Pond Jumping, Part One

I've flown back and forth between the USA and the UK more than thirty times in the last 10 years. I'll be making the trip again in less than two weeks, bringing along my wife and baby boy for his second trip to Tiverton in his short 7 months. It's always a long, tiring, but strangely exciting process. In this three-part blog post series, I'll share my experiences before the trip, after arriving in the States, and following my return back to England.

Right after the three of us got back from Tiverton for our Christmas and New Years visit, we started looking for our flights for this summer. With a family of three, price tends to be the biggest factor when we choose when to fly and who to fly with. We are used to spending between $600 and $700 per adult ticket, then another $60 to $70 for the privilege of holding our son in our laps for the trip. Although, he does get a baggage allowance that would cost more than that for the extra bags.

Then we look at the timing of layovers. I prefer somewhere between 90 minutes and 2.5 hours – just enough to give you a bit of a buffer if the flight gets delayed and get through to your next gate with enough time to spare, but not so much that we are looking for a way to kill time in an international airport. Even the location of the layover is something to take into account. Layovers at international airports mean that we don't have to re-check our bags; layovers in the USA mean we do.

There is also a particular airline that I know to avoid at certain times of the year due to their history of striking during peak travel time. There are airlines that we prefer because they have sky-cribs that my son can use on the 9-hour flight. Lastly is the group of carries that I have my frequent flyer miles with, but that is more a nicety than a decision maker. I use a few different web sites to track prices, dates and times. We've got it down to quite a system and I've used it to help out my family when they come over to see us every so often.

After tracking prices for a couple of weeks, we purchased our tickets and awaited for the inevitable itinerary changes that come with booking this far in advance. This time around, only one change was made that we had to request be altered – a 2 hour layover in Newark was shortened to 25 minutes. A bit too close for comfort, and luckily the travel web site we used changed it to a later flight with no fuss at all. 

After the tickets are bought, then we move into all the little odds and ends - squaring away all the paperwork my wife needs to complete in order to come over (as she has a UK passport), renewing our annual travel insurance, calling the bank to let them know we are travelling and not to block our cards following their use overseas, booking a cab to the airport, arranging for my in-laws to take care of our plants and hamster, and making sure my parents have copies of the itinerary. Then we get to the pre-trip prep that I really dislike the most. Packing.

Before my son came along, I would just ask my wife to pack for me. She knows what I like to wear and what goes with what, and it was so much easier to just let one person sort it all out. We really didn't put all that much thought into it – mostly everything stuck in the suitcases we check, a spare outfit and all our boredom-busting gear in our carry-ons. Liquids in that little plastic bag, and the laptop in it's own case. Luckily, most airlines don't charge for the first checked back on trans-Atlantic flights, and we rarely spilled over into two bags anyway.

Now, with our little boy in tow, it's like packing a house! His carry on consists of diapers (one for every hour of travel – covers us in case of a delay), wipes, baby bottles, three spare outfits, toys, his plastic baggy of lotions/medications/creams, pump & nursing cover, baby food, printouts of TSA guidelines for travelling with baby milk and food (to remind TSA security agents what is allowed, unfortunately a necessity after a previous visit),  the UK version of those guidelines, baby carrier, and two different passports. Add on a baby buggy, car seat, and then the adult carry ons and we look like a circus moving into town.

As I type this blog post out, I'm staring at a half-filled small suitcase for my son's carry-on. That's about as close as I've gotten to the pre-trip packing and prep. I've really got to get my butt in gear and finish this all in the next couple of days before our departure on the 21st. See you on the other side!