I’m delighted to share a post from Christopher on flying tips with young children. Y’all, this family has experience, seeing as they fly with FIVE young children from Kansas City to Seattle. 

Sarah asked us to share a bit about our travel to and from Washington with the kiddos. Logistics have gotten more intense over these past years, but we’re just getting to the point where the older children are able to help a bit.

We bought a double stroller at a garage sale that has been a huge blessing in the airports. We’ve found that we can put both car seats in the back seat of the stroller (double-stacked), and a bungee cord is a huge help with stabilizing the car seats. A kiddo can ride in the front seat, and we can hang a diaper bag on the handle. For those who are concerned about their image and looking good/polished while traveling: it’s not the ideal setup. 🙂 However, it makes logistics MUCH simpler for us.

Something else that greatly simplifies logistics is a baby carrier. This enables Anna Marie to carry the baby while keeping hands free to carry things and help the other kiddos. (Side note, but other families might be interested. She was given an Original Ergo before Joshua arrived, which she loved; and then received an Ergo Omni 360 after Elizabeth was born and highly recommends it as she feels like the company made some great improvements. They’re expensive, but if you have baby gift money … you can buy them at Bed Bath and Beyond using a 20% off coupon.)

When we arrive at the airport gate, we’ll gate-check the stroller. We can then roll it down the jetway, and at the bottom, we collapse it down and put it into a stroller bag. (We’ve heard that the cargo holds on planes are filthy; and by the looks of our bag, it would seem so. The link is Titus2’s Amazon affiliate link, see the Privacy Policy here.) Anna Marie heads onto the plane with the children, and I then will carry the car seats onto the plane. We like flying Southwest (and really like booking flights with reward points because the flights can be canceled/changed with no penalties) and if a flight has extra seats available, lap babies can get those seats. By bringing two car seats on the plane, if there are extra seats available the lap babies can ride in them; if not, some of the other children can ride in them. Carrying the two car seats onto the plane isn’t easy, but we stack them and it works. Not to mention the flight attendants always offer to help. Note that car seats must always be by the window so as to not block egress in the event of an emergency.

We sit near the back of the plane for a few reasons. With Southwest’s open seating, it’s easier to get seats together (although the flight attendants would coordinate getting us seats together if we needed it). Plus, it’s convenient for us being close to the restroom. It also allows us to be a bit out of the way for others.
When we get to our row(s), Anna Marie busies the children looking out a window (part of why it’s nice to be in the back so it’s not inconveniencing others while we take a few minutes to get situated) while I take a minute to wipe down the walls/seats/chair backs/little trays with a sanitizing wipe. While we don’t want to be paranoid about germs, this enables us to not worry about little ones touching everything around them (and they do!). I’ll install the car seats (it’s a good thing to be familiar with how the car seats will strap into the airline seat belt: working with the car seats can be difficult and there isn’t usually much time to get them buckled in).

If you’re interested in the Southwest credit cards, here is the link. At certain times of the year, they have better bonus points offers. 50,000 is a good bonus. Right now, one of the cards says 65k, but when you click into more details, the extra 25k is AFTER you spend $15k.

Watch for Part 2!

In Christ,
Christopher

“This is the day which the Lord hath made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Psalm 118:24