Our latest long haul trip with the baby was to Bahrain. He is now 9 months old and very active! Because of that, I thought it would be best if we broke up the journey. Sure, we could've gone with Emirates via Dubai or Qatar Airways via Doha but, I thought a 14-hour flight for him might be too long. So we decided to fly with Lufthansa to Frankfurt (about 9-hour flight) and continue to Bahrain (about another 5 hours) with a 4-hour layover in Frankfurt. I figured the flight to Frankfurt is an overnight flight, he could sleep most of the way there. Once we land, he can crawl around and burn some energy so he can nap during the second leg of our journey. Luckily the plan worked and he did just that.
It also gave me an excuse to fly on Lufthansa's A380 that's been flying to/from Houston since last year. I've never flown with Lufthansa or in an A380 before and I have to say, they're pretty good! The plane itself was massive. The seats were quite spacious, especially if you're sitting in a window seat. There's actually some elbow room between the seat and the window however, if you're like me who likes to sleep leaning against the window, that gap kinda sucks!
The food was ok, very typical airline food. And just like any other European airline, they offer free wine with the meals and came around with some night cap after. When I went to check out the snacks in the galley, I was excited to see a box full of Toblerone lying around. Unfortunately, that and pretzels were the only snacks available.
The entertainment system on board was on-demand however, the little time I got the browse, I noticed the movie selection wasn't very vast. I say "little time to browse" because our entertainment system froze just moments after take-off. They rebooted it several time but, it didn't work and the flight was pretty full so, they couldn't really move us to another row. Instead, they gave us a gift voucher to compensate.
Are they a baby-friendly airline? I'd say they are! Our baby was given a couple of baby gifts when we boarded and during the flight. We gate-checked his stroller and we got it when we landed in Frankfurt. Not so much in Bahrain but, I think that's more airport management than anything else. Overall, I was quite pleased with how we were treated during our flight.
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| Our massive bird at Frankfurt airport |
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| Typical economy seat |
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| Drinks available in the galley |
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| Unlimited Toblerone!! |
Car Seat
On this trip, since it's paid for by my husband's company to move us to Saudi Arabia, the baby got his own seat and because of that, we brought his car seat along with us to the plane. He's now graduated to a convertible car seat. I inherited a Britax car seat from a dear friend and it has (to my knowledge) received glowing reviews. However, as a travel car seat it is a pain! It's bulky and not easy to carry around the airport. Basically, every chance we get we're trying to find a trolley to wheel it around. We're planning to go back Stateside for the holidays, in the meantime, I'm going to have to find another car seat more suitable for travel.
Frankfurt Airport
This is the first time I've been to Frankfurt Airport. For transiting with a baby, it's not my favorite airport! I'm glad we had 4 hours between flights. First of all, it was a long walk from the gate just to get to main terminal. Then we had to take a train to another terminal. It was just a pain to get around with a stroller trying to figure out which elevator goes where plus, we were lugging the car seat entering one nontrolley zone to another. At least they have a little play area in each terminal. And plenty of baby changing room around.
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| Play area for kids |
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| Baby changing room |
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