My first flight journey with my kids

Before my marriage, I traveled to Gulf countries often because I had lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years. We shifted to the Gulf with family when I was just 10 years old. I did all my studies there and did distance education staying in the Gulf for my degree. After marriage, I settled in Hyderabad due to my husband’s job. It’s been almost 6 years of our marriage and we have 2 children aged 5 and 1.5 years old. After 6 years of marriage, my husband finally got a job in Dubai with much hard work and consistency in applying for jobs in Gulf countries. He got his visa and went away to Dubai within one month after he got the offer letter. My kids and I stayed at my parents’ home in Hyderabad. After a few months, my husband applied for a family visa and booked flight tickets. His company didn’t give him any family visa or family insurance. So my husband had to apply everything on his own through agents and with his own money.

Our Family Visa Process:-

Getting a family visa or visit visa to Dubai is easier than in any other Gulf country. You can get a visit visa to Dubai in 3 days and a family visa within 2 weeks. If your company provides a family visa then it will take so much time. Companies do the process a bit slowly so it might take 2 to 3 months to get a family visa. Along with a family visa, you should also apply for family insurance. Insurance for every individual is compulsory here. If you are on a visit visa, you may not need to apply for insurance. But for residents, if they don’t apply for insurance, every doctor visit will cost you so much money. One-time visit to a normal physician doctor will cost you 500 dirham which is 11,500 Indian rupees. The company will give employees insurance and a visa.  If you want to call your family to stay in Dubai, you must apply for a family visa and insurance.

When my husband went to Dubai and joined his new company, They did his medical tests and gave Emirates ID after one week of joining. You can start the process only when you have your Emirates ID. Since my husband’s company didn’t give him a family visa, my husband went to an agent. He took our passport-size photographs and front and back side photo of our passports. If you already have a passport the process will become very easy. If you don’t have, then you have to apply for it and it takes 40 days to get a new passport. If you apply in tatkal, it will take only 15 days but this process is a bit costly. The whole family visa process will be based on your husband’s Emirates ID, visa, salary, and in which company he is currently working in Dubai.

When our family visa process started after my husband got his Emirates ID card, the agent told us that we would get the visa within 2 weeks. So my husband booked flight tickets after 3 weeks of applying for the family visa. I told him to wait and book tickets after we get the family visa but he told me that if we booked flight tickets early, it would be cheaper and if we booked flight tickets before 2 to 3 days of traveling it might become costly. So we got our flight tickets and we were waiting for our visa. But there were constant technical errors when they were processing our visa. First, there was a mistake in the company application that we gave to them. The application was correct but they made a mistake while typing. They mentioned the salary as 4000 AED, which is not eligible for a family visa. Only employees with a salary of 5000 AED and above are eligible to call their family on a family visa.

Another mistake was their servers were not working properly. There was so much delay in the upload of documents and sending them to the immigration department. This was going on for weeks. I was so tense and didn’t understand why there was always a delay when I wanted to go to any Gulf countries. Before, I tried many times to go to Saudi but I was not able to. Sometimes due to kids, sometimes due to other responsibilities, and of course LOCKDOWN happened too. This time also there were so many hurdles coming in between but I didn’t lose hope and prayed a lot to get what I wanted. 2 weeks passed and we didn’t get our visa as the servers were still not responding. My husband went to their office to take the update and talk to them daily.

After 3 weeks, Just one day before the date of our traveling when we all lost hope and I told my husband to postpone our flight tickets, my husband called just 20 hours before our flight and told me that our family visa was ready. Tears just rolled down my eyes after I heard the good news. He sent all the visa copies on WhatsApp and told me to take a printout of all those before travel.

My Fear:-

This was my first time traveling with 2 kids on a flight. I had so much experience with traveling on flights that nothing bothered me when I was traveling alone. I had no problem while traveling and enjoyed flight journeys a lot. I was so tense this time as I didn’t know how my kids would react. And now since I have my two kids with me, I have to be very careful with everything. My elder son loves airplanes and he was super excited about his journey. I have heard many parents complain that their kids cry a lot in airplanes. And they get vomiting sensations, bleedy noses, ear problems, and crankiness. So I had to be prepared for everything. We were traveling along with my mother. So I had my mother to help me out with all these problems and kids too. I started researching other parent’s flight journeys to know what happens on a flight with kids. Everyone’s story was different. So I made up my mind that I would carry all the essential items of kids in cabin bags and stay calm and patient throughout the journey. I bought some things online which are very useful for a comfortable flight journey especially when you are traveling with kids.

Useful items for a flight journey:-

1. Papport holder.
2. Stroller.
3. Small cabin bag.
4. Diaper bag.
5. Snack box.
6. Pipe water bottle.
7. Baby carry bag.
8. The kid’s favorite toys.
9. Cotton balls to keep in ears.
10. One lemon for vomiting sensations.
11. Wipes.
12. Diapers.
13. Disposable diaper bags.
14. Extra polythene bags.
15. 2 pairs of extra clothes for kids.
16. Water bottles.
17. Small handbags for kids.
18. Healthy snacks for kids.
19. Powerbank.
20. Comfortable shoes for travel.
21. Baby food if your baby is very small and cannot have outside food.
22. Small medical pouch with important medicines.

My Luggage:-

Our luggage was too much since we were going on a family visa. I packed everything in my home that was in good condition because I didn’t want to waste more money on household items again after shifting to Dubai. And we all know how expensive DUBAI is. For each person, the maximum luggage was 40kg. So I packed 80 kg of my and my son’s luggage. Still, I had more extra luggage, so I added 20kg more luggage to my flight booking by giving some extra money online.  My daughter who was 1.5 years old didn’t have any luggage facility. She had a ticket for half of our price and only one small hand carry bag was allowed to her. Strollers were also allowed for children on international flights and they will not come under the luggage category. But they will take away the stroller when we enter the flight and send it to luggage. So we will get the stroller after we land along with our luggage bags and not right after landing.

We had 2 big 20 kg wheel bags and 2 medium 15 kg bags. There were 2 small cartoon boxes too each of 12 kg. We had 3 hand-carry bags and a stroller. I carried some baby food items like oats, fruits, and snacks in my hand carry for my kid’s dinner. I also carried a small handbag to keep the passport holder, visas, and phone.

My Flight Booking:-

There were so many airlines to travel to Dubai but we chose INDIGO Airlines as it’s a little cheap and comfortable too. I love Emirates Airlines but it’s very costly and you can travel in the Emirates when there are no festivals and when there are huge offers and discounts in other seasons.  Indigo Airlines gives you special discounts, extra luggage options, refundable cancellation fees, pre book your favourite meals, book your favourite seat, and many more features. Me and my 5-year-old son got a full ticket but my 1.5 year old daughter got a half ticket and only one hand-carry bag without any luggage option. In many airlines, kids under the age of 2 years old, get only half the price of the full ticket and no luggage option. Strollers were allowed in international flights and they will not be considered as luggage.

Our airport experience:-

This was the first time me and my mother were traveling alone without our partners. My husband and father were already in the gulf and now we have to go there with 2 kids and so much luggage. On the day of our travel, all our relatives came to our home and helped us in packing, clean the house, and gave us so much support. Our home was very near to the airport. It takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes. I booked an Uber van as we had so much luggage. We had a very safe and enjoyable journey in the taxi. The weather was very good. As soon as we reached the airport, the luggage helper came to us after seeing our huge luggage bags. He handled all the luggage very carefully. But since there were too many bags we needed 2 trollers and I was holding one trolley and one stroller with my daughter in it. My mother took care of my son. My son is a very good boy. He is quiet and calm. He doesn’t go anywhere even when we leave him alone. If we don’t catch his finger, he will catch our hand and walk. He is very disciplined and supportive. Journeys become easier with kids like this. Throughout our journey, he didnt irritate us and cooperated well.

As soon as we reached the airport entrance gate, my daughter started crying and getting out of the stroller. She was afraid as there were too many people in the airport. From here the journey became very difficult as she refused to sit on the stroller and I had to carry her in my arms throughout the whole journey. She was not going to her grandmother too when Mom tried to help me. So I kept all the hand-carry bags in the stroller and gave the stroller to my mother. I had my very heavy backpack, one small side handbag, and my daughter in arms. With all these things I have to catch passports, visas, and flight tickets in one hand. My arms were hurting a lot. My legs were also hurting as I wore new shoes to the airport and that didn’t fit me well. I was very irritated and disturbed. Our immigration was done very smoothly and no one asked us anything. All the staff members were very cooperative and helpful. My husband and my father were continuously calling on our phones to find out if we had reached the airport safely. But we didn’t lift the calls as we were all in a hurry, I left my son’s hand-carry bag on the checking desk. After 15 minutes, I remembered and went straight back to take it. In between, I met an airport security staff who helped me get my son’s hand-carry bag without any issues as there was less time left for boarding. The security gave me the back without asking any questions and I walked all the way again to the boarding area. There we spent 15 minutes relaxing, drinking water, eating some snacks, and calling and telling our family members that we reached the airport safely, immigration was done and we were waiting for the flight.

Flight Experience:-

Finally, after 20 minutes, the boarding started and there was a long queue at the gate. We reached the airplane by an airport bus that connects from the airport straight to the flight gate. Since we had the stroller, it became difficult for us to go on the bus and stand there along with other people. When we were near the flight, the security guard took our stroller and put it in the luggage deck of the airplane. That day it was slightly raining too. Though we were very exhausted, those little drops of rain made us feel fresh and active again. We went inside the airplane and took our seats. Since my daughter is below 2 years old, she didn’t get any seat and I had to carry her in my lap. We can book an extra seat if we want, but we didn’t do it as it might become costly. Once we all settled down, my daughter started crying as she was very sleepy. She didn’t eat anything for dinner. My kids just ate one or two biscuits at the airport and now since it was 11 pm, they felt very sleepy. I tried to rock her in my arms and after a few minutes, she fell asleep. After 15 minutes, the air hostess came with the meals that we booked online for dinner. Me and my son enjoyed it a lot. It was a double chicken sandwich and a vegetable cheese sandwich. my mother doesn’t like sandwiches so she bought her food from home. After eating, my son wanted to sleep but he was not able to sleep comfortably. He was getting irritated. I tried so many ways to make him comfortable. I pushed his seat backward only a bit as there were other passengers behind him and I didn’t want to disturb them too. My mother put his head on her lap and his legs were on my lap. I was fully occupied with my 2 kids and I got severe body pains that night. My legs were hurting so I removed the shoes as soon as I entered the aircraft.

It was a 5-hour long journey and I was very eagerly waiting to land in Dubai, go home, and take some rest. Because we were exhausted. When we tell people that flight journeys are very tiresome, they don’t believe us. Instead, they taunt us that we just sit comfortably in the flight throughout the journey and land here straight without any trouble in between. Only travelers can understand how hard it is to travel. During this 5-hour flight journey, my 2 kids were in deep sleep and didn’t get up even once. They didn’t have any problems during take-off or while landing as other people said. Instead, I felt a bit nauseous while landing. After landing, I was waiting at the aircraft thinking I would get the stroller hear. But the security staff told me that we would get the stroller along with our luggage bags. Now again I had to carry my daughter, my handbag, backpack, and my son’s jacket, all way long from the aircraft to the airport and then to the luggage desk. Once we got all our luggage and stroller, I put my daughter inside the stroller and told my son to take care of her. Me and my mother were carrying all the luggage bags in 2 trolleys. My son happily drove the stroller to the outside of the airport. On the exit, I saw my husband standing and waving his hand. He was very delighted to see his son taking care of his sister. After coming out of the airport, he took all the bags, put them in his car and we finally sat peacefully in the car in Dubai. We were a bit hungry, so my husband bought some snacks from the nearby grocery store. After that, we went straight home and slept keeping all the luggage bags on the side.

Tips for a comfortable journey:-

• Avoid too many cabin bags. When traveling with kids, one small bag back is enough.
• Take some kid’s snacks and a drinking water bottle with you as airport snacks and water are costly.
• If you have kids under age 2, please take a stroller. This will help you a lot.
• To keep your passports, visas, ID cards, debit cards, money, and phone well organized in one pouch, buy a passport holder bag.
• Wear comfortable shoes as there will be so much to walk around the airport.
• Dress in light cotton clothing and always keep a jacket on if it feels cold in the airport or in an airplane.
• Dress your kids comfortably. Avoid too much clothing and tight jeans and pants.
• Carry a power bank to charge your phone when the battery becomes low.
• Use headphones in the airport and in-flight to call others on the phone as there will be so much noise around.
• Carry a refreshing tissue, a wet wipe, a napkin, and a pack of chewing gum or candy to feel fresh and relaxed.
• Avoid wearing too many accessories as they may fall off during travel.
• Make sure your cabin bags and handbags are tightly packed as there are chances valuable things inside them may fall off during the journey.
• Carry a polythene bag to keep extra things, dirty clothes, waste food packets, etc.
• If you have kids, take one or two of their favorite small toys in your handbag.
• When you are packing luggage, use cartoon boxes as they are light in weight and you can put more luggage in it.
• Wrap all your luggage bags with plastic sheets to avoid damage.
• Write your name and phone number on the bags for easy identification.

Necessary items for the journey:-