Mornings are less susceptible to delay - keep in mind.

You do want to be careful about layovers with kids.

If I am traveling alone, my first leg gets delayed and my second leg takes off stranding me overnight in an airport hotel I can survive. I can easily hop in a cab with my carry on luggage. As long as I have a good internet connection and cell coverage, I can conference call into something. I don't need to be picky about what seats I take on the flights that I can get re-booked. I don't need to have four seats together, 3 and 1, or 2 and 2 so the kids are not sitting surrounded by strangers. Now play this out with two children and its a completely different picture.

If you do a layover, make sure that you have extra time between the legs. Google around for a site that gives a history on how often your first leg is delayed or cancelled. Some flight paths and airlines are less reliable than others. Try to avoid your second leg being the last flight of the day for your destination and airline. Try to make sure that the second leg airport has a large airport hotel nearby and pack enough kid things in your carry one for an unexpected overnight stay.

If your nonstop flight is 3.5 hours, even with a stop you're probably looking at 6 hours of travel time, including check-in/security. Speaking as someone who normally flies to CA and is therefore used to 6-hour (minimum) journeys, I would save the money. Especially if you are going for all of spring break, so it isn't critical to take an early flight and have half of the day left at your destination to eek out a long weekend.

We usually choose a more expensive nonstop over a cheaper layover b/c we don't want to waste vaca time hanging out in an airport or risk missing the connecting flight. OTOH -- $1K is a chunk o' money. I'd suggest researching on-time rates for the flights you're considering; I think flightstats has that data and I'm sure there are other sources online as well. If you're looking at a tight connection time-frame, another factor to consider would be how busy the airport is. For Carribean destinations we've changed at Miami, a huge and crazy airport where a switch to another airline would be a little hairy when you've got little ones, and at Raleigh-Durham, which was a piece of cake.

OP here:

It's about 1.5 to 2.5 hr layover depending how early we want to leave.

Nonstop flight is 3.5 hrs.

The children are 5 and 4 yrs old.

The trip is for Spring Break/Easter so first wk of April.

Researching now: The price just went up for nonstop on the way down to the Caribbean. So we might take non stop on the way back and connect there and fly on two different airlines. Has anyone done that?

I'm usually quite frugal, but I have never chanced a layover, and DD has flown to the other coast 5 times in her 2 yrs. This has generally meant $300 more per person at least 3 times [the other 2 times, nonstop was cheapest]. We've actually bought her a ticket only the last 3 times though, but the cost adds up. Still, I wouldn't chance it. Even with nonstops, we had an 8 hr delay once. Not fun.

most airports have play areas now. I think kids are just as likely to be cranky on layover as on plane. On a super long flight I would probably prefer a layover with kids. Just pack super light in carry on so you can be totally mobile during the layover.

PP here - for perspective, I have 3 kids (1, 3 and 5 yo). So I totally feel your pain re: aggravation of longer layovers. But $900 is a lot of money...

I'm not a particularly frugal person but I tend to view this as just wasted money.

Unless I had limited time (e.g., could only get away for 3-4 days, so a few extra hours layover really made a difference), I'd probably suck it up. I'd much rather better accommodations...but that is just me.

What's the layover time? Too short, you risk missing your connecting flight. Too long is more manageable than that these days!

I always do whatever is cheapest. I have three kids and sometimes travel alone with them. Just take as little carryon stuff as you can.

Its a big difference in cost but if you are sitting in an airport for hours with a kids then I wouldn't do it. As our DS gets older its easy to do early AM flights, late at night etc. But as a baby nonstop was the best - as a toddler having a short layover wasn't bad because he got a chance to run and stretch his legs.

Sorry..pp.. How long the layover will be. That is a lot of money but there are many factors to consider.

It depends on a number of factors: age of children, where you are flying, how long the

Which one would you choose?

Nonstop will cost about $900 more for 4 of us. It's for spring break/Easter travel.