Holidays

[Amanda32]

Hi all

 

None of us have ever been on a plane before, the only person that is worried is my son 9. Im not going to keep on to him about it as probably be ok when the time comes but I want to get ready before the trip. We are planning on the end of next year to go to Canada for a week and I heard the flight is about 10hrs approx. I have a cousin that lives in Iowa and may contact her to stay there instead but no plans yet only to see Niagara falls etc.

 

How do some of your ASD kids manage for a long time on the plane?

What can I tell him before the trip as he thinks he can get a bus there...

I know he can take a gameboy etc, told him he can sleep on the plane if he wants but it's the sitting around on one for a long time and thats difficult for him without performing. As iv'e said never been on one before and id like to know how and what to do to help my son get confidence going in one. Id also like to know if anyone as been there to let me know any places we can visit etc.

 

He had a lovely day out yesterday was in a park and he decided to get some mud from the ground and wipe it all over his face... He told me he was in the army what can I do, that was the first time he's ever done that but let him carry on as never liked being dirty before....

 

Thanks

Amanda <'>

Edited August 16, 2005 by Amanda32

[sarahjane]

Hi we went on a long trip last yr with H who was then 5. He was excellent, I got our seat numbers in advance and we went on the internet and looked at the planes we would be going on and where we would be sitting etc. On the plane itself he loved the feact he had his own little telly and games and even though t was an overnight flight he did not sleep at all. more difficult was the waiting at various airpoets, if the airport is near it may be worth a trip before you go.

[lorryw]

Hello Amanda,

Im sure youll have a brilliant time and the flight will fly by (no pun intended)

We first flew to Florida (a 9 hour flight) 12 years ago with our son. I went to Woolworths and bought a selection of small, cheap toys, small packs of sweets, comics, crayons etc and carried them on with my hand luggage. Dont forget a small bottle of Calpol (just in case) and a pack of wet wipes. I presented my son with something from my goodie bag every so often as required.

Does the plane have an inflight entertainment system, brilliant if you have a seatback screen. Have you prebooked your seats? Contact your airline and ask about having bulkhead seats which will give you more leg and wriggle room. Have a look on the airlines website, some airlines are brilliant with asd kids, Virgin are exceptional.

Try and relax, you will all have a brilliant time.

Love Loraine

[Amanda32]

Thanks...sarahjane/lorryw..

 

Not done much searching at the moment just looking for the best deals for a year from now as it's going to be that long to save as want to make sure we have enough money to spend as not sure cost of things over there.... At the moment we are sorting our funds out and seeing when we can afford to go. I like to organise things way before it happens so im prepared. Say you was going into the travel agents you book your holiday/flights/insurances etc. Do you sort out seats with the travel agents?....Making sure we are all together, Im very confused with it all as new to flights etc so I may be asking lots of questions....Sorry

Many thanks

Amanda

Edited August 16, 2005 by Amanda32

[lorryw]

Take a look at www.expedia.co.uk

They are a good source of information. You can book flights,insurance, car hire etc in one go. They have special offers and deals now and again so its worth checking back every other day once youve decided what you want.

Find out when its cheapest to fly over there. Flights to USA are cheaper at certain times of the year and you can save a fortune just by going a week earlier or later.

Happy hunting!

[Jeni]

have to agree with lorryw, virgin are great. i took my son to florida when he was 7. we had special passes that rushed us through check in so we didnt have to queue, they gave us special meals on the flight for the kids and with the virgin planes having the tv screen in the back of the seats they really enjoyed it. i was surprised at how well he managed it. they also took their gameboys and 1 game to go over with (pokemon) and funnily enough, brough a few more games back home lol. gameboy games are multi country unlike all the other consoles.

 

phone the airline u r travelling with and explain what help u r likely to need, that u all want to be sat together etc and they will do their best to help u i am sure.

[Flora]

Amanda, most of the planes now (particularly Virgin) have games consoles and tv screens on the back of all the seats and you can chose what you what to watch/play.

 

We've flown to California a few times and apart from the expected wobblers and the odd melt down our boys handled the flight quite well.

 

Go for it and enjoy it.

 

Lauren

[Amanda32]

Thanks everyone

 

Nice to have some reassurance from you all as I know most of you have beeen down the same road with your kids, especially when they dont want to fly like my son. I have some time to look around so may write some things down that I need to ask about etc.

Take care

Amanda

[invent 10 things b4 breakfast]

We too have flown Virgin. They are very good with kids, even if the cabin crew thought he had eczema not Aspergers Even so once explained they were good.

 

I phoned the company and made them aware that he had Aspergers and they made a note and sent confirmation, telling us we could bypass the check in and check in at the disabled desk. They even labelled up our luggage with disabled labels and put it in Upper Class so that it came off the plane quicker! I requested bulkhead seating which gives you extra leg room and there is no one if front which is great! It made such a difference.

 

The only drawback I found with the games console on Virgin was that it was interactive, which meant our son was running around the plane whilst everyone was trying to sleep trying to find someone to play against!

 

Sounds cruel, but I also give him a travel sickness tablet because it seems to calm him down, needless to say I'd run out on the way back, hence the permanant fixation with the games console

 

Jeni is right, the gameboy games are compatible, half the price of here, we came back with a few too!

 

Hope you sort it out and have a great trip

Edited August 16, 2005 by invent 10 things b4 breakfast

[Jeni]

also, my son didnt like noise and i thought the aircraft noise would upset him. we took him to view planes a couple of times at manchester airport to get him used to the noise a little, that way we only had the hands over ears and not the crying/screaming etc.

 

maybe a good idea is to get in touch with airports and see if they do any tours of planes or anything?

[Tylers-mum]

Hi Amanda.

I took myself and my son (nearly 6 at the time) to America which was a super long flight! LOL. The trip there was ok as we travelled to London the day before and then stayed in a B&B until the next morning. Travelled 8hrs on one flight, changed and travelled 2hrs on another but it was all daytime so he was ok. I bought him new games for his gameboy and took a rucksack full of stuff that 95% of it never got used. Grr!! LOL By the time we got there, he was shattered but sooo excited. It was the first time either of us had ever flown.

The journey home was another matter entirely. We travelled 2hrs on the one plane and then took the all night flight back home which was 8hrs and everyone was sleeping, bar my son. He wanted to watch the movies which are located on the back of seats which came in VERY handy but you have to purchase headphones in flight which cost me �2.50 or $5. Paid for in either pounds or dollars. Kept me entertained too. LOL I sooo needed him to sleep but he wouldn't. Lost my rag a few times b/c I was sooo tired. He finally fell asleep for the last 3hrs of the flight but I couldn't settle. Then got home at 7.30am to get straight on the coach to here and then into a taxi to home. Total travelling was 25hrs (inc time difference) and it killed me! LOL

My advise is, do not get an all night flight and do not do the whole journey in one go! As much as I wanted to get back home, I'd never do that again. LOL

 

Tyler was really excited about going on the plane. i thought the strange sounds and stuff would set him off but in all honesty, he was as good as gold.

Another piece of advise is, take snacks with you for him. I had a childrens meal arranged for him inflight but he didn't like most of it b/c it was American food. he ate a small bread roll and that was it. On the way home, my first flight got cancelled b/c of bad weather so they rescheduled us on another flight (we got to stay an extra 2 days! LOL) but forgot to transfer his meal requirements over so they didn't have one prepared so the poor thing wouldn't eat anything from the adults menu and lived on smarties and chocolate.

 

Gotta rush now to take him to playscheme but I'd be happy to answer any other questions you may have. We travelled in May/June this year so it was recently.

[Amanda32]

My hubby just said you was able to go to cardiff airport (wales) in the past where they had a cafeteria you could watch from there but not allowed anymore too much going on, only if your flying you can watch from that area. They have a place behind the airport you can see the planes flying off so may have a trip down there so he can see them close up.

Thanks

Amanda

Edited August 16, 2005 by Amanda32

[Tylers-mum]

Good thinking about letting him go to the airport.

I wanted to fly from Cardiff to save all the hassel of getting to London but the flight tickets cost to go from there was tenfold over the cost of flying from Gatwick. By the time I did my sums with the coach tickets, B&B costs etc, it was far cheaper to go from London than from Cardiff. Work that one out!! LOL

[Jeni]

My hubby just said you was able to go to cardiff airport (wales) in the past where they had a cafeteria you could watch from there but not allowed anymore too much going on, only if your flying you can watch from that area. They have a place behind the airport you can see the planes flying off so may have a trip down there so he can see them close up.

Thanks

Amanda

i live near manchester airport, they have a viewing area that costs u to go into and theres also a pub nearby, its not part of the airport but the back fence of it almost backs onto the airport runway. have a look see if theres anything like that there, u can start off gradually by looking out of windows, then venturing outside etc

[Klou]

Going on the plane .......no problem

 

Waiting at check in, passport control, secruity and the departure gate

 

Even the stuff that normally restores order didn't work. It is interesting standing in a tightly packed security check queue, those ones like a concertina effect that snake through the space.

 

DS likes to pull the flexible rope so that the poles collapse on the unsuspecting people next to them. Run under the ropes into a different part of the queue. Interesting catching him! And tried running in circles on the spot he was standing in.

 

However on the aeroplane he was an angel and sat playing with a set of small airport related cars, trucks and planes for the whole flight. I had stacks of stuff for him to eat and play with but all he wanted was crisps, juice and his 'planes'.

 

He was so fascinated he spent at least 30 minutes just looking out of the window. For once my son was less trouble than the NT daughters of the friends we were travelling with .

 

On our way home we had a delay no plane = very worried boy. When the plane finally appeared he announced in his loudest voice, to the entire departure gate 'THE PLANE IS HERE WE CAN GO ON THE PLANE QUICK LETS GO ON THE PLANE' accompanied by lots of jumping and excited noises. I have never seen anyone quite so delighted about anything. It made me

 

Good luck all those flying this summer.

[Tez]

Don't know if this is any help. We are flying to America in September with Virgin Atlantic. I phoned their special needs helpline this morning and subject to their Doctor's approval they have offered us bulk head seating (this can't be guaranteed but we will be a priority), fast tracking through checkin and custom checks, quiet areas to wait for plane if required, early boarding on plane, being met at other end and fast tracking through customs and baggage collection.

 

They also offered special food and faciliated access to the toilets. Fingers crossed their Doctor agrees he needs these things because they are all potential stress points and it will make things so much easier.

 

I was asked how my son's problems caused us difficulty in the airport so that they could tailor what they were offering to his needs.

Edited August 17, 2005 by Tez

[lorryw]

Hi Tez

I have flown with Virgin several times and we have never had to get their Doctors approval. I simply rang special sevices,explained the circumstances and that was all that was needed.

I have always been impressed with Virgin and I do hope they havent introduced off putting red tape. We travelled for years with our son without taking advantage of their special facilities and it wasnt until he was 16 that I felt we needed to make them aware of any possible problems. Looking back it was a daft thing to do because we could have made our jouneys do much easier. Still, you live and learn.

Loraine

[Tez]

Lorraine,

 

I agree we have flown many times without any special accomodations because we weren't aware of what was available to us. I don't know why they have to run it by their Doctor, I think maybe because they are offering to fast track us through all the custom queues and they want to be certain that the difficulties I have mentioned are consistent with his diagnosis, but the girl I spoke to didn't seem to think it would be a problem. It will definitely be so much easier if they do help us in this way. We last flew with BA in April and the stress of standing in queues and people knocking into him caused our son to be physically ill and meant that he spent the first week of the holiday refusing to leave the car.

[Tez]

Just a quick update.

 

Virgin Atlantic have just phoned back. They have just checked with their Doctor who has cleared my son for travel and agreed that he should not have to wait in any queues. We will therefore be fast tracked through all security checks and will be met in America and fast tracked through customs and baggage collection. Virgin Atlantic estimate it will cut our waiting time at both ends by over an hour.

 

I can't fault their service so far, hopefully all will go well at the airport.

[Suze]

....wow thats brill, we have flown with Virgin a few times and they are great .

[invent 10 things b4 breakfast]

Tez - If your travelling with Virgin have you taken their travel insurance?

 

I did, but then found out they would not cover autism, even though they are so good at everything else autism related I was worried that if he did anything, eg run out in front of a car, then they would claim he reacted as part of his condition (which wouldn't have been covered) and not cover him... you know what te Americans are like for sueing!

 

Just a thought.

[Tez]

Hi,

 

No, we've taken our travel insurance out elsewhere, but I'll still have to check what's covered because I hadn't given it a thought. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Amanda32]

Still searching the internet, found some good deals with Globespan. Me and hubby may decide on seperate flight/hotel. Have been looking for flights from cardiff to canada and hotel in toronto and works out few hundreds pounds cheaper. So all im going to do now is try and contact my cousin in Iowa as not heard from her in a few mths by letter as cant contact her somehow now through Yahoo anymore. If I can contact her I can stay with her but see what happens. I know will have to get :

Travel insurances

Flight transfers/taxes

supplements....... Lot to think about as im starting to get stressed over what I need. Think we are taking a trip before they go back to school to the airport get my son used to seeing the planes gradually as im really stressing about what he's going to be like.

Sorry to go on a usual Im sure like you all said he will be fine.

Thanks all

Amanda

Edited August 18, 2005 by Amanda32

[UltraMum]

Not much to add apart from - J hates the noise - especially on take off and landing - ask for seats well away from the engines and take some industrial ear defenders with you for wearing during the noisy times. Our first flight with J required his hands, his dad's hands and my hands over his ears!

[mrs q]

I remember watching an 'Airline' programme and a family who had never travel before got in touch with the airport and went on a visit before their flight so the experience was not so frightening for their child...he hasd autism...maybe get in touch with your local airport and see if they can do the same.

 

I admire anyone who takes any child on a plane.....I love flying myself....but the last time I flew six years ago I was five months pregnant, with my partner and my son....and I was knackered keeping him entertained.