Long Haul Travel with under 1’s

My DH & I are planning to visit my in-laws & other family in England for 3 weeks in May when our twin boys will be 8 mnths old. We are looking to fly via USA to get the extra baggage allowance but I know LA's transit lounge is crap. I am so worried about how on earth we'll cope. I have so many questions, any you can answer & any advice/ suggestions would be much appreciated:

1) How did your bubs cope with a change in their body clock, both on holiday & back at home? Jet lag arghhh
2) Any tips for when they are on the plane? I get such bad ears so I don't know how the bubs will cope.
- Feeding (on Formula now), Sleeping, Crawling, Playtime, Other pasengers
3) How did you transport them during transit - can you hire a buggy or capsule just for LA transit? A baby each plus carry-on luggage? Were the staff helpful?
4) Did you hire a cot, buggy etc while on Holiday, if so where from?      
5) Did you travel on the underground, any tips?
6) Would you recommend a stopover in US or fly straight through?

I'm sure there's more to ask but that's all I can think of for the mo...HELP

Thanks in advance.
(Edited to add Q no. 6)

Edited by Twinboys2b

i read this really cool tip for flying, although your boys may be a l;ittle too young. Get one of those plastic street sheets - at the warehouse or something and three or four matchbox cars. You can keep them in your purse - they take up hardly any room, or weight. in transit lounges when the kids get antsy, just whip out the sheet and keep them occupied for hours.

We're currently visiting family in Ireland with our 11month old twins. We flew Auckland - San Francisco -Frankfurt - Dublin.

1) How did your bubs cope with a change in their body clock, both on holiday & back at home? Jet lag arghhh

Can only comment on the holiday part so far but it took a week for them to adjust their sleeping patterns. We only let them sleep for 2 hours in length during the day and would put them back to bed when they were tired. Once they were sleeping through the night we let them sleep as long as they wanted during the day.
At night they would go to bed as normal but would wake at around 11pm for a bottle and a play and again at around 3am for another play. These times adjusted as the week went by.
Now they're sleeping through the night and are doing 2 x 1.5 hour naps during the day.

We fly back next Thurs so will comment on the return home once we've all recovered

2) Any tips for when they are on the plane? I get such bad ears so I don't know how the bubs will cope.
- Feeding (on Formula now), Sleeping, Crawling, Playtime, Other pasengers

Give them a bottle or water when taking off / landing. Eimear suffered on some of the landings (these are generally worse) and a quick sip of water would help her clear her ears.

I took formula in the travel containers and no one questioned them. I declared that I had baby food when going through US Customs and they didn't even check what I had.

The other passengers were fascinated with the girls. For the second flight I walked around with Aoife a lot as she was too excited to sleep and I chatted to so many people.

We had bassinettes which were great, especially on the night flight out of Auckland. We had the 4 seats to ourselves for that flight. For the second flight we had a couple sitting next to us and they loved the girls and played with them allowing us to wolf down our meals in peace.


3) How did you transport them during transit - can you hire a buggy or capsule just for LA transit? A baby each plus carry-on luggage? Were the staff helpful?

We took our double MB to the gate and it was either waiting for us at the other end or was offloaded at the baggage claim for us.

We had too much carry on luggage (nappy bag, 2 x wheelie cases). On the way back I'm just going to pack one case as we didn't even open the second one. I had loads of clothes packed but ended up leaving the girls in stretch n grows for the entire journey which is what I'll be doing on the way back too.

The staff were extremely helpful. Air NZ were top notch and Lufthansa were ok, but they're not the best on the normal day anyway On both flights we got plenty of help when getting off the plane.


4) Did you hire a cot, buggy etc while on Holiday, if so where from?      

Both our families sourced all the bits we needed. I'm sure if you got in contact with the local multiple birth club they might have stuff to rent though.


6) Would you recommend a stopover in US or fly straight through?

We had 4 hours in San Fran which we found extremely manageable. This gave us enough time to walk about, get some food and fresh air.
We had 6 hours in Frankfurt but DHs parents flew over to meet us and took the girls off our hands for a few hours.

We are staying overnight in Vancouver on the way back so will let you know how that goes.

Good luck with it all!

I highly recommend going through San Fran too, I avoid LA at all costs!

Tishy - I can also highly recommend staying in Vancouver, the airport is good as are the facilities, when will you be flying back?

I haven't done HK airport with a baby (yet) but it IS a fab airport. Very easy to get around, well sign posted and great food/drink/shopping while you're hanging around.

From what I have heard of US airports (big, takes ages to get anywhere) vs what I know of HK (very efficient and best airport in the world over the past few years) I would definitely choose to go through HK if you can!

Avoid LA as much as you can.

My MIL just went through LA last week and she didnt have time to go to the loo it was that bad, she said at least she didnt get yelled at this time.

When we plan on our trip to France we will not be going anywhere near the states.

SpecialK wrote: ] The other thing to consider is purchasing Koru club membership

Great idea thanks, will discuss with DH. Would love to make the check-in's as fast as possible.

Also looks like we'll avoid US & fly via Hong Kong with Air NZ and have only a 1 1/2hr stopover which I'm sure will fly by really fast.

Thanks for all the advice so far guys - helped heaps.