Its fine when it all goes smooth - not so good when delays and airline troubles hit. Took my 2 year old last year at the height of security problems and 3 hour delays both ways. An awful 9 hour door to door journey on a route that I normally do in 4.
We booked a lounge on the way out which was a very good thing. Paid extra to park the car right by the terminal (out of Gatwick) so avoiding buses from car parks and similar with kid, prams, car seat, luggage etc.
Make sure you are at the front near the gate when boarding to take advantage of first on. Other PAX sadly were generally not helpful on boarding - blocking access and pushing past as we were sorting ourselves out on the plane.
I took a portable DVD player just in case with a couple of daughters favourite DVDs. Came in very handy on the plane once the novelty of sitting there for an hour without the thing actually wore off. It may be educationally correct to read books for the entire journey but reality is you dont know whats going to be thrown at you so be prepared for all eventualities.
And EasyJ managed to lose the pram both ways so practice carrying child, car seat and dragging one large suitcase.
Despite that we still had a great holiday. For some reason however I chose to drive this year....