europhile

I'm finally booking mileage tickets for my family's trip! This is our first experience with taking kids on a transatlantic flight (they will be 5, 7 and 9). It looks like our options will all be ATL-CDG-VCE. One option arrives in Venice at noon. The other option arrives in Venice at 3:00. Both are about 14 hours traveling (one just starts later than the other). Can anyone offer any opinion on whether it's better to arrive at lunch and have that first afternoon to work with, or is it better to arrive at 3:00 and only have a few hours to keep the kids occupied until dinner and bed? I don't really know just how tired they will be. I'd appreciate any thoughts on which to choose!

KTtravel

I would prefer landing at 3 pm. The kids may have been able to sleep on the plane but you will likely be pretty exhausted. We like arriving later in the day and not having to struggle to stay awake for too long.

RioD

How long between planes at CDG? That would make a difference to me, I like to make sure the connection is not too short.
I would also check to make sure there are later flights to Venice from CDG in case your Atlanta flight is delayed.
Personally, I would choose the earlier flight. By the time you get to your hotel and settle in, it will be late afternoon. You could do a walk, early dinner and then it's bedtime. But again, it would depend on connection times at CDG.
Have a great trip.

Sassafrass

I would arrive earlier - more time to rest and acclimate to time change.

europhile

That sounds wise! Thanks for the input.

europhile

Oh- the plane change is 2 hours 4 minutes in CDG.

Southam

The beginning of the flight is worth considering too. For me, the later the departure, the better the chance that I will be able to snooze. Once the meal is served and maybe a movie watched, the kids will be close to their usual bedtimes.

greg

Because you mentioned you will not be sure how tired they will be, making decision on this aspect is probably a flip of a coin at this time.

There are other factors.

I am guessing that the noon arrival means around 6pm ATL departure and 3pm arrival means around 9pm ATL departures? I don't know your meal times, but they usually feed you 1-1.5 hours after departures, at least in my experiences.

Earlier flights give you more options to arrive on the same day if there is a delay in leaving ATL causing you to miss your CDG-VCE. Earlier in the day this happens, more flight options there are to accommodate you. Of course, if in actuality the earlier flight get hit with delay but not the later flight, you would kick yourself choosing the earlier, but at this point, there is no data to indicate one flight is more prone to delay than the other. For example, if they have to route you through AMS, there are more options if you can travel earlier.

Consult www.seatguru.com to see if there are significantly more desirable seats available on one flight over another. However, remember that carriers can change the equipment at will and foul up all your carefully managed seat reservations without compensating you.

northie

We travelled from Australia to Europe and USA many times starting when our children were 9,7,and 5 . We didn't even think about the times of departure as we found our kids pretty adaptable to whatever time we left or arrived- it's other matters that are more important - activities, food , seating, what arrangements you make when you get to your destination .