River in Sight

My wife and (then) 11 month old son will be taking an 8AM day flight from JFK to LHR this summer - coming in the night before from DCA. The reason for this is that we wanted a day flight for our son's first long-haul flight (whether or not that was a good decision is another matter) and the best way for us to do it was DCA-JFK (overnight) JFK-LHR. We will not have this problem on the return.

Our issue is we will not need a car seat on this trip and were not planning to bring one, except we can't figure out how to get to a JFK airport hotel without one. There are no hotels directly connected to the airport and as far as I know none in walking distance.

One option is going into midtown via AirTrain & subway/LIRR, which would avoid the need for a car seat, but then we would need to leave very early the next morning to get back to JFK on time and that seems like just another point of failure on the trip / lots of hassle.

So my question is - does anyone have experience with this scenario? Any suggestions on how we could successfully get to a decent hotel relatively near to the airport without hauling a car seat solely for that purpose?

gobluetwo

Is the plan to actually get in early enough to be able to spend time in the city? Otherwise, there are plenty of airport hotels with shuttle service. No need for a carseat in the hotel shuttles. We've held our kids in our laps many times on hotel shuttles. In addition, taxis are exempt from carseat laws in NYC, so you could hold your child in a taxi, if you were to go that route.

levilevi

FWIW - LIRR/AirTrain from Penn station, while a little annoying with the transfer (depending on your luggage situation) is basically 10 mins to Jamaica and <10 mins to Terminal with a few mins wait at Jamaica. We just did it to get from/to Amtrak pre/post int'l JFK flight with 8 month old.

River in Sight

No, the city was really just a backup plan. It would be a quick overnight, total time between flights is around 13 hours unless we could get an earlier flight the day before.

We knew about the hotel shuttles but I guess we just assumed we would need a car seat for that, too. I hadn't thought that we may not - if it were one of the close-in hotels just on local streets, that may be an option. I will call a couple and check.

And I forgot about the taxis, too.. thanks!

CDTraveler

Any chance you could rethink those flights? I'm seeing misery for both mother and baby with this combo:

• Clear security with baby - short flight DCA-JFK
• Schlep baby and bags to hotel
• <13 hour turnaround to eat, feed kid, let kid get a full night's sleep, eat, feed kid, return to airport, clear security again by what, 6 am for 2 hours before international flight?
• Strap kid in for long haul during primary awake hours and expect already overtired kid to stay in seat/lap and behave in a way that won't drive all around him crazy

One important thing to remember with kids: when they're sleep deprived of their normal rest, it's actually harder for them to nap - ask any sleep specialist. So if the idea was to keep the kid up late the night before then get him up early thinking that this would make the child more likely to nap on the plane, it will likely backfire.

Also, by 11 months many kids are quite mobile and might scream bloody murder to get down and explore instead of sit still.

GUWonder

The JFK-LHR day flight is something that I would recommend avoiding when transporting infants/toddlers. The overnighting at JFK/NYC, the rather short and US-daytime flight time, the LHR passport control processing time (including its time variance) variance, and the transport and time zone adjustment hassles once at LHR at night? Not worth it from what I've seen. Quite literally, some of the most miserable children I've ever seen at LHR passport control and baggage claim are those coming off the ORD/JFK-LHR "daytime" flights.

If changing plans isn't cheap/free at this point, then I'd be looking for a hotel steps away from the Jamaica/LIRR/Airtran station (one that may not even require using a taxi) or a very short cab ride from JFK. Not the greatest properties and location around JFK and/or the Jamaica/LIRR/Airtran station, but it works better than heading into Manhattan.

Often1

You won't need a car seat for the hotel shuttles or for a NY taxi. Indeed, the shuttles typically aren't designed for car seats (other than as lugagge). So, don't let that even be an issue.

Agree with others that this plan, while seemingly the right one is really tougher on the baby than the earliest non-stop xIAD.

River in Sight

I sincerely appreciate the comments and suggestions offered so far. Unfortunately, perhaps egged on by sleep deprivation, we booked the day flights long ago and are stuck with them. They made sense at the time but now.. Well, perhaps not the best. Anyway, we will try for something close in to JFK as suggested and will hope to report back.

bacchus85

I honestly don't think it's such a bad idea.

We flew with our 12 month old son from Germany to Florida last year and the flight was fine. The Problem was that he fell asleep soon after Arrival (around 3pm) and he stayed asleep for a looong time - something like 2am the next day.

So when you are taking the dayflight to LHR you might just prevent that. The baby's probably gonna be awake most of the time during the flight but as soon as you reach London it's gonna be bedtime and you all can get a good night's rest in London.

erik123

I have done the day flight to LHR many times with kids (including infants) and it tends to work out fairly well.

Depending on the day the flights are usually not packed so you often have extra space. And people are mostly awake so not as annoyed by crying babies. Also - The service tends to be a bit better than the night flight. Jetlag is also less severe.

I suggest booking one night at JFK or Jamaica. Jamaica will be better quality and value. JFK airports are mostly bad - but they will good enough for one night. I would not go into town - More expensive and would require an additional 30-60 minutes of travel time.

CDTraveler

The issue is not just the daytime flight; it's the combination of short flight + short overnight layover + daytime flight for a parent traveling alone with an 11 mo. old. The odds are against things going well from the start because of the short overnight layover. At 11 months my kid would sleep >10 hours at night; a 13 hour layover would have been a flaming disaster.

fredandgingermad

My daughter's first flight was a day flight to New York from London in our case, worked out absolutely fine :-)

BeatCal

Use the car seat on the plane. cf: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...ts-080414.html

It is impossible by the laws of physics to hold a child if the plane hits an air pocket. There is about once a week of child flying per FAs - most bave nothing more serious than a slight concussion or a broken bone picked up later - which is not reported

Read the above and ask a senior flight attendant how many she has seen. Or go to their blog and see why they are pushing for all kids to be in car seats

GUWonder

The article -- with a great sensationalist headline -- which you repeatedly mention in this forum today is based upon an article that is about increased incidence of death due to lack of oxygen. It is something to consider, especially for longer flights where the parent (more commonly a breast-feeding mother) is seriously sleep-deprived prior to the flight. And if alcohol were banned in flight, perhaps the incidence of lap child death on planes would drop too, but is this something to consider too?