Surviving flight delays with children

We’ve been thinking about taking an overseas holiday next year, though, with the current fiasco surrounding Ryanair and Monarch, it makes me a little less inclined to want to travel by plane. The thought of cancelled flights, long delays and endless hours stuck waiting at an airport with four kids doesn’t appeal – perhaps why we’ve stuck to UK based holidays up until now!

I’ve not flown for a long time, but I remember coming home after a girls holiday to Kos when our flight was cancelled and then delayed. Coming at the end of a two week holiday, we were not only exhausted and ready for home, but also out of spending money. We ended up spending 16 hours sitting in the airport until we could finally get a flight home.

Sixteen hours sat on hard airport chairs, with not enough money left to buy a meal was pretty rubbish – but I’m thankful it was in my pre-children days! Now, no matter how I travel, I am a lot more organised and always think ahead of any possibility. IF you’re planning a flight with kids, the chances are you’ll have thought about ideas to keep them entertained on-board, but it’s also wise to prepare just in case your flight is delayed and you have longer than expected at the airport!

• Make sure you have enough cash, especially important for the return journey, when you may have spent all your budgeted amount. But it’s wise to have enough cash to be able to get some drinks and snacks at least. Hungry kiddos will make the wait feel even longer!
• Have some entertainment ideas – ones that don’t require batteries! I usually pack a deck of cards {and some snap cards for my littlest}, a notebook and some crayons, maybe a few small toys too.
• If your children are old enough to understand, talk to them about the possibility beforehand,
• Check out any airport facilities – some may have play areas for toddlers which can be great boredom busters!
• Make it an adventure, while it’s always annoying that your flight is delayed, make it into an experience – how about a game of airport bingo – get your kids to see what they can spot, a piolet, a sniffer dog, someone asleep, someone riding on a Trunki, someone running to get their flight….

If your flight does get delayed, it’s worth knowing that you might be entitled to compensation. According to the Flight Compensation Regulation (261/2004), which is a set of rules for the compensation that passengers can claim if they are impacted by delays, diversion, and cancellations and apply to all passengers departing from or arriving at an EU airport, as well as passengers from outside the EU, as long as they are arriving at an EU airport and the airline is based in an EU member state. These rights are also very strictly imposed by the EU Court of Justice. An easy way of checking if you are entitled to compensation is to use this Flight delay compensation site.