international flight 15 month old - bassinet

Andlolosays

hi all.
my husband is an aussie and i'm an american. we live in america currently, but will be wanting to travel to aus to visit his family early next year. LO will be 15 months old at the time. as we will probably book tickets soon, i'm trying to figure out what to do for the 14 hour flight from LAX to Brisbane. 
qantas says i can have a collapsible cot/bassinet, as LO will be too big for the ones provided on the plane. i've been searching and can't seem to sort out what kind of cot/bassinet would fit on the plane and be allowed. does anyone have any experience with this? when i hear that, i think of a pack n play, but surely that'd be too big? i'm imagining a new-ish walker, miserable, trapped in an airplane cabin for forever...terrified haha. 

hope4girl

i traveled with my 10 month old to India, that was 26 hours flight. though i was provided with bassinet, it did not help my daughter to sleep as you have to take the baby out from the bassinet every time the seat belt sign is on. I would suggest if you could afford , get a seat for your LO and you can bring car sear for him to sleep in. you can also buy fly tot (https://www.fly-tot.com/) which becomes sort of like a bed. If buying a seat for him is expensive then you can try to book an aisle and window seat hoping no one would take the middle seat( but that's purely luck). few other things i would suggest it to book a flight around your LO's bedtime/nighttime, plenty of snacks, ipad with games and apps. Good Luck!!! 

redselig

That's an interesting reply from Qantas as I don't know where you would put the collapsible bassinet. Like the PP said, paying for an extra seat might be favourable. I did an eight hour red eye flight with my 16 month old and it was rough. Can your LO comfortably fall asleep in your arms? Are you ok with that for a couple of hours at a time? Next time I'm on a plane is when LO is two and I'll definitely get a Flytot. 

ailynk

I only have experience with flying Qantas Sydney to LA with 4mth old. 

I wonder if you could book a bassinet anyway. You'll have extra leg space so toddler can sit and play on floor. They fold away and when open sit quite high, so would be useful for storing toys, bottles etc. Plus you will be sitting with child tolerant passengers with other babies. 

Otherwise get a seat over the exit wing where there is plenty of space, bathroom and buy a flytot.