WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

DH and I are taking DS to Jamaica for my sister's wedding in October and he will be 13 months by then. We have two flight options: leave JFK at 10:30 AM or 5:50 AM.

DH really wants to book the early one because we would avoid rush hour traffic getting to JFK and also arrive in Jamaica earlier. I would prefer the later flight so we don't have to wake DS up in the middle of the night to leave the house. I feel like he will be a mess on the plane because he won't have a good night's sleep.

WWYD??? Any BTDT advice is greatly appreciated!!

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

If it was me I would take the later flight. Even if you were able to transfer DC into the car seat in the car and he could sleep on the way to the airport, it's still going to be a really early day if you have a flight at 5:50am. I think that could make for a very cranky kid later in the day.

We're going to FL in a couple of weeks and we're taking an 8am flight, which means we need to leave the house around 5:30am and I'm hoping my girls will sleep in the car so they won't be as cranky.

I also think if you take an early flight he may not sleep on the flight. If you take the later one, maybe it'll be long enough after he woke up to take a nap on the plane.

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

10:30 I agree that waking in the middle of the night would not be good.

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

I woudl take the later flight - your DC would probably be ready for a nap around that time as well which will help make the flight a little easier!

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

I would def take the later flight. A cranky baby on the plane is not fun! Did you buy your DC a seat?

We flew with my then 17-month-old and specifically booked our flight to coincide with nap time. It was perfect - 10 minutes into the flight he settled in, grabbed his blanket and fell asleep (and this is a baby who doesn't sleep anywhere but his crib). DS had his own seat and we sat him in his high chair.

On the way back though DS woke up earlier than usual and napped in the car on the way to the airport and needless to say, the 3.5 hour flight felt like it was 5 hours long. Not fun. Thank goodness he had a seat otherwise I cannot imagine what that flight would have been like.

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

I would definitely NOT wake up my DS at 2am to get to the airport in time for a 5am or 6am flight... I can just imagine how cranky he would be and how upsetting the flight would be. If it was my only choice, then yes, it is what it is, but I would definitely go for the later flight in your case.

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

Posted by Dee0522
We weren't planning on buying him a seat. Mostly for financial reasons... we're already spending so much to fly there, stay at the resort (which is NOT cheap), etc. We can't see spending another almost $500 for a seat that we may not even use. We're hoping he'll just stay on our laps! Or if we get a window and aisle seat, maybe no one will take the middle seat . Are we idiots?!?!?!

Re: WWYD - re: flying with a 13-month-old

Posted by LoveyQ

Posted by Dee0522
We weren't planning on buying him a seat. Mostly for financial reasons... we're already spending so much to fly there, stay at the resort (which is NOT cheap), etc. We can't see spending another almost $500 for a seat that we may not even use. We're hoping he'll just stay on our laps! Or if we get a window and aisle seat, maybe no one will take the middle seat . Are we idiots?!?!?!

We're flying with DS when he'll be 15 months and we didn't buy him a separate seat. I don't think you're an idiot I'm hoping since we'll have a window seat and a plane with tv screens that we'll be able to keep him entertained or that he'll nap.