Several months ago, I wrote about how we’d be taking our son, Miles, on his first transatlantic trip, coinciding with his second birthday. While I won’t be writing a full trip report (sorry, it’s hard to document everything when you’re carrying 17 bags and have someone yelling ”no no” at everything), I did want to…
Continue reading: Our Toddler’s First Transatlantic Flight: A Delightful Mess
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Great report. You write that your flight from Madrid to Miami was three hours. I think uou meant Madrid to Athens
Oh my goodness is he cute.
Glad you managed to make the best of a few curveballs.
I think you mean Athens rather than Miami here
"Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the journey was the last segment, from Madrid to Miami. The flight was around three hours, but honestly, it might as well have been from Singapore to New York, based on how long it felt."
Glad the misconnect didn’t cost thousands! Very interesting to read such a different style review outta your blog
That look on Ford’s face.
It’s been a long time, but I remember exactly how that felt.
Ford is a lot more understanding than my wife would have been if I had booked two separate itineraries like this and ended up needing to collect the bags/misconnecting.
Glad it all ultimately worked out but what I have learned in the last year of having a little one is “keep it simple” when it comes to itineraries.
Sure I have flown more miles in Y this year just to have three across than I have in the last several years combined but wouldn’t trade it for all the extra memories of so many fun trips.
Halfway through the delayed American flight I expected everything to go downhill… but the kid’s a good sport, that’s for sure, and both his fathers know a thing or two about how to keep him happy. I was most surprised at the better-than-expected result at the Iberia counter, given how badly the inbound flight was delayed, and given how AA shirks any and all responsibility.
How’s the Korean/JAL trip going? No updates for quite a while!
Gosh, has he really turned 2? I feel old, actually. Beautiful family but I’m gonna go have an existential crisis now
Sounds about par for the course with a kid that age and flying AA. 😉
Wait til he insists on walking the whole flight. It gets easier after that!
@ Mike O. -- He does qualify, and we're just finalizing that (Germany is kind of bureaucratic). 🙂
@ VT-CIE -- Just getting started. I'll have my first live post about the trip tomorrow, so stay tuned! 🙂
If you want him to sleep on these long flights what you want are some melatonin gummies. The 1mg dose is plenty. You get to give him a yummy gummy and boom, 15 minutes later he’ll be fast asleep. It’s truly like magic. (Take this from a fellow German-American with 3 kids who has flown them to Europe at least once a year for the past 12 years. These things work. Great for car rides too!)
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the journey was the last segment, from Madrid to Miami. Perhaps, Athens?
Our first little one is a few months younger than Miles, so I’ve been looking forward to your trip reports with him so any tips and tricks. Funnily enough we took our little one on an international trip before you guys! We did YVR-AMS on KLM business class in the middle seats. It was challenging passing the toddler across the middle privacy divider. The trip was definitely worth the struggles in the air though.
Textbook example of why AA sucks. Passengers are potentially out of pocket for significant $$ because AA can’t staff a plane out of a hub. Also, that policy of not checking bags though on separate tickets is ridiculous, particularly when the second flight is on an alliance partner. I can’t count the number of times that other airlines have gladly checked bags though with a separate ticket. AA = Not My Problem Airlines.
Great post! I remember the feeling of "just go to sleep already!" Before you know it, it becomes "don't just sleep all day!"
Ahh..the all familiar separate ticket connections! Shortest I've done: domestic-domestic (1.5hrs), domestic-international (4hrs), international-domestic (2hrs), but all in US at connection point. One idea if you have multiple people in your party is to pay a little more and book one person on a single ticket (if you don't have too many bags) so at least the bags go thru savings some time going landside and less number of tickets to rebook if there's misconnect.
What a great story. Miles is absolutely adorable. Your story brings back memories from all the times we took our kids to long trips. Although stressful, the memories you will have will be with you forever and wait until he grows up and you can share those memories with him. Keep doing mire trips with him and your won’t regret.
As the childless one, I will point out Miles might not have qualified as a lap child on the way out because he turned two before the return trip (and it was the same ticket). Here's DL's policy:
"YOU WILL NEED TO PURCHASE A TICKET FOR YOUR CHILD IF YOU:
Have a child that is 2 years old or older
Have a child that turns 2 during the trip"
I'm sorry to be negative but I don't like seeing the little guy at the window like that. If he should fall backwards or try to turn away from you......
I figured in the end you would choose business class over premium economy. I still think PE is better traveling as 3 with a toddler. Oh should try it and review on the blog.
That glass looks to be at least a half-inch thick, built to survive hurricane winds. The little fellow was completely safe.
Why not premium economy with the toddler. Kind of a waste for him to have his own business class seat in a way....
I noticed that too. The relief! Finally!
The old Top Gear TV presenters once compared a Maserati with a two year-old - very annoying to be around most of the time, but if someone tried to take it away from you, you'd kill them. That sums it up for me.
congrats Miles on your first transatlantic flight!!!!
And also congrats proud dads on keeping your cool during this rather challenging itinerary
hearts, hearts, hearts
Babies/toddlers in business class? Hmmm....nobody is talking about that? It sounds like Miles was well behaved but I've had two business class flights (JFK-DOH and IST-IAD) recently with screaming babies in business class for 10+ hours. Not fun flights to put it mildly and even worse knowing I spent $6000/flight to have this sort of "entertainment". The industry really needs to address the issue in my opinion.
What a great trip report, exceeded only by these adorable pics of Miles! Congrats, you did it!
What counts is that you lived to tell the tale 🙂 Gotta start them early.
So glad to hear the misconnect didn't result in you all being SOL.
We’ve just booked our first long haul with our one year old to go and see his grandparents at Christmas. We picked premium economy over business because we couldn’t think of a way we could manage our very active toddler in most modern j seats. Its times like this I miss the Qantas shell seats or the rapidly disappearing old BA ones.
We just tried him out on a 4 hour train journey and I can’t see him sleeping much.
Long layover in Tokyo so he can sleep in a bed. Wish us luck.
Also, lucky, I’m noticing the Air France babyzen yo-yo pushchair , we just have a plain red one so I’m a little jealous. Great piece of kit, the fact that it folds up and fits as hand luggage or on our cargo bike is a great feature.
I did want to ask - no car seat for miles. Airlines seem to be all over the place on this one. I presume you didn’t take one because you would need one when you got there.
I’m having the devil of a time getting our one ‘approved’ by JAL right now., they are insisting on either theirs or ours if they will approve it. I’d love to avoid the whole thing if I could. It’s not like it will help him sleep, we don’t own a car and we barely use it except for the odd rental or Uber, so he’s never had a chance to get used to it.
A post on car seats on planes would be good if you have any insights?
As a parent of a young kid, my main thing about traveling in a premium cabin is how inconvenient it is for the parent. I know Lucky was hoping for the other plane, but I’d hate to be responsible for a toddler with this type of seat.
IMHO, accessing the child easily at this age is more important to a comfort.
Issue is effectively addressed through airline policies including seat assignments after 2
If you're unhappy with that you're free to enjoy the comfort of your own home or start a competing airline.
Remember, Ben bought 7,000,000 AA miles for $30K a few years ago when SimplyMiles started (like Gary and others did) - a charity donation that resulted in about 240 miles per dollar due to stacked bonuses. He has lots of miles to spend - 5 x 62K (J) is only 310K miles spend.
We just took my 3.5 y/o on his first transatlantic trip to BUD (BA in PE). It’s was like 90 percent fine but the other 10 was…not so fine. I cannot imagine a five hour rolling delay! I would’ve packed up and gone home and been like “let me try this tomorrow”
That is a fun story, and I'm glad it ended as well as it could. Thank you for sharing!
I wholeheartedly agree with you T. Davis, and as for Eric: The First/Business Class area of the plane is not "public" nor is it meant for "everyone". The airlines advertise peace, comfort, and luxury. A screaming child, less attention due to the FA dealing with said child, or all of the other issue (smelly diapers for one, mess in the aisle, etc) are not that whatsoever. I'm glad Ben's kiddo was well behaved: that is not the norm. And airlines do need to address this in a better way than just you just telling us to "stay at home". If us high ticket cost payers actually "stayed at home" YOUR tickets as well your "little angels" would cost significantly more than "sAAver fare". Bet that.
It is in fact public as evidenced by the ability of the general public to purchase tickets and policies which do not restrict children from the cabin
Seek status or validation elsewhere
Next time, distribute Miles' stuff across all your bags. That way, if one gets lost or delayed, you have backups. My family tries to do this, with varying degrees of success, with our clothes when we travel together and have to check bags. (We aren't always successful because the day or two before a big trip is always a bit stressful and no one wants to repack bags at the last minute.)
"The First/Business Class area of the plane is not "public" nor is it meant for "everyone"."
Well, yes it is. It's meant for everyone who buys a ticket. It's not some sort of exclusive members-only private club, much as you might want it to feel that way.
Got to agree. Y or PY for me until my daughter (who is 3 in January) is a bit older purely as if she decided to undo her seat belt on the takeoff roll then I wouldn’t be able to see with most J configurations.
What airlines advertise is meaningless. They also advertise hot young flight attendants with all smiles tucking in passengers, meals fit for a Michelin starred restaurant, and passengers who are all fashionable jetsetters wearing suits and couture dresses who happily talk to their equally hip seatmates. Do you complain about all that advertising too?
What matters is what is put in the fine print on their contract, in which they don't even guarantee that the flight you paid for will operate as scheduled. So if you somehow believed their advertising, that's your problem, not the problem of people who purchase what they are entitled to purchase, and travel in whatever class their ticket allows them to.
If he was using miles to buy the ticket I'm guessing he bought one way tickets rather than roundtrip. For most FF programs there's no discount to purchase round trips, and 2 one ways give you the flexibility of finding awards on two different airlines.
You are much braver than me! When we looked at a summer vacation, with two kids who are 1 and 3 we literally ruled out anything that wasn't a direct flight. While in the future we'd be open to a connection, I don't think I'd ever risk separate tickets that might leave us stranded in a foreign country. That would be one adventure I wouldn't want to take! 🙂 glad it all worked out though, and my goodness Miles is growing fast!
PS. I'll happily trade you a couple sleepless flights If my kids would give me a year of 12 hour night sleeps with no interruptions! 🙂
Longtime fan of your site and love the article. But for the love of god, fix the ads implementation. It’s so buggy and causes the page to blank out, freeze, etc. almost like it’s 2005. Makes it hard to finish an article.
I agree with other posters that flat bed seats don't seem especially convenient for small children, and that PY seems to make more sense in these circumstances. What I do find bizarre though is that you didn't try calling/WhatsApping Iberia to flag up the likelihood of missing connection before becoming a no-show due to the delay.
Someone doesn't get their own memo.
Instead of being so demanding, do as you say. Just go read something else then "visualise yourself flying Qsuites or Air France or JAL or something of that kind! ;)"
As a fellow parent who has also flown long haul with toddlers you should give them melatonin and benadryl right as they board the flight so they won't struggle to sleep in an unfamiliar environment
also for under 2 its better to book 1 J seat and have them as a lap child so they can sleep next to you
It won’t be so many more years until your son will be of the same age as when you started out on Flyertalk. How time flies. I am sort of surprised you waited until your son was two years old to fly on an international long-haul flight. When you first mentioned a baby was on the way, I had assumed it more likely that the trip reports for a U2 child on long-haul international flights would have come well before your child would be close to 2 years of age.
To this day and after many miles flown myself, witnessing someone's joy & excitement when flying for the first time makes me quite happy. Doesn't matter whether is a child, a teenager or an adult, seeing their happiness makes my day.
Use an AirTag+TilePro tracker in your checked-in luggage and at least on arrival you would know where the important stuff may be and make plans based on that.
While most dread the idea of having a bag with important stuff go missing while it’s needed for a trip, pretty much everything you need for the season for even a toddler is available in the capital city of a country such as Greece. It won’t be fun to have to do runs for clothes, possibly diapers, and then the other stuff a kid may need on vacation, but it is do-able. If the stuff is unlikely to be easily purchased at the trip destination, then probably best to take it as carry-on if possible.
Good suggestion to consider splitting critical stuff across different bags, but if one bag goes missing, then it’s more likely that all the impacted passengers in the travel party are going to be sort of short on stuff and more likely to need to do some shopping. Not all bad, especially if you want the airline to pay for wardrobe additions — but it takes time to shop, and some people really dislike having to shop more times than minimally necessary and then possibly ending up with more clothes and accessories than they want.
Ben, this is only related in the most tangential of ways, but as a fellow child of immigrants who grew up in the US speaking their parents language I'm curious to know. Do you speak to Miles in German or otherwise try to teach him the language? Also, does he have German citizenship like you?
"...everyone who buys a ticket". Does a 6 month old baby buy a ticket for business class?
If I was sitting in economy class and screaming nonstop for 10 hours, the crew would likely kick me off the plane and/or the pilot would divert so I could be arrested. If a baby does that in business class, that is completely fine and the parents/guardians have no accountability? Give me a break.
He's not asking for a special treatment - he's not allowed to disturb others with noise, so why should parents be allowed to do that? It's them who is asking for a special treatment and waiving of the general rules.
LOL lune, what ads are you seeing? PanAm or Braniff from 1950? Episodes of MadMen or something? Airlines DO infact advertise comfort, rest, relaxation, space, and many other things tangible and not in 2024. They owe it to us all to at least try to deliver that. And people like you who don't hole them accountable in any way are helping them to steamroll over all passengers.
Wow. The ENTITLEMENT of some parents is so strong on this comment thread. We get it: YOUR kids are "angels" that can do NO WRONG and society/public at large will just have to deal with your little babies if you have to as well. Because what is suffering if everyone can't take part in it, airtight?
What a gorgeous wee boy Ben! He looks cheeky as anything! That would have been quite an adventure taking him on that trip.
I think we’ve all got our horror stories about taking the kids away long haul! Fortunately this wasn’t one…
We’ve also all got one of those photos like the one of Ford holding Miles fast asleep on the plane.
Please keep up with the updates on Miles. Loving watching him grow up as we have no little kiddos in our lives as yet.
In that instance I just whack my Bose noise cancelling head phones on and get my iPad out and watch my downloaded YouTube content and ignore anything going on in the surrounding seats. Snorers in business class are just as bad as kids.
He worked his way into making his interest in miles and points into a business sufficient to make himself “entitled” as you see it.
All fortunate kids of supportive parents are sort of entitled. But what is the alternative, an orphanage for all kids?
We also don't use melatonin at home but do use it on planes. Just test out both the melatonin and benadryl BEFORE you fly - some minority of kids have the opposite reaction and it makes them super hyper!
Ben, I loved your description of toddlers as being resilient. I think we're conditioned to not think of them that way, but they really are. Here's to many more adventures showing Miles the world!
I'm going to venture that the experience was not so delightful for all the folks around listening to toddler noises...
Your son is the cutest, he looks so much like you. Looks like he has good tamper as well.
My boy is 2.5 years old now, and I still didn't had the courage to fly with him.
Impressed that you guys called that a success!
I, as the parent, would have melted down 😉
We are doing a zero connections long haul with our 3 year old for Xmas and I am already dreading it.
Ps. I still can't believe you named him Miles, but I suppose Points would have been too far!
I commented not really about this trip, but to bring up a topic not well known.
I am sorry business class is not the place for children. People who have paid their hard earned cash for a bed do not want their sleep interupted but children not matter how loverly they may be. My last long haul flight was was 17 hours with a screaming baby and a disruptive toddler. The poor Emirates crew inundated with complaints and run out of earplugs.
I third the notion of splitting up items. When my speed skating friends fly to meets domestic and international, they split up the critical components so that if one bag goes missing, no one misses the competition. They may be skating on backup blades but they're still skating.
Miles is a big strapping lad for two years old. I'm glad he fared well. My son, who is about to turn 22, has been flying with me and/or my wife since he was a couple of months old. Never a fuss whether in coach or first/business. And now he has the flying bug like I do. I expect he'll exceed my 1.2 million miles flown.
Best of luck on future travels!
I just can't get over that his name is "Miles" (hey, at least it's not "Points"). 😉
Glad that the journey went well, and thank you so much for sharing the trip report!