Redeye with 5 year old

[lalasmama]

Heading home, I would totally be willing to do it--assuming the next day is free for sleeping!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Since it sounds like this will be your child's first red eye flight, have your "Mary Poppins" bag for emergencies prepped for anything you think might arise. (If you don't need it and you find that you've simply overpacked, yay!) A friend discovered on a red eye to NYC that her youngster became hyper and claustrophobic on night flights. Something about the combination of darkness outside and a closed cabin, plus lack of sleep... Oh, the joy. Her husband had taken a sleeping pill, so he was no help at all. She and her daughter (plus most of the crew and other passengers) were complete wrecks by landing. This was over 15 years ago, and they've never done another night flight since. Day flights weren't so bad, but no more flying at night for them!

 

[cruisehopeful]

The last 2 red eyes I've taken with the plan of sleeping on the flight had crying babies that cried pretty much the entire flight. There was no sleeping for me. Even if I had a quiet kid, I wouldn't do it because the person behind you doesn't have a quiet kid.

 

[nikkislaght]

we flew to Australia from Seattle when my son we 3yrs old. the flight from LAX left at 12.20am, as soon as we got on the flight I put him in his PJ's did his night time routine and he went to sleep.. aside from the location,,if your kiddo is a good sleeper while traveling I would go for it, if she needs the comfort and routine of a bed etc try a different flight... also if she is still in a car seat not a booster,, take the seat,, she is used to it and may sleep better that way ?

 

[hootey]

New
My child wouldn't have been any problem at 5. She is a good traveler, quiet, and can sleep anywhere. If you have a kid like mine and can sleep in the next day, I'd go for the savings.

Our kids are great travelers! If yours are too, take the flight!

 

[wanderlust7]

I did a red eye to Orlando with my then 7 year old and 5 year old. I won't do it again because I couldn't sleep and felt like I was going crazy the next day. However my kids were fine! The five year old kept sprawling into the aisle and would sleep on my lap, the flight attendants kept asking me to get her legs out of the aisle. It was Frontier so super tight seats.

We did a red eye to Orlando with Frontier too. Kids were 5 and 8 at the time. Urrgh - those seats are so NOT comfortable! But the price was one I could not refuse. 4 tickets for the price of what I would have happily paid for 1 ticket.

My kids almost always sleep on planes (something about the hum/vibration on the plane I think). So I was worried about the red eye, but it worked out fine. I made them take a nap the afternoon we arrived. The next day we got on a cruise and they were perfectly normal.

 

[tinkcollector]

We did this once back when our Son was 9. Our Son did fine, it was much rougher on my Hubby. Having an early check-in at the hotel saved us.