Flying Lufthansa First Class With A Toddler: Our Experience

Over the summer, we took our toddler, Miles, on his first transatlantic trip. I wrote about the outbound flight, which was just before he turned two. I also wrote about our home rental in Greece (through Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy) which was our main destination on this trip. Now I wanted to talk a bit about the return flight, which was also his first time flying as a two-year-old.

As you can tell, this isn’t a traditional review series, because quite honestly, the trip was stressful enough without documenting every little thing. I learned a ton from the entire journey, so let me share a few tidbits about our return, which ended up being significantly more stressful than the outbound.

More from OMAAT Lufthansa Realizes 28 Business Class Seats Isn’t Enough For Boeing 787 Read more

The return journey we booked to get home

When we planned our trip to Greece that coincided with our son’s birthday, we initially booked the outbound portion of the trip, and decided to leave the return open. Why?

• We wanted to see how the trip was going, and if it went well, we figured we might stay in Europe a bit longer, and maybe even visit family in Germany
• We had planned this trip a few months out and were able to find good award availability in one direction, but there was nothing even half decent on the return; the best time to book is way in advance or last minute, so I figured we’d finalize something at the last minute, especially given that we were flexible

We had visited Germany, and when we decided that it was time to go home, I looked at award availability. Unsurprisingly, pickings were rather slim across the board. For the day we were looking to go home, I saw one somewhat convenient flight with award availability, from Frankfurt to Boston. Funny enough, there was first and business class award space, but not economy award space (and premium economy awards with partner miles are rarely a good value).

I noticed something unique about this flight — the day before departure, not a single first class seat was occupied, and business class was wide open as well. So I ended up booking our family (including grandparents) five award seats in first class, for 90,000 Aeroplan points per person.

Okay, I’ve gotta be honest. While I absolutely think young ones should be allowed in first class, it’s something I’m not terribly comfortable with personally, since I’m often overly concerned about not disturbing others (or at least that’s what Ford tells me).

But my hope here was that we’d get a private cabin, and there would be no other passengers. That would be an absolute dream, in terms of minimizing the potential disturbance for others. I figured odds were around 50/50, since there were no additional award seats available, there aren’t that many ways to upgrade with Lufthansa, and it’s not like the airline typically doles out free upgrades.

The Lufthansa FCT is surprisingly toddler friendly

Since we were flying Lufthansa first class out of Frankfurt, we could use the First Class Terminal, which allows you to entirely skip the regular terminal. That seemed super convenient, since it would make the whole airport process much easier. However, the First Class Terminal can be quite stuffy in terms of the vibe, and so quiet that you can hear a pin drop, so I was worried about bringing our son there.

Well, I was shocked to find out that the FCT actually has a dedicated play area for kids. I don’t think you guys understand the extent to which my jaw dropped to the floor when I found this out. I’ve been to the FCT more times than I can count, and it’s not that big. So when our PA showed us to this area, I couldn’t believe that this existed, because I was convinced I had seen every part of this fairly small lounge.

This is a really great space and is ideal for families. It’s located behind the bar area, and is totally separate from the rest of the lounge, so you don’t disturb others. It’s also adorably designed, and even has a crib. Most importantly, there are lots of activities for little ones, so they’ll happily stay occupied.

Of course we collected our Lufthansa first class ducks, which were specially themed for the Olympics (and which Miles now enjoys playing with during his nightly bath).

We even had a little meal with him in the restaurant area. He had to have his first “proper” German pretzel, and they had an adorable duck dessert, which I couldn’t help but order for us to share.

Then when it was time to depart, we were driven to the plane. The airline had already set up a car seat for him in the van that took us to the plane. He seemed more interested in the material of the car seat than the gorgeous jumbos we were passing… grrr, c’mon Miles! When you’re grown up, these beauties won’t be flying anymore, so enjoy them while you can!

Our Lufthansa first class flight was… *gulp*

So, how did my hope of having a private first class cabin work out? Well, the night before departure, just hours after booking, I knew things were a bit off. The flight that previously showed as being wide open in premium cabins suddenly showed as being zeroed out across the board, even though there were no changes to the seat map.

Lufthansa had canceled one of its other transatlantic flights the previous afternoon, so lots of people had been rebooked. When we arrived at the FCT, the PA even said that we were the only ones in first class so far. However, an hour before departure, the airline started processing operational upgrades, so people got bumped up to business class, and then others got bumped up to first class.

First class ended up being totally full. Is it wrong that I felt a little less guilty about having a toddler since no one else had actually paid for first class? I dunno, you tell me…

How did the flight go? Honestly, I’d say it went about as well as I was realistically expecting (though not as well as I dreamed of it going). For one, the crew was helpful and friendly, and the other passengers didn’t scoff when they saw a toddler, and were even friendly. Still, there were some challenges.

First of all, with Miles having turned two before this flight, he had to sit in his own seat for takeoff and landing, which he was absolutely not a fan of. That was honestly the hardest part of the flight. Getting a two-year-old to do something they don’t want to do is perhaps one of the biggest challenges any parent can deal with. Like, why would he want to sit in a chair with his seatbelt on, when he can instead continuously open and close the seat belt or the window shade?

Obviously we did everything we could to keep him entertained in a non-disruptive way, by giving him plenty of TV time, bringing new toys he hadn’t played with, etc. But on an eight hour flight, he understandably got bored.

As I explained when I wrote about the outbound portion of the trip, one of the challenges is that Miles is an incredible sleeper at home — I think he’d win the Olympic Gold medal in the “sleeping 12 hours interrupted at home every night” category. But the second he’s not in his normal environment, he just doesn’t want to sleep.

That’s a blessing and a curse. Obviously it would be great if he were more flexible when traveling, but we also can’t take for granted how amazing he is at home.

So honestly, it was a really exhausting eight hours. He got absolutely zero sleep. On the plus side, he didn’t have a single meltdown. However, he was also extremely restless. Like, he was happy watching TV for an hour, and playing with toys for some amount of time, etc., but there’s only so much to do on a transatlantic flight. Eventually we also checked out the “cargo hold” bathrooms, just for a change of scenery.

This trip was a learning experience

We’re so happy we took our soon on his first transatlantic trip, and of course we learned a lot, and would do some things slightly differently if we were to redo it. Here are a few takeaways:

• We’re so happy that we took the trip, because we had an amazing time on the ground in Europe, and I feel like Miles grew from the experience
• We’re not going to take Miles on another long haul trip until he’s a bit older; many people had warned us that it’s really hard to travel with a two-year-old, but it gets easier when they’re three(ish), so we’ll see
• I absolutely don’t want to get Miles used to exclusively traveling in first and business class; I think he’s not yet at the age where he can get jaded, and my goal here was that he’d have somewhere comfortable to sleep in hopes of that minimizing disruptions, but that didn’t really work out
• We’ve taken several domestic trips with him since this journey, and we honestly find it easiest to fly in economy, since the typical 3-3 configuration is ideal, since he can sit between us
• Even in the few months since he has turned two, I feel like he has already grown quite a bit, and we’re now somewhat able to negotiate with him when he wants to do things a certain way
• I can’t overstate how tough it is to get a two-year-old to sit in their own seat with their seat belt on, and it’s quite a transition compared to traveling with an infant

Bottom line

We had such an amazing time taking our son to Europe for the first time. The flying was all a bit more challenging than I was hoping (he just doesn’t like to sleep when he’s stimulated), while our time on the ground was easier than I expected (he had no issues with jet lag).

While we’re happy to have had this experience, we’re going to wait until he’s a bit older before we take him on another long haul trip, so that it’s perhaps a little bit less stressful and more predictable. We’ve been doing a fair bit of domestic economy travel with him lately, and I think for the time being that’s our sweet spot. It’s amazing how quickly kids grow up, because he’s already quite a different person now compared to when we took this trip.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and now I’m going to get started on publishing one of my “real” review trips!