncomfortable time. I have ideas for how to get around this on our next flight which is next week so stay tuned. We did one nappy change - I sent the men off to do that alone so can't report on it, a couple of terribly uncomfortable breast feeds, quiet songs and games before we shoved a Kindle Fire in his face. Thankfully we had a cryer two seats up so any noise our guy was making was drowned out by what for us is merely background music now. Not so great for the SINKS and DINKS.
The disembark: No dramas either way. Much nicer if you have someone keenly waiting to take your child at the other end. Coffee with free hands just tastes better.
A little side note for the practicalities. This time we skipped the slings as we had our pram. Both are good options but having tried both, I'd say for little babies a sling (they sleep through most of it) and for bigger a pram as they are more keen on watching the action and are a hell of a lot heavier. We also always travel with laptops and other electronics so this time we had the laptops, kindle etc at the bottom of the pram so that as we approached the belt we scopped them up to thier trays and collapsed the pram. Then they went back into the main bags on the other side. This seems like a small thing but for some reason it made a difference because we weren't trying to take laptops out of cases in the midst of collapsing the pram and having no free hands.
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