Survival Tips for Flying with Children

Congratulations.  Your long awaited family vacation has finally arrived.  All there’s left to do is to pack.  And ensure everyone has their allotted limit of NyQuil ready to go.  I kid!

The giant-paper-airplane-that-can-hold-children prototypes I’ve made in my garage have been miserable failures, but I think the first couple SpaceX rockets crashed too.

Speaking of kids, before them – assuming your vacation didn’t involve hiking up some mountain – packing involved you setting aside approximately twelve minutes the night before to pack a bag.  But now, with little ones in your life, you’ve got a bit more to think about.

Here are my biggest tips on flying with children and actually surviving:

1. Use color coded packing cubes like these.  https://amzn.to/3GAxoJl  They’re great for keeping kids’ things separate from yours.  And ‘feeling’ like you’re organized is half the battle.  Also, they allow for more easy weight transfer back from your main luggage to a carry-on, in the event you tip the scales beyond the 50-pound weight limit most airlines have.  (This has happened to me more than once).
2. Key airport tips I wasn’t aware of as a new dad:
   1. Most major airports offer a family-specific security line.  The one at O’Hare, for instance, is about the equivalent of the TSA pre line.
   2. You don’t need to pay for a checked car seat, or stroller.  Those fly free on every airline.
   3. Checking the stroller at the gate is a great way to keep your child restrained for the often long walk to the gate, and long wait once there.
   4. If traveling with a child under the age of 2, make sure to designate them as an infant.  I made the mistake once of buying a ticket for our youngest, and then having to request those dollars back (as United doesn’t make it obvious between booking for a child, and booking a child that doesn’t need an actual ticket).
3. Buy an iPad.  Now I know what you’re thinking: Just shell out $800 for a plane ride?  Must be nice.  No, no.  I’m talking about one of these guys: https://amzn.to/3YZmxQl many of which are under $100.  Now, my wife and I aren’t big in to stuffing our faces kids with technology.  But any of those idealistic principles come to a screeching haunt when on an airplane.  You want to watch an hour-and-a-half long Disney movie, and then watch it again?  https://media2.giphy.com/media/z6eLU1st8hAvm/giphy.gif
4. Bring snacks.  No duh.  But doling them put in a game-like fashion is a great way to turn something that would otherwise be 3 minutes of them scarfing their faces with goldfish, into 20 minutes of guess-which-hand-the-goldfish is in (and tickling them if they get it wrong).  Because make no mistake about it: The airplane is a run-out-the-clock like situation.
5. If you don’t have #3, above, download videos and/or shows to your phone or laptop before the flight.  This is critical in those spotty-WiFi situations when at 30,000 feet.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Good luck.  God speed.  And happy traveling.