To help savvy families flying abroad this Winter enjoy a stress-free journey, Airport Parking & Hotels (APH.com) has shared a guide comparing the inflight facilities for 10 major airlines.
Available in www.aph.com/familyflying, the guide compares children ticket age categories, luggage allowances, children’s meals, entertainment facilities and seating requirements offered by airlines such as British Airways, easyJet, KLM, Virgin Airways and Wizz Air.
Of the 10 airlines included in the research, when it comes to purchasing children’s tickets nine airlines were found to categorise an infant as aged ‘under two years’ old. TUI however groups children together as aged ‘under 17 years old’. If travelling with teenagers, some airlines split the age categories differently. For example, Emirates consider teenagers as ‘aged 11 – 15 years old’, British Airways categorise ‘young adults’ as ‘aged 12 – 15 years old’, whereas Qatar Airways don’t have a teenager ticket option and consider a child as ‘aged 2 – 11 years old’ and an adult as ‘aged 12 and over’.
All the airlines, apart from Ryanair, offer families priority boarding, allowing less time waiting in the queue and more time settling in on the plane. For infants aged under two, most airlines offer a luggage allowance of between 10kgs – 12kgs with Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic both providing a generous 23kgs to infants with their own seat.
Parent should also check if planning to bring food or order an in-flight children’s meal. If flying with easyJet, then passengers are asked to bring food or milk in a container of 100ml or less and in a resealable (20cm x 20cm) plastic bag. Most airlines provide children’s meals however these do need to be ordered in advance. British Airways, KLM and Virgin Atlantic require passengers to order children’s meals 24 hours before flying, Jet2 48 hours before the flight whereas Ryanair is only one hour before the flight.
Nick Caunter, Managing Director of Airport Parking and Hotels (APH.com) said, “The Winter holiday season is still a busy time as many families escape for winter sun, snow sports or, this year particularly, that long postponed reuniting of far-flung families at Christmas. Whether flying long- or short-haul, we understand the additional planning and preparation which goes into flying with children and we hope the APH Family Flying guide will help families enjoy an easy and stress-free journey to their holiday destination.”
