Travel Details #5: Mid-week flights are your best bet

Tip #5: Travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

Again, this dilemma comes up in my mind every time I book a flight. In general, I've found that flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays are cheaper, you have better seat selection, there is a greater chance that the flight isn't packed, and there are fewer commuters to disturb with the anomaly that is a traveling family.

Extra: A number of airline sites have caught on to a trend along these lines: You can often choose a flight from a 3 day window (usually represented as a checkbox that says plus or minus 1 day) to find the cheapest fares. Unless I have a need to arrive on a specific day (my plans are already set in stone), I always check this box. Its an easy way to find less expensive options.

Travel Details #4: Taxis are not just for designated drivers

Tip #4: If you have to catch a shuttle anywhere, and the shuttle is not right there, think about springing for the cab instead.

This is especially true at LAX. Don't think you can afford it? To find the cash, just try to eat before you get to the airport. The money you save by not buying overpriced mediocre meals will nearly pay for the cab ride (9.00 sandwiches and 3.00 bottles of water add up quickly).

Travel Details #3: Mid-day is the best way

This tip, granted, might vary from child to child, but in general we've found that midday is best for us and many parents we know. Don't travel super early unless you are normally up at an unusually early time. Being up too early is the easiest way to lose something in the airport in addition to any semblance of sanity. We actually lost track of my wife's purse at the Burbank airport at 6AM - it got left near the check-in counter, complete with her only ID, keys, and wallet. We were lucky - it was still there when we raced back to look for it.

In our experience, the same applies for traveling late at night - unless you are all used to late hours, its probably best to avoid the late night flights if you have a choice. Between kids being at the end of their daily patience quotient and business travelers who are hoping to rest on the flight home, late at night can be a stress-filled extravaganza of frantic attempts to keep the babyheads quiet, mixed with visual balls of fire being hurled at you from multiple directions.

Of course, as I said, this one varies a little; but on our most recent trip, our toddler was too excited to sleep on our late night flight, which put him in a sleep deprived state for the next couple of days of the trip. However, he did nod off on the afternoon return flight, which surprised us. And when we think about it, this guideline has been generally true for us and a number of parents we know. Not to mention, when Jonah goes down for the evening, he HATES to be woken up to get off the plane, wait for luggage, etc., and he makes that painfully clear while we wait for an inexplicably long time for the door to open (can someone PLEASE invent a plane offloading system with more than one usable door?).