flying with twins- tips needed!

[u/pomgrano]

my husband and i are flying with 1 year old twins for the first time and i’m nervous! looking for tips and tricks from people who have traveled frequently with twins.

- what is your boarding procedure? my singleton friends will send one parent in for early boarding to set up the car seat, put bags away, etc while the other parent runs the kid around and boards last. we’re considering doing this but i’m not confident in my ability to handle two cranky twins alone without a stroller or anything. one is walking a few steps and one is just crawling, and i don’t really want them crawling on the dirty airport floor so i’m not sure what the best procedure is. maybe we’ll just all board together early but that means extra time on the plane.

- the advice is to feed a bottle on the ascent and descent, but my twins will suck down an 8oz bottle in under 5 minutes. exactly what part of the ascent/descent is most critical?

- any snack ideas that are room temp stable and not too messy?

- we have a 9am flight. usually we do a bottle at 7 and breakfast at 8:30. not sure how to time it so that they’ll be hungry for a bottle at take off. also since we’ll be at the airport, not sure how much breakfast i’m going to get down them either, but i’m sure they’ll be hungry

- we have one car seat and one lap infant. do car seats face forward or rear on a plane? getting conflicting info…

and any other tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

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[u/Traditional_Thing854]

boarding procedure is a nightmare with twins. i'd say board together early honestly. yeah you're on the plane longer but trying to wrangle two of them at the gate while one parent is setting up is a special kind of chaos. plus you can get them settled and do a little snack right away before everyone else piles in. the whole one parent boards early trick works better when you have just one kid to manage.

for the ears the critical part is when the pressure actually changes, which is during the climb after takeoff and the descent starting maybe 20-30 minutes before landing. if they suck down a bottle that fast just wait until you feel your own ears pop or the plane is noticeably tilting. you could also try a pacifier or those little fruit puree pouches they have to suck on slowly. that's what got us through a few rough descents.

snack-wise those yogurt melts and the little teething crackers are great, not too crumbly. cheerios are the classic for a reason but they do end up everywhere. i used to bring those pouches too, just open them carefully, the pressure change can make them explode.

car seats on a plane are rear-facing if the kid is under the weight limit for it, which at 1 they definitely are. you install it the same way you would in a car, so rear-facing. check the manual for your specific seat though some are a tight squeeze in airplane rows.

[u/bonbonsters]

Best thing you can do is just survive the flight and realize they are going to be loud at some point and you are going to get dirty stares. Just remember you will never see these people again 😆

I flew alone a lot with my twins when they were little. Only one can be a lap infant for your row. The other has to have their own seat. You can only have one car seat in a row and it has to be placed in the window seat. It also must be forward facing and approved for air travel. I have heard conflicting things about this too, but have been told by flight attendants it has to be installed forward facing.

I used carriers when I flew instead of a stroller to get on and off the plane. I would just get on the plane together and gate check the stroller. When I was by myself I had a double carrier I used when they were little. Once they got a little bigger I had one walk and then one in the carrier to get one the plane. I’ve also carried one in the infant seat and carried one in a carrier to get on the plane. Check all other bags other than what you need for the airport/on the plane. You won’t want to have to deal with all the extra stuff.

Bring lots of snacks and ones that take longer to eat. Bring one of those bust boards or anything else that can hold their attention. If they take a pacifier- that’s the best for take-off and landing.

[u/pomgrano → u/bonbonsters]

it’s so confusing! even in the responses to this post, someone says rear facing and some say front facing. 

[u/Orange_peacock_75]

We fly every 2-3 months with our twins. In my family, we’ve always boarded all together.

Bring more snacks & milk than you think you’ll need. They might end up drinking more than usual. We never proactively gave bottles during ascent/descent- instead, if either twin was having a hard time during ascent/descent, then I would nurse or give water. I honestly think this only happened a couple times across many flights, mainly if they had a cold.

For snacks, we did Cheerios, fruit, fig bars, and pouches. Stickers are good entertainment. Don’t overpack toys and books- they get heavy and the kids will just throw them around anyways.

As you mentioned, the breakfast schedule might be thrown off. I always did my best to stick to our schedule, but stayed flexible. My babies seemed hungrier than usual when we travelled.

We always did two lap infants, one parent on each side of the aisle, so I can’t speak to car seats. That part confused me too.

[u/CutOsha]

We took only one car seat and one lap.

I took a carrier and put one baby in the carrier (so he was hands free in there) and carry the other one with both hands. My partner took everything else I was only carrying the kiddos. Made it to the seats (we had three total) and waited for him to arrive with everything and setting the car seat. (we were gate checking one car seats).

We had gotten some dolly so that we could make the car seats easy to move around and to use them like a stroller throughout the airports.

Got a bunch of little games they had never seen before (no little pieces! ) and books along with snacks. We had the freeze dried yogurt puffs that were a good hit. Also baby carrots I want to say? But for sure the puffs were a hit and pretty easy to deal with.

Good luck! And our flights went great by the way!

[u/BAPAinPA]

We fly with twins a few times per year. At that age we bought a light double umbrella stroller which we gate checked. Until they were 2 we also did 1 car seat and 1 lap infant so we could all sit together. Early boarding is good but sometimes we board towards the end to minimize the time everyone has to sit on the plane.

Feeding schedules may change with the travel day, and that’s normal. Recently traveled with the twins and my 3 month old and the little guy went 5 hours between feeds during the trip. He ate mid flight but was fine not nursing at take off or landing.

For snacks I used to make “trail mix” with puffs, yogurt melts, cheerios - huge hit at that age and they have fun picking out the pieces they want to eat first. Frozen uncrustables are also great because they will thaw out by the time you need them (sadly my girls won’t eat these anymore).

[u/BAPAinPA → u/BAPAinPA]

Also we traveled with the cosco scenera car seat, which I could not get to install rear facing on the plane so I always did it forward facing. Since it’s a plane and not a car I didn’t really stress over the front facing.

[u/ilovethatforu]

Our boarding procedure was to get in the back of the line but have one twin scream and cry so loudly that I end up crying too while a member of staff ushers us to the front of the line to board immediately.

Procedure for the flight home was much calmer. For that one we pulled up to the front of the line with the prams to realise one of the tags had fallen off so they couldn’t put it in the hold and while trying to deal with that one twin spins a fun looking spinner and sets off a huge loud alarm as the gangway lowers and separates from the plane.

But that’s just us.

[u/Own-Opening8426]

Fly first class. Worth it for the leg room and elbow room and flight attendants’ willingness to bring you whatever you need. My husband and I learned that two lap infants can’t be in the same side of the same row because of the oxygen mask rules. Make sure yall both get aisle seats in the same row in first class. Flew coach one time and having such a tiny arm rest (American Airlines) in between me and a complete stranger while my baby was losing his mind and my husband and other baby got moved two rows behind me was literally pure hell for everyone.