QF 93 - Qantas Melbourne to LAX - info for flying with Children

[kateb79]

Good Morning - i am new to this website and these forums and was hoping that someone out there could answer a couple of questions for me.

We fly out on easter sunday on the 930 am flight departing melbourne - i was wondering at what point in the flight to we hit darkness?

Also can anyone confirm what meals are offered on this service?

I am trying to get somekind of game plan in my head about what an appropriate time would be to try and settle the kids down to hopefully get some sleep. We land at 7am and will not be able to check in to our hotel until 4pm so sleeping is not an option when we land.

Any advice from anyone that has flown this route would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

kate

 

[harvyk]

How old are the kids?
Depending on the ages of the kids the advised game plan might be slightly different.

Whilst I haven't done QF93 myself, when I have flown with the kids I have usually let them sleep \ stay awake when they feel like it. The problem being is their body clock will be totally screwed over when you land in LAX that they will think it's 1am, so forcing them to sleep at "4pm" (which is what they're body clock will think things are when it is dark outside) is probably not going to work overly well.

 

[kateb79]

My children are 6 and 11 however we are travelling as part of a dance school and in total there will be 94 travellers - so probably half children aged 2 - 17

 

[harvyk]

A bit older than mine, although you do have the advantage that they know what is going on.
If it was me, I'd be

a. avoiding that flight like the plague, 40 odd kids on the one long haul flight :shock:

and

b. encourage them to get as much sleep on the plane as possible, but not force the issue. I remember my first OS trip I was around that age, both myself and my sister handled jetlag the best out of anyone (jetlag, what jetlag?)

The excitement of the trip will probably mean any effort on your part to get them to sleep will be an exercise in futility.

 

[Paddy55]

My children are 6 and 11 however we are travelling as part of a dance school and in total there will be 94 travellers - so probably half children aged 2 - 17

:shock::shock::shock:

Oh, I'm looking forward to your Trip Report, kateb79

You are one brave soul

 

[smit0847]

:shock::shock::shock:

Oh, I'm looking forward to your Trip Report, kateb79

You are one brave soul

haha - glad im not on your flight!!

 

[blackcat20]

Also can anyone confirm what meals are offered on this service?

Youll get "dinner" a few hours into the flight, then breakfast a couple of hours before you land. Youll also get a snack bag for overnight, and apparently they now do a regular snack service during the night as well.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Good Morning - i am new to this website and these forums and was hoping that someone out there could answer a couple of questions for me.

We fly out on easter sunday on the 930 am flight departing melbourne - i was wondering at what point in the flight to we hit darkness?

Also can anyone confirm what meals are offered on this service?

I am trying to get somekind of game plan in my head about what an appropriate time would be to try and settle the kids down to hopefully get some sleep. We land at 7am and will not be able to check in to our hotel until 4pm so sleeping is not an option when we land.

Any advice from anyone that has flown this route would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

kate

If you can get them to sleep the required amount about 2hrs before you land, and then stay up the whole day, that would be the best solution IMHO.

Good luck with this, I dont envy you!!

 

[Sprucegoose]

- i was wondering at what point in the flight to we hit darkness?

The darkness bit comes when the hostie asks you to put your window shade down!!

 

[harvyk]

The darkness bit comes when the hostie asks you to put your window shade down!!

Depends what sort of mood the FA is in on that day... Sometimes they will insist you do it right after takeoff, other times they don't care where the window shade is for the whole flight (bar take off and landing)

 

[serfty]

No more snack on Q bags - delivered snacks through the flight and there's the snack bar at the back on the 388.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[blackcat20]

No more snack on Q bags - delivered snacks through the flight and there's the snack bar at the back on the 388.

Probably a good thing; my last snack bag was a joke! Breath mints and a coffee-flavoured biscuit (I dont drink coffee).

 

[MelUser]

The constant snack service in economy class on QF93 is a nightmare. It keeps everybody awake and flight attendants hate it. I'm not sure the passengers really need the kilojoules either.

 

[blackcat20]

The constant snack service in economy class on QF93 is a nightmare. It keeps everybody awake and flight attendants hate it. I'm not sure the passengers really need the kilojoules either.

Seems a bit of a lose/lose situation. I guess thats where the snack bars need to be used more; if people are hungry they go help themselves, if not, they don't.

 

[harvyk]

Seems a bit of a lose/lose situation. I guess thats where the snack bars need to be used more; if people are hungry they go help themselves, if not, they don't.

That is one of the nice things with the A380, the snack bars... Of course there can be a lot said for BYOing you fav snack or three and simply having it sit in a bag by your feet. Of course insert standard thing about disposing them in quarantine bins at each end \ declaring it.

The last set of flights we did with our kids (four and two x 2), we took some packets of their favorite biscuits with us, thus when they wanted a snack we simply handed them out rather than call the FA's over or by going searching. Worked a treat, and helped make for a much more pleasant flight (well as pleasant as any flight with kids can be)

 

[danielc]

I have done this flight twice in the past few years, once on the A380 and another time on the 747-400ER while the A380s were grounded. As mentioned above, you should get dinner a few hours after take-off and breakfast a few hours before landing. Based on the time of year, I would suggest it should get dark about 5 hours into your flight. As the flight is scheduled to land into LAX at 6.55am I the sun should be coming up about 30 minutes before landing. (An internet site I went to is estimating sunrise time as 6.30am on April 8th.

Unless QF has eliminated it since my last trip, they should hand out a 'flight planner' menu early in the flight which not only shows the meal services but gives a timeline of what services occur during the flight. One benefit of the A380 is that they have a self-serve area at the rear of economy where they provide snacks/drinks/fruit/etc for the in-between meal times.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[Kangol]

The constant snack service in economy class on QF93 is a nightmare. It keeps everybody awake and flight attendants hate it. I'm not sure the passengers really need the kilojoules either.

What do they offer in this constant snack service? I'm on the same flight a couple of days after the OP and it's my first time in A380 Y.. I usually eat a fair bit in the lounge beforehand as they don't serve enough food onboard to satisfy my hunger. If their snacks are substantial then I might not eat so much before the flight..

 

[harvyk]

What do they offer in this constant snack service? I'm on the same flight a couple of days after the OP and it's my first time in A380 Y.. I usually eat a fair bit in the lounge beforehand as they don't serve enough food onboard to satisfy my hunger. If their snacks are substantial then I might not eat so much before the flight..

I would still eat up big in the lounge before hand, I usually end up feeling pretty hungry on trans-pac flights, given they only do 2 meal services in a 14 to 15 hour period.

 

[Kangol]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but I am doing QF93 MEL-LAX and then connecting to QF107 LAX-JFK on Tuesday.
Looks like QF107 departs from TBIT where QF93 arrives - do I have to go through security screening again? As an SG is it the normal QF/BA J Lounge that I can use? Do I have to collect my bag and drop it off again or can I get it checked through to JFK?

 

[harvyk]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but I am doing QF93 MEL-LAX and then connecting to QF107 LAX-JFK on Tuesday.
Looks like QF107 departs from TBIT where QF93 arrives - do I have to go through security screening again? As an SG is it the normal QF/BA J Lounge that I can use? Do I have to collect my bag and drop it off again or can I get it checked through to JFK?

Yes you will, you will also need to clear customs at LAX... Apparently there is signs to follow for QF107 pax at LAX... A SG would be able to access the OW Lounge upstairs.