Pay £300 more to arrive 6pm, or midnight with toddlers?

[thepurgebegins]

This might sound like a silly question, but I’m flying home to visit family soon, and I’m torn about which flight to pick on way way back. I can save £300 by choosing a longer layover (6.5 hours total) and get home around midnight. Or, if I pay £300 extra, I’d have a shorter layover (4 hours total) and get home around 6 p.m. By home I mean actually home not the airport. The time difference is 4 hours ahead over there, so I’m not sure if it’s worth paying extra just to get my kids—who are 3 and 1—to sleep on time, or if they’ll be tired either way. Is anybody out there who’s flown at a similar time arriving back to the UK with the same age children and the same time difference? Thankyou!

It depends on your finances but I’d go for the shorter trip and I’d want to be home with children at 6pm.

If I could afford it I’d pay the £300

@comealongdobbeh @kiwiane
We are able to afford it it's just both have its positives and negatives. Who wouldn't want to save money but seems like spending extra is better in this case. Thankyou for your input 😊

So 6pm/ feels like 10pm due to time difference VS midnight / feels like 4am.

It's going to feel late for the kids either way! And you too...

In my experience the worst bit is being in the departure airport past bedtime as there's a lot of waiting and nowhere to sleep. Arrival airport is not so bad, as long as you have a sling for both kids to carry them sleepy through the airport until you get the pram back after several KM of walking and queueing!

Just a different voice but at that age I'd go for midnight TBH, I'd get them in pyjamas on the plane at the end of the flight or in the airport baggage check etc, and let them fall asleep on way home then transfer from buggy or car to bed. Obviously some kids would not transfer as easily as others, and also depends of the logistics of your journey from airport to home.

I think travel with little ones is easier than travel with older kids, in terms of the late nights, so I'd save your £300 for the next trips.

6.5 hour layover with a toddler (and I only have one) sounds like a nightmare. We’re travelling to DH’s family with our 22 month old next month and we moved days to get a better layover, just over 1.5 hours each way (airside and through tickets) which is doable with two adults. When I travelled with him on my own pre-Christmas I booked specifically for 2.5 hour layovers each way and it was perfect. Long enough for no stress but short enough not to be desperately trying to entertain him / trying to get him to nap in his pushchair when he’s full of FOMO. If you can afford it I’d take the shorter option.

I always pay more now…. Very bad memories of trying to keep my kids in the customs control queue for an hour at midnight - 1 running off in every direction and the other crying with tiredness (and you have to carry them as the buggy was yet to collected)… absolute nightmare!

DS was great. Just slept the second the plane got on the runway! Would be awake the whole time at the airport. Then the engine would start and he would literally just fall asleep. It was mad. He'd sleep the whole journey until he was about 5.

This child never normally slept. But stick him in a plane and zzzzz!

We'd carry him everywhere in a backpack as long as we could. Again many zzzzz. Just mad.

So I think it depends entitled on whether you have a kid who travels or not. No reason to it.

another option might be to stay at an airport hotel after your flight lands.

I have similar ages, and the thought of keeping them entertained during a long layover whilst limited to the confines of the departures lounge in an airport fills with me dread! Unless it’s an airport with a large area aimed at entertaining kids, pay more!

Pay whatever it takes to get there at 6pm