Travel with Children - TATL with toddler

Going to be bringing my 2.5 year old son to the US and back to Germany soon. I'm not worried about the flight to the states, but coming back on the redeye I'm not sure. We have the choice of leaving very early and getting in to FRA at 0545, or leaving on one of the later flights that gets into FRA around noon or so. I'm guessing early is probably better for him, but for me the earlier flight normally lands right when I want to fall asleep, making for a really long day. What have others experienced? Is there any chance a kid that young will sleep on a plane?

In my experience they sleep either way... the only consideration is that if your toddler is really tired before you can board it might be a problem in the airport.

K.

I always found the flight to the U.S. the worst. It's longer and all daytime so mine hardly sleep.

Coming back to Europe was easier since it was overnight. They always slept on the way. I never had a choice of times but I would say that earlier would be better because if you can get home in the morning (assuming you kind of live close to the airport) then you all can take a nap. Set the alarm though!

I find I have worse jet lag with later arrivals.

Factor in other considerations, i.e. would the early arrival put you in the morning commute traffic? Which flight is less full? Would one flight be more convenient for those taking you to the airport in the States?

Please disregard any unhelpful tips to keep your child awake or make him skip a nap because supposedly this will make him sleep on board the aircraft. I've seen this go wrong sooooo many times as a Flight Attendant and most children sleep well on airplanes. You need your child rested and cooperative to get him through check-in, security and boarding. Kids get over-stimulated easily in airports with all the new sights and they can get what I called "hyper-tired" where they wont go to sleep, even though they're tired.

I always found the flight to the U.S. the worst. It's longer and all daytime so mine hardly sleep.

Coming back to Europe was easier since it was overnight. They always slept on the way. I never had a choice of times but I would say that earlier would be better because if you can get home in the morning (assuming you kind of live close to the airport) then you all can take a nap. Set the alarm though!


+1 on this one! The overnight is so much easier. They fight it for a while, and eventually pass out. The harder part is waking them up after only a few hours sleep ... by they time they get home or to the hotel, they're barely able to stand up.

Try and get a flight with seat-back TV.

Note that most of the LH aircraft do not have seat-back TVs, so if you want direct flight with *A, then UA may be preferably to LH - obviously depends on routing (check seatguru.com).

I find that AC's IFE is pretty good, so you might want to check a routing via Canada too.

Thanks for the replies. We settled on UA945 which leaves at 0825 on the outbound, and UA940 which leaves at 1822 on the return. Since he will be awake for most of the flight to the states anyway, we decided to pick the earliest one. For the return we are hoping that a couple of hours into the flight he will fall asleep at his normal time (presuming he adjusts during his time in the states). I'm also trying to get bulkheads just to minimize disruptions to neighbors.