We've flown a lot in the US with our now 2 year old to visit family, and have never had anyone say anything to us on a flight in a negative way. We've had a lot of people tell us how great our son did even if he got a little fussy here and there. We've flown first class with him several times and no issues.

I'd say we're lucky that he is a little rockstar and handles it very well, but it is definitely stressful for us but just part of what we have to do sometimes to see family. I feel terrible for people that have to do longer haul flights with smaller kids though, 2-3 hours is manageable but if we had family overseas we would probably fork over the cash to fly people to us rather than put him on a plane for that long. For our sake more than his lol.