Afternoon Flight or Evening Flight?

If you can, try to schedule it for a time when he would normally be taking a nap. That tends to work well because the noise of the plane usually knocks little ones right out.

As far as him having his own seat, unless you are planning on bringing your car seat with you to the gate, I do not think that the flight attendants will allow it. Children need to be in their parents arms unless they are properly restrained in a car seat or other airline-approved system.

Being in TX myself and frequently flying out of DFW and Love Field......

We avoid afternoon take off and landing at DFW during this weather season. DFW is very diligent when the storms start brewing in the later afternoon and flights are routinely cancelled,etc. We usually fly out on the first flight of the day or come home in later evening....because of weather, not spare seats.

They really focus on safety in the later afternoons after the plane crash here years ago due to a plane coming in during a storm and wind shear.

Best wishes!

I do agree that most seats are always full on flights now adays, but even when there are open seats the gate attendants will move your seats around so that you can be next to the open one, so don't worry about that.

As far as what time of day, it really depends where you're going and if there's a time change, etc. I've found that when flying west, I fly at night and then my daughter will wake up when we land, etc. and then by the time she falls back asleep she will usually sleep herself right into the new time zone...awesome. Flying during nap time is a good suggestion, but two things to add...1. it may be too exciting to sleep, so he may not sleep anyway, but 2. regardless of time the white noise may knock him out. I realize those two sort of counteract each other, but I've experienced both, although #2 is more likely.

These days every flight it full, and chances are the empty seat would not be the one right next to you anyway. I guess if there was an empty seat your husband could move to that seat and you could have his seat for your son. I flew recently when my children and we flew on 4 planes- none of which had an empty seat in sight.
Try to plan the trip when your son will be most pleasant becasue you can control that more than guessing when a flight will be more or less full.

Updated

These days every flight it full, and chances are the empty seat would not be the one right next to you anyway. I guess if there was an empty seat your husband could move to that seat and you could have his seat for your son. I flew recently when my children and we flew on 4 planes- none of which had an empty seat in sight.
Try to plan the trip when your son will be most pleasant becasue you can control that more than guessing when a flight will be more or less full.

Hi there! I traveled extensively for my job and can tell you that fights departing between 6:00am and 10:00am are always the fullest as are flights departing between 4:00pm-6:30pm/7:00pm. Mid day flights have a higher likelihood of having empty seats. This of course will vary on the airline. You may wish to consider what time of day is your son's BEST time to travel. When I recently flew with my daughter (13 months at the time) I selected a flight that departed at her nap time. Worked great - she conked out instantly and didn't say boo until we landed. I didn't plan on there being extra seats and instead tried to look at what time of day would be easiest on all of us to travel just in case my daughter had to sit on my lap with a stranger next to us for the flight. That is more important that which flight you THINK might be full/less full. Good luck! Bring as much entertainment as possible for your son although at least on the first flight, he might be entertained with the novelty of the airplane and passengers.