dirgni

My husband and I will be travelling from Seattle to Durham, NC with our 3-year old son (and no, he is not one of those unruly 3 year-olds). What are the best airlines and/or seats for our situation?

Thanks in advance for your help!

gail

I would whichever airline had the best times/transfers. When we had 1 kid that age, it was fine to sit anywhere that would give us 3-across row, put kid in the middle, raise the armrests. He could play, nap, and get attention from either of us the whole trip.

Bring food - in the unlikely event they feed you, he will hate the food. And any plane change stops will not always have food within security area.

MML

You can't fly from SEA to RDU without a connection, which is good, because it will give your 3 yr old a chance to run off some energy. Two strong recommendations -- take American through Chicago, not AA through DFW; and ask for at least a 2 hr. connection time in Chicago.

Why? DFW is a beast of an airport to deal with, esp. if there's a delay (often in summer), in terms of getting you and whole family from gate to gate and having things to do if you have a wait. ORD, at least, has a bit more to do and is really not that awful an airport once you are inside security.

Why 2 hrs.? To minimize the chance that a delay will cause you to miss your connection to RDU (because there just aren't that many flights in and out of RDU any more) and end up with a nightmare trying to get you and family rebooked; AND to give you plenty of time to feed, water, and exercise your son.

Finally: UA will probably not give you the bulkhead seat because they reserve the front dozen rows of coach for their premium passengers, and the rest of coach is cramped. AA has more space all around, but I'm not convinced that you want bulkhead anyway -- it minimizes the chance that the 3-yr. old will kick the seat in front of him, but it's very far from the restroom. Consider one of the back rows, closest to the restroom (which is also where there is a little room to stretch little legs).

ttt

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Dirgni

I am sorry that I am just getting back to you, but thank you a whole lot for all the information you gave. Everything you mentioned was something that I had pondered. I made reservations with AA and we are stopping at ORD. Thanks again!

Stephanie P.

Dirgni:

I'd say the very back where the bathroom and flight attendants are. Very convenient as toddlers have to use the b-room alot and flight attendants are always back there and it would be easy to ask for assistance due to that fact.

Bearey

No airlines will give you bulkhead any longer unless you are a very frequent flyer.

COresBoy

Bulkheads (at Continental at least) are reserved for handicapped passengers. For the most part, they're not supposed to be assigned in advance unless a person requests them. Our syste won't let us assign them without a notation in the record such as a need for wheelchair, passenger with crutches etc. There's also fewer people who can assign them in advance.
The seats can be assigned by airport personnell, based on availability, to people who do not have a handicap.

msa

We traveled cross country many times when our children were little and we always asked for the back of the plane. Same reasons as what other posters here said...close to the restrooms, room to move around...plus it is lounder and that seemed to lull our children to sleep.

We also always preboarded, but then waited and were the last off the plane. We knew it would take a while to go through the aisle with all the stuff and didn't want to bother the other passengers, and the kids were always fine with waiting.