The Lollipop Road

Let’s face it, traveling with kids in an enclosed metal tube for hours on end is not always the best way to start a vacation.  However, if you want to travel outside of your backyard, flying can’t be avoided.  Finding the best flight itinerary for your family trip can be a challenge and might mean hours of research.

In order to make your trip a bit easier, there are a few things that you should strive for when putting together a good, kid friendly flight itinerary:

• Flights departing after 8AM in the morning
• Flights arriving before 9PM in the evening
• Direct flights or a single connection with equal flight times
• At least 1.5-2 hours between connecting flights
• Mainline (ie full-size) aircraft
• Flights during naptime or mealtime

Timing is everything.  Incorporating a natural activity (sleeping or eating) will make the flight pass more quickly.  Minimizing disturbances (ex waking early) and allowing ample time to make connections will prove less stressful on your child and yourself.  Splitting a trip into shorter flight segments will allow time in between flights for the kids to stretch and run around.  Many larger airports now offer play areas to keep kids entertained during their layover.  Most parents dread the red-eye, but throwing in a red-eye here and there isn’t a bad idea, so long as that flight segment is at least 5 hours in length. 

When you add price considerations into the equation, finding the most ideal itinerary can be quite a task.  In order to make this task infinitely easier, I use one single tool to do all of the flight research.  ITA Software is a free flight search tool that allows you to input lots of different variables such as flexible departure and return dates and alternate airports within a selected distance from your requested airport.  With Weekend and Month-long search options, the flexibility of calendaring fares also makes this a useful tool for families focused on cost.

You can use the tool as a guest or you may register for free, allowing the tool to remember your preferences for future visits.  Entering a simple round-trip search will return a matrix of fares by airline and number of stops, along with a textual listing of flight combinations and airfares.  These fares are “live” so long as you have the “check seat availability” box checked.

There are multiple sorting options, the ability to select a single airline or number of stops and alternate views that show text only or a graphical representation of the search results.  Click on the “Details” link and you’ll be shown the entire itinerary details including aircraft type, flight miles and flight warnings (ie tight connection, alternate airport or overnight flight).

Clicking on ”Show Booking Details” in the upper left will provide the fare code and fare rules that you will need to reserve the trip at the fare displayed as well as a breakdown of the entire fare.  ITA is not a booking engine and you cannot purchase a ticket from this website.  However, many of the larger travel booking websites, including Orbitz, utilize ITA’s platform.  Once you’ve decided on an itinerary, you now have the details you need to make a reservation on your travel booking website of choice.  Note that Southwest Airlines flights are not included in search results.

Why use this tool to conduct your research instead of just using Orbitz, Expedia, or Travelocity?  Bottom line – it’s easier to use and it returns faster and more comprehensive search results in a simple to review format.  Once you’ve used this tool, you’ll wonder how you survived without it for all of these years!  Do you have a flight research tool that you use regularly?

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