Anonymous wrote:I would not fo this to a child. We travel to nice places, but only direct. My dc is 6. If we van't get there direct either cross country or outside the US we don't go.

See, that's just not an option for us. Even the most direct flights to the town where my mom lives (also the town where my dad lives) involve either a layover or a 2+ hour car drive.

OP, my strategy has always been to try to schedule one flight during nap and have plenty of diversions for the second one. DD is 3, and at this point, she's so excited about traveling that it's honestly easier for us to have shorter flights and multiple layovers than it is to have her sitting in one seat for 5 hours and one seat for 1 hour. It doesn't work for all kids, obviously, but it does work for mine.

We have found that air travel with kids is unpredictable so rather trying to stick to there schedule go with what works best for your family. Depending on where we are going and the time difference, connecting airports etc all factor into our decision. For us because flights get delayed or cancelled so regularly US travel we always try to do a direct flight. We get an mid morning flight out and arrive mid afternoon in CA. Flying home we leave mid day and get in later at night - but 3 hour time difference always us a little more wiggle room. International flying is a whole different ball game, we are picky about the airports we'll change at and trying to pick times that get us to our final destination around the time we can get into a hotel to freshen up and get a quick nap. Our kids didn't sleep well on planes so we couldn't count on that for a nap.