I will be traveling LAX - HNL with my two children. My daughter is 12 and son is 9. Flight over is an evening flight and back will be the red eye. Were on a 757 and I will have the middle seat in both cases. My daughter will be engrossed in the new Potter book, and I have the game boy charged and ready for my son. I’m sure however, that this plan has many pit falls. Any and all advice would be welcome.
Being older I would imagine they should know how to entertain themselves. Your plan seems sound. Maybe ask them what they would like to do and have them as backups should the primary plan fail. Does your flight have a movie scheduled? If not, how about a portable DVD player and a couple of RedBox DVD rentals. I don't see any RedBox locations in HNL so you could return them there but at $1/day, the cost isn't bad.
Both your children should be fine- I started flying with my children when they were infants- so by the time they were your childrens' ages- they were traveling to grandparents on thier own. My grandson took his first flight at 3 weeks old- and has flown once or twice a year in the last 9 years- He either amuses himself between his game boy, cd's or reading - or just sleeps- and is rested and ready to go upon landing- when the rest of us are ready to find a cozy bed. So, be prepared- you may be tired- and they will be rested and ready to roll. Good luck- rlb
Pack lots of snacks! You never know when you might wind up sitting on the tarmac for four hours and sometimes the right food buys you an additional hour of sanity. You could also buy a new game for your son and a couple of magazines/another book for your daughter too. Otherwise all sounds good. Best of luck!
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Put them in comfortable clothing and bring a blanket and small pillow -- you can't expect the airlines to provide them anymore and the window seat will be cold. I'd also suggest eyeshades if they're willing. They can be a novelty to try and who knows -- they may even fall asleep while trying them out.
Definitely second the suggestion to bring lots of non-sugary snacks. I'd add a couple of travel/guide books for Hawaii to let them decide what they want to do when they land. A deck of cards and a book on card tricks is also a good idea.
My kids have done the EWR-Hawaii-EWR flights many times and they're better about it than I am!
I did my first Hawaii flight at age 9. For older kids as well as little ones, having something to look forward to on the flight is key. You won't find any better novelty than a new Harry Potter book, but anything else they've been wanting to get/see/read/play for a long time should be debuted on the flight. New Game Boy games your son has never played before would be a great example.
Bring fruit as part of your snack pack. Are you flying economy? If so, also bring sandwiches.
Also at the airport (after security) fill up water bottles and/or buy a couple of bottles of water. This will help when the kids or you get thirsty between beverage services.
Some type of wet wipes (they are allowed through security, no problem) are also good to wipe down tray tables, cleaning up after eating, and in general just wiping up. I suggest a type of facial wet wipe so that they can be used on the face.
Have each kid bring their own ear phones - then you don't have to worry if the ones supplied don't worry, aren't comfortable, etc.
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Like another poster here, my daughter has travelled since she was very young. She went to Fiji when she was 2 y.o and was easy to keep entertained. I have never had any issues with her on flights.
Last year when she was 10 y.o we flew around the world from SYD via the USA, then LHR and onto to SIN. 4 of our 5 flts were overnights of at least 7 hrs and one was 14 hrs in duration. She was great and amazingly was never cranky when we arrived the next day - as another poster said, she was always raring to go at each new destination (on some flts she slept less than I did). She kept herself amused, ate, slept and watched movies and loves flying which helps. Admittedly for the longest flt SYD-LAX we got upgraded to C class on UA so she had her own IFE (that was a bonus) and lovely food.
The suggestions already made here are great. Its a matter of getting things they like to do. The excitement of our next destination always helped and Disneyland was a major bonus. She would also write postcards from each destination that we had just left, on the plane. She kept a holiday journal as well, so that was completed on the plane. She was also quite interested in the whole upgrade process and having received an ug on our first leg, spent the rest of our trip hoping it would happen again (spoilt ). My daughter loves to draw so we bought new art pencils and a drawing pad and kept them new until she went on the plane. Comfortable clothing are a must also - we would often change once on board to more suitable, relaxing clothing.
Re the extra snacks suggestions - yes we did that too. But just a reminder for those who dont know - do not bring any food (particularly fruit) into Australia or NZ - there are serious penalties for doing so and many Americans are not aware of this until they get caught out by customs.
Have a great trip
Last edited by Downunder girl; Aug 4, 07 at 5:47 am..
Reason: typo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Downunder girl
Re the extra snacks suggestions - yes we did that too. But just a reminder for those who dont know - do not bring any food (particularly fruit) into Australia or NZ - there are serious penalties for doing so and many Americans are not aware of this until they get caught out by customs.
Have a great trip
This also applies to Hawaii.
Please do not bring in fruit from the Mainland. The Hawaii State Dept of Ag makes you fill out forms and they have amnesty boxes and signs everywhere.
Last week I flew with my children (11 & 8) to the Mainland (HNL-LAX-DEN), and overall the LAX-HNL run is pretty tame.
At Christmas time in '06 we did the overnight non-stop HNL-DEN and they slept from take-off until pretty close to landing.
For your red-eye return: Consider asking the FA if there are any open seats that you can jump to, and let the 2 kids spread out across your (now empty) middle seat.
I'll echo what everyone else has said about comfy clothes, pillows (I bought each child their own neck pillow), earphones, CD/DVD players, books and the like.
I also bring a small bottle of hand sanitizer, in a clear plastic baggie and use that.
If your kids are not frequent travelers and you don't know how they are going to react to cabin pressure and turbulence, bring some chewing gum to relieve the pressure (specially during landing) and Dramamine for motion sickness.
If your kids are not frequent travelers and you don't know how they are going to react to cabin pressure and turbulence, bring some chewing gum to relieve the pressure (specially during landing) and Dramamine for motion sickness.
Good point - I always have gum onboard with me......I need it too sometimes
Contact your airline and the 
). My daughter loves to draw so we bought new art pencils and a drawing pad and kept them new until she went on the plane. Comfortable clothing are a must also - we would often change once on board to more suitable, relaxing clothing.
