Booking bassinet for unborn baby - am I doing this right?
Hi all - firstly, apologies if this has been done. My searches haven't come up with a full answer, so any guidance (whether advice or a link to a previous discussion) would be greatly appreciated.
My wife and I are flying from HKG to AKL in march next year, and returning to HKG around Easter. We fly out on a 747 and back on a 777.
Our baby hasn't actually been born yet, but at the advice of Air NZ's customer service people in HK, we booked and paid for our own seats, and since the baby won't need its own seat, we can apparently just buy an infant ticket after he/she has arrived. Baby will be around 8 weeks old when we fly.
The Air NZ staff in HK told me that we couldn't reserve a bassinet / bassinet adjacent seats, and that we could only request them once the baby had been ticketed. This is fine, as I don't think it's fair on others if we could reserve these seats without having a baby ticketed as well (!), but she did seem to suggest that even after baby was ticketed, bassinet seats would still only be on request (i.e. there would be no guarantee of us actually getting one).
With an 8 week old baby, we'd be in a bit of a pickle taking the 11 hour flight with no bassinet, and while I understand that it's all subject to availability (and possibly a ranking system depending on how much the child would need the bassinet - e.g. 9 month old versus 9 week old), is there anything we can do to increase the likelihood of getting a bassinet for our baby before the flight? Does anyone know how far in advance of the flight we'll find out?
We are flying in economy - my wife is Jade, I am Silver + Koru Club, if that makes a difference?
The only issue is that there may be no bassinet seats available by the time you purchase the baby ticket. There is no priority or ranking system - it is simply first come first served. However, as a silver you will be helped by the fact that the forward bassinet isn't available for seat selection to anyone except a silver or above.
On my flight yesterday there were eight babies, and three bassinets. The five without managed to survive, so I'm sure you will too. Checkin are generally very helpful in blocking middle seats etc if you aren't able to get a bassinet, but obviously if the flight is full this is not possible.
The 'seats only a request' spiel is standard, and reflects the fact that seating MAY be changed if required (some examples - wheelchair pax, pax with oxygen machines, deportees, unaccompanied kids, etc - all of these have special seat requirements and take priority over a simple seat request). However, if you have an infant on your booking and have your seat number request registered, there would be no circumstance I could think of that this would be changed.
Congratulations on the upcoming addition to your family and enjoy your flights! Remember we have basic baby supplies onboard, ie nappies, wipes, bibs, baby food, etc if required.
Thanks so much NZ_C, glad to know that the Silver thing might help us a bit, and a relief to know that we've done pretty much everything we can to date. We should be able to book baby's tickets about 2 months clear of the flights, which hopefully will sneak us in.
And thanks for your congrats - it's our first, and we are as nervous as hell about our first flight with the little tyke! We've been pleasantly surprised with the steady improvement of Air New Zealand over the last 5 years, and we're hoping that the travelling with little one will be as painless as possible
I'm ex AKL ground staff, and from memory the flight editing department would do their best to allocate bassinet requests according to age, younger babies should get priority. Only bookings with an INF in them can request bassinets. This isn't failsafe however as sometimes the babies age isn't added to the PNR, so make sure when you add baby on that his/her age is also registered. nz_crew is right in saying the check-in staff are very helpful with blocking a next seat where possible, as much for other passengers comfort as yours! It sometimes also happens that a passenger NOT travelling with a baby can get a bassinet seat, and they should also move those people out if there is a baby needing the bassinet. This usually happened with through-checked passengers from the USA who would ask for a bulkhead seat, and the check-in staff failed to realise that bulkhead = bassinet.
Also from memory (nz_crew will have a better idea!) the long haul flights have less babies onboard and the 747's more bassinet seats, so you are more likely to have the bassinet request go through on your flights. I know when I was working at AKL certain flights used to be a nightmare for bassinet seating due to the large numbers of sprogs booked, eg flights to PER and the Pacific Islands (I vividly recall pillaging several aircraft one night to find enough extension belts for all the "babies" checked in on a flight to APW. And one flight to PER I flew on had I think 12 babies onboard!)
Location: The southernmost national capital in the world
Posts: 4,702
Quote:
Originally Posted by nz_crew
Yes, you've done everything right.
The only issue is that there may be no bassinet seats available by the time you purchase the baby ticket. There is no priority or ranking system - it is simply first come first served. However, as a silver you will be helped by the fact that the forward bassinet isn't available for seat selection to anyone except a silver or above.
This would be helped by the Koru Club membership. AFAIK The forward bassinet should not be available anymore for seat selection by anyone with just Silver status (or SQ*B for that matter).
We had exactly the same situation when flying from LHR to AKL, returning home after an OE (Except our baby was two or three weeks old).
Dad silver + Koru, Mum jaded.
Bassinettes go to the youngest, was what we were told, so at eight weeks you are very unlikely to be the oldest baby. This was certainly the case for us.
An additional problem we had was our new born was travelling on a non-nz passport, and so required a return ticket. This took a long time at the airport, so we were running to catch the plane. I do not expect that this applies to you.
I'm guessing you are ex-pat, and if you are, then you need to work out what type of Passport your baby will fly on. A New Zealand Passport, for a child born outside of NZ, is more difficult than you might expect, and has quite a long turn around. For us, a British passport was significantly easier and quicker to arrange.
Get someone who knows how to take the passport photos to take them. NZ passports can be really strict. (egs. Eyes open, % of the frame, focussing etc). It doesn't need to be expensive, just experienced.
Additional things our family has learned with a baby:
if you believe in dummies (soothers, pacifiers) definitely have a couple in hand luggage, they are the best for helping babies ears (timing feeding for take-off and landing has a similar effect). Our three kids had both types of feeding, and using a bottle at these times is pretty convenient.
wipes, nappies and a change of clothes.
Smile politely at the aircrew- they are unbelievably helpful. The more you let them help, the more they will help.
Babies get a full luggage allowance! A very mixed blessing.
Have a great trip. At eight weeks your baby will probably be smiling, feeding, sleeping or having a nappy change as the major activities during the flight. Of ages to travel with children, a young baby is really the easiest.
Get someone who knows how to take the passport photos to take them. NZ passports can be really strict. (egs. Eyes open, % of the frame, focussing etc). It doesn't need to be expensive, just experienced.
A little off topic, but no real need to worry about this particular point - in NZ at least; just take as many digital pictures yourself as it takes to get one of baby doing the right things - easiest with them laying on the floor and standing over - and then take the best image into the photo shop for them to print and crop to passport size.
Programs: Thai Gold, NZ Silver, QANTAS Club Bronze
Posts: 2,862
I think the point was that NZ DOL have recently become much more strict on passport photos meeting their 2005 requirements for an 'acceptable' photograph. The pdf below is a very good guide, especially for getting baby photos.
See .pdf here: http://www.passports.govt.nz/pubforms.nsf/URL/PhotoguideBrochure.pdf/$file/PhotoguideBrochure.pdf
In 'the old days' you went to a chemist or photo shop and they snapped one image that generated four correctly sized images on a polaroid type paper, and charged you $10 or $15. It didn't matter too much what the picture was like.
Now it does matter - you need a "neutral expression" etc etc - but why pay x times $15 for a pro to keep snapping baby until you get a good one when you can just snap away digitally at your leisure for free, and when you do get one that meets the guidelines the shop who used to charge $15 to snap the pic now only charge $10 to crop and print from the digital source.
That's how it works in NSN anyway, though I'd actually be quite surprised if they were anything like that customer oriented in the UK where I believe gowananddiane faced the problem ...
Thanks everyone, and esp to gowananddiane for those tips.
Baby will be on a New Zealand passport - we have the forms all ready to go and just need to fill in the baby's sex and name! As for the photo - I have a weekend photography habit, so as long as the little tyke opens his/her eyes for me, I should be able to get something worked out. I believe the NZ consulate here can check applications before sending them out, which reduces the chances of the application being rejected for any reason when in New Zealand. We'll have about 2 months in which to get a passport, and if we think there might be delays, we may just pay the extra $ and get it done using the express service. As it turns out, I need a new passport as well, so we'll get them done at the same time.
We hired a passport photogapher, one of us held the baby up, arm and hand behind baby but arm and hand not visible in picture.
NZ in flight crew are superb at the best of times, but they really outdo themsleves with parents, kids and babies. We have made numerous trans Pacific flights on NZ with babies, all flights have been good. If you get a bassinet all the better.
Keep bottles at hand. If Mum is going to use breast milk only, make sure she pumps as much as possible before hand. Ensure the baby has a bottle to suck on during descent, it will alleviate here issues.
If travelling domestically on NZ in a turboprop, ask the pilot prior to take off to see if he can do a gradual descent. On occasion they will make rapid descents, this makes ear issues worse. I have never had a pilot appear to mind being asked this.
Congrats and enjoy.
And another thing, take a spare change of clothes for yourself as well. I neglected to do this first time, big mistake. Never needed them since, Murphy's law.
After the little one was born, I called Air New Zealand and booked a new ticket, which was linked to our booking reference. The Air New Zealand CS person was very helpful, and reserved bassinet seats on both flights in and out of NZ - even giving me the seat numbers and checking to make sure that they were ok (we got the seats right at the front of economy - apologies in advance to PE passengers if little guy gets grizzly on takeoff and landing!)
Very happy with both the service of Air NZ and how easy the whole process was. We were a tad scared about the prospect of being left bassinet-less, but the CS agent assured us that baby's age in combination with my status would make it extremely unlikely that there would be any changes to our seats.
Congrats on the forthcoming arrival! Re baby passport photos, I've had these taken for my son and daughter since the regulations have changed. If baby will be travelling on NZ passport, make sure you've read the guidelines for photographs (http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.ns...s?OpenDocument), as there is a special section on requirements for baby photographs. Our son got caught out as only one ear was visible (!). As the photograph was taken at four weeks old, he looked nothing like the photo when we travelled at three months old, let alone now at three years
PS - although we didn't know his sex, we'd determined that his/her name would begin with the letter A. So Air NZ let us ticket him (back in 2005 anyway) with initial and surname, and were happy to amend booking once he was born.
If travelling domestically on NZ in a turboprop, ask the pilot prior to take off to see if he can do a gradual descent. On occasion they will make rapid descents, this makes ear issues worse. I have never had a pilot appear to mind being asked this.
If the baby is breastfed, then the take-off and descent is the best time to give them some food . Or give them a bottle. Suckling relieves the pressure in the ears.
However, bassinet is important - especially if the baby is only 8 weeks old. Although the statement "baby survived the flight without the bassinet" is correct, I find it a bit rude personally.
Remember we have basic baby supplies onboard, ie nappies, wipes, bibs, baby food, etc if required.
