Flying with 3.5 & 1.5 yr olds - which flight would you choose?

[Dogsandcats12345]

we are flying to Mauritius and choosing between

• British airways departing at 9pm, arriving at 12pm
• air Mauritius departing at 4pm arriving at 7am

which do you think works better with a 1.5 & 3.5 yr old?

I’d go for the former and hope they slept for the whole thing.

I think the first one because they can eat dinner in the airport and get into PJs before boarding, then hopefully sleep for a good stint.

I’d go for BA in the hope they sleep

I'd go for the 4pm-7am personally!

A 9pm flight you're arriving at the airport at dinner/bedtime which means tired, grumpy children when there's a lot of waiting around to do.

4pm flight, parents still have still got some energy in the tank to do some entertaining, have dinner. Then at bedtime-ish you can do your 'mini bedtime routine' - we change in to pyjamas, have milk and a book. They will fall asleep.

We do this a lot 😁

I tend to base flights around my energy levels because I know if I'm tired and short tempered - the whole things goes to pot - which I absolutely would be trying to get a 9pm flight.

Thanks! Seems to be a consensus.

also, I should have put in the OP, but the air Mauritius flight lands at 7am which is 3am our time. Whereas the BA flight lands at 10am our time. So I guess that is even more reason to go for BA

Oh interesting! I get what you mean about tired and grumpy. I’m pretty certain my 3.5yr old won’t be grumpy as he happily stays up as late as we let him. But I suspect the 1.5yr old would be grumpy and would probably fall asleep before we board. Although he’s still only a baby just now, so it’s hard to tell what he’ll be like when the flight comes!

I'd go for the second one I think.

Run around in the airport and burn off energy.
Then the excitement of boarding and taking off.
Then dinner, PJ's, story and hopefully sleep until you land.

I don’t think either makes a huge difference. If based on timing alone, I’d be inclined to go for the 4pm one, so that you have time to settle in, have some food, get ready for bed and get to sleep rather than dragging two overtired toddlers on to a 9pm flight and trying to get them to settle in the middle of dinner and drinks service.

They’re also going to need to adjust to the new time zone anyway, so waking for the day at the correct time is not the worst thing. You will just need to plan for a quiet first day that includes extra naps for everyone, including trading off so adults both get a nap too.