Greetings!

My wife and I are considering a trip next year from LAX to CDG with our 3 year old daughter.

She has flown several times already. Last year, we flew to SFO (One hour), SEA (two hours) and BOS (6 hours flights).

Knowing that she is a typical 3 year old, would it make more sense to fly non-stop to our destination or instead have multiple stops to our destination?

It depends on the child you could say but I'd like an unbiased input...

Thanks,

Al.

More sense to fly nonstop and preferably an over night flight so the child will actually sleep on a normal schedule, therefore less "restless cabin syndrome"

Nonstop would be much less stressful for all. One trek through the airport with all your gear, one boarding process, one getting settled in the seats, less disruption of sleep schedule, and only once each way through security. While not all connecting flights require an additional screening of the pax, some with a change of terminal, like domestic to international, do.

Another vote for non-stop. Cut down the time and amount of transitions.

My preference is also non-stop and nightflight. We tried longhaul dayflight with our kids and for us i didnt really work.

Uh oh. I know at least one FTer who's not gonna like the suggestion of putting a 3-year-old on an overnight flight.

That said, I agree. If you're flying overnight - go nonstop. If flying during daylight hours, I suggest getting in a stop somewhere. I wouldn't do multistop, but one connection wouldn't be a bad idea.

And welcome to FT!

Non stop, it is.

You guys are awesome.

Thank you.

From the West Coast to Europe, there isn't that much choice of schedule. To Europe is usually overnight and coming back is day. I worked that for about 10 years and have been flying it as a passenger for two decades and that's always been the case.

The problem with stopping is that you could go through Chicago but that would mean stopping after about 3 hours. Not cutting much back. The East Coast is worse because it's entirely off the flight path (which goes up through northern Canada and the middle of Greenland). This adds about 3 hours of just flight time, not including transit.

Every time you change aircraft, you risk lost bags and add time to your journey, even when it's en route, which this definitely not (unless you can connect in Gander, Newfoundland). Also, with the new airport taxes, this could mean a much more expensive trip.

Once I was stuck in LAX for 8 hours, after arriving from London when a storm moved into SFO (I couldn't get on the SFO). That was tiring and I was years away from being a mother. I don't even like to think about delays like that with a child (or two or three) in tow!

Also, there's good old Customs and Immigration when you come back. You have to do that in your first port of entry, no exceptions. If your transatlantic is even slightly late, this could mean missing your connection which is kind of stressful with a child. Since it will be a day flight, this could be really exhausting for her. So stopping on a day flight wouldn't make any sense.

Once I was kept in Security so long we missed our flight. I was forced to connect through IAD, alone with two small children. We nearly had a weather cancellation on arrival and an earlier flight had cancelled so we nearly didn't get on our SFO, even when the weather cancellation was no longer a threat...

I'm so anti-connecting-with-children that I do sometimes pay more and usually take a 2 hour bus to catch a non-stop. For this trip (I'm in Ca. now), we took the bus at 4am to get the non-stop out of Frankfurt instead of flying and connecting through Paris at a later hour... I have a friend whose parents pick her up four hours' drive away so she doesn't have to connect with her four kids...

You get the idea.

True. It's about a 10.5 hour flight, nonstop from LAX-CDG. I don't know your dates, but you have a choice of several different airlines for nonstop routing. Some leave LA as early at 12:30 pm., but you could get flights that leave later in the evening.

Yes, you can avoid this. One example is flying Aer Lingus and preclearing in Dublin before your US arrival.

My vote is absolutely the nonstop flight. Don't extend the trip any longer than you have to.

It's about a 10.5 hour flight, nonstop from LAX-CDG.

It's about an hour more going the other direction. Wish the night flight were the longer one!

Yes, you can avoid this. One example is flying Aer Lingus and preclearing in Dublin before your US arrival.

I've only seen prescreening in Toronto (I understand there are a few Canadian airports). I hope other European cities adopt this! That would be great! I flew out of CDG, LHR and FRA and none of those have this feature. Does Aer Lingus fly to the west coast non-stop?

Dublin has it. Wife lost out on getting her work permit stamp in JFK because of it when she moved here a couple years ago. They took all her paperwork and cleared customs. She landed at a domestic terminal at JFK. But no DUB-WestCoast flights I know of. Aer Lingus connects in ORD to the westcoast on a code share with UA as far as I have seen.

I'm in favor of non-stop too, however it also do depend a bit on the child. My daughter seems to handle the non-stop travel better, while my son is often easier to handle if he gets the chance to use some energy on a stop or two along the way.

i'm always in the minority on this issue, but thought i'd weigh in anyway. my four year old is a seasoned traveler and has been doing at least one long-haul trip to asia every year since he was a couple of months old. we've discovered that non stops are just not an option for us- at least not on the US to asia routes we typically travel. we NEED that stop in FRA or BRU or wherever!
the only non-stop we've done with my son is the old TG jfk-bkk 18 hour flight in 2008, just before they did away with that route. it was pure, sheer, unmitigated hell. ok so he WAS 8 months old and teething at the time, which obviously contributed to his irritability and restlessness, but still...my husband and i spent what felt like the most part of that flight walking up and down the cabin, holding him in our arms and trying to soothe him. he just wouldnt settle and sleep beyond a certain point, though he did have his car seat in his own seat. cant imagine how traumatic the flight wouldve been had he been a lapchild! as it is, we couldnt wait to get off that plane and let him crawl around unrestrained.
subsequently we've found that what works best for our particular child-yes of course every child is different- is a stop of a couple of hours where he's able to stretch his legs and burn off energy, enjoy the comforts of a lounge if we're flying biz or just wander around the gates and stores..we've tried everything to entertain him on long flights, and have discovered that no matter how entranced he is initially by new toys, books, an ipod, ipad or IES, after more than 4 waking hours on a flight he's DONE!! (needless to say by then we're frazzled wrecks) so i cant imagine we'd be able to cope on a non stop to asia, which tend to typically run 15+ hours
a straight up transatlantic to europe would be worth considering though and i can see how it could be painless, especially the night flight out..good luck!

I'll keep anm1 some company in the minority. I've flown DTW-AMS-ATL with a 14-month old and in a couple of weeks will be doing JFK-LON-JFK with a now 27-month old. That 7-8 hours is the limit for me. The return last year from AMS (morning departure, evening arrival in the US) was pure hell. I shudder whenever I think of it.

I'd like sometime soon to visit family in BOM with the kid and can't imagine taking any of the non-stop 14-15 hour options from the East Coast. Just wouldn't happen with "this kid".

Non stop and during normal sleeping hours.

Like some previous posters' commented about thing going wrong during stopover - I go by my business motto: reduce points of failure.