Crossing the Pond with Twins: Why Direct Flights and "Positioning" are Life-Savers

For Thanksgiving, we decided to take the twins to Italy for the first time.

Given we live in Nashville, there is only one flight option that gets you to Europe and that is to London Heathrow on British Airways. As a result these flights are expensive and would have required a connection once on the other side of the pond to get to Italy -- that is a long travel day for twins. 

So we started looking at other options to get to Italy and found a direct flight from New York JFK to Rome for $575 each round trip on ITA Airways in Economy. ITA is the former Alitalia and Lufthansa is an investor. Since we were traveling with young ones, we were able to select seats without paying a charge.

We came in the morning before the departure flight to Rome to give the twins a day in New York City. 

Knowing that this was the twins first transatlantic flight -- and as a result their first red eye -- we were a bit weary on how they would adapt and manage an 8 hour flight to Rome. 

One note: If you are flying out of Terminal 1 out of JFK and have Priority Pass, we HIGHLY recommend using the VIP ONE Lounge. This lounge is a little different in that it is before security -- and that is where the value is. There is standard lounge food and drink options, albeit a bit limited. But the best part is that when you are ready to go through security, there is a door that opens at the front of the security line, allowing you to bypass the typically long security queue at JFK Terminal 1. It probably saved us 30-45 min of waiting in line on our trip. Allowing us to arrive at the gate right at boarding time. 

On our flight from JFK to Rome, we were able to book on the side of the plane as the plane was a 2x4x2 configuration. So we each of us got a twin and settled in. 

Each seat had a personal in-flight entertainment screen and USB charger. There was a good selection of movies, including kids movies. We also made sure to load up each twins tablet with shows and games. Always come prepared if the IFE is down, especially with little ones. 

Each watched a movie from the IFE and played on their tablets until after dinner. Then we made up a little bed with the provided pillow and blanket, letting them lean up against the seat or into our seat if they wanted to rest their heads on our laps. 

Most importantly, we wanted to get them tired so they would sleep for a portion of the flight. 

Sadly, one of our twins has bad motion sickness, and we also think got some food poisoning -- and probably a little too much orange juice in the lounge -- as she (and R) spend a good portion of the flight sick. We now travel with plenty of extra bags to catch the sickness -- which was also needed on our return flight from Rome. 

Despite that, each of the twins probably slept a good four hours on the flight. Not bad given that was about half the flight time. 

We knew that upon arrival, we would be able to get into our Airbnb as we booked the previous night, and get some additional rest which we did and then went about seeing Rome. 

Overall, we recommend skipping layovers when possible with kids when flying abroad. You can do that by breaking up your trip and getting to a city with easy directs to your intended destination. This can also save you a good bit of money. And for the flight experience itself, trying to make it as normal as possible for your little one is helpful -- talk to them about how it is time to go to bed and resting their bodies so they can enjoy the trip once they land.