Help needed for new parents - plane seat for 6 month old - yes or no?

[CrzyforPiglet]

Howdy everyone! DH and I are planning our May 2006 trip to WDW which will also include my mom, sister, and niece who will all be flying from a different state. We have our room and tickets and have started to look at airfare but the big question is should we or shouldn't we buy a ticket for our new prince/princess who will be 6 months old by then? DH doesn't want to lug a car seat around the airport that will sit in our room at Disney for a week but I'm thinking safety and the plane is small enough - for a 2.5 hour flight wouldn't we all want our own seat? We are going to use Tiffany town car to/from WDW and I thought great, we'll have a car seat for the ride but I just called them and we can get a car seat through them (if we book far enough in advance b/c not all drivers have them) so no problem there.

So now I don't know what to do - especially since we've never done this before!!! That is why I am reaching out to all my parenting experienced Disers - for a 2.5 hour flight each way with a 6 month old should we buy a plane ticket for them or not? Any and all thoughts are welcome and appreciated!

Laurie :earboy2:

[wrldpossibility]

Since you're tranferring to Disney in the town car, won't it be good to have the car seat for that, too? (The Disney transport does not have seat belts, but the cars will.) Since you're traveling in May (not a peak flying time for vacationers), your flight may not be full. I would not buy a ticket for her, but take the car seat (if it's the kind that snaps onto your stroller, it shouldn't be too big a pain in the airport) and at check in, ask if there are any empty seats (sometimes I have to press politely for this information). Then if there are, you have the car seat, you have the seat for her, and it's free. If not, just check or gate check the seat with the stroller and have it for the car ride.

If no seat is available, I don't think it's too much trouble to hold a 6-month-old on your lap (I did it a month ago, lol), but when they're older, I think it's worth the money to buy a seat. Of course, if $$ is not an issue, it's always safer to just buy the seat. Anyway, that my 2 cents!

Amy :Pinkbounc

[MomOf3Mice]

We lived in Mass. when our oldest was a baby and flew many times to visit grandparents in Georgia. We never bought her a seat. We always felt like we would spend much of the time holding, feeding, comforting her anyway and the flight was not all that long (about the same as yours, if I remember correctly). If you don't need the carseat when you land, I wouldn't waste the money on a seat on the plane.

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If you can afford it--it is an option.

Beware you will get many many opinions.

I've ticketed the girls and not ticketed to them. Our non-ticketed trips included Europe and Hawaii (only one was under 2). Would a ticket have been nice--sure it would have. But I was just fine not having one and we still enjoyed the trip. (We lucked out for seating locations and empty seats).

Some airlines do offer half-price tickets for the under two set.

Feel comfortable with whatever decision you make :). I agree that if you will not be using transportation requiring a car seat (busses)--then I wouldn't worry about it.

Our oldest--we ticketed her when she was 4 months old. She sat in her car seat on take-off and landing--and that was it. (While this is important--it leaves you with that "why?" feeling--but do remember that miracle landing of the plane in Canada as it did skid off the runway).

[akamom]

I'm flying in December with my ds3 and dd who will be 5 months. I'm not getting her a seat. It costs too much and if there's more than 1 person in your party, you can play "musical laps". The cost for a seat is outragous esp for an infant. I won't be taking any carseats either because we're taking the DME from MCO to the resort.

[Sheaboys]

Whenever we have flown from Mass to Florida, which we do 1-2x a year, I have only 1x bought a seat for our under the age of 2 child. It was our first born and he was 6 months old. It was pretty much a waste. I was nursing, no bottle, so I nursed up and down and then in between. The last time I flew alone with the 3 boys, our youngest was 20 months old, and I wished I bought a seat, but since it was just me and 3 kids, I held him since the row only sat 3, I wanted to be with the other boys we were 5 and 3 at the time. I held him going up and down and let him sit on the seat with the other 2 during. We just flew this past April to Florida and we had to pay for all 3 and us for the first time, thank god for SW $49 each way!!!!!!
You can always check in the carseat at the gate or with the luggage.

[laughinplace199]

Many airlines will give you a 50% discount for infants. We've always bought tickets for our kids when they were babies. I feel better if they're strapped into a car seat instead of on my lap.

[becky7953]

My first trip to Disney we took our son and he rode on our laps. The next trip we took we brought the car seat..... Boy was it a pain to lug around and he did not sit in it for long. We were renting a car so I felt better taking my own car seat.

[Stimpy]

Beware...this can be a very hot topic here!

We have always purchased a seat for our kids and we fly frequently. (DD is only 15 months and has already flown 5 R/Ts) Our flight to MCO is also about 2 1/2 hours.
We purchase it for safety reasons, ask pretty much anyone in the airline business and/or FAA and they will tell you the safest place for an infant is in a car seat.
We also do it for comfort, ours and the baby's. They are familiar with their car seat and most of them already know they are expected to stay in the seat while the vehicle is in motion. My kids usually take naps in the car seat. Once you start passing the baby from lap to lap, they may not want to stay still.

Every family needs to make the decision best for them. To me and my family, we find the extra money worth it. It gives us a little piece of mind and we are all more comfortable.

[MandM-Mom]

When my DD4, was 9 mths we flew from NY to Vegas with no seat for her and we just passed her back and fourth, plus she ate alot of cheerios and snacks along the way. She did just fine. Although when we flew with her at 18 mths from NY to Fort Lauderdale and no seat she got abit anxious but we whipped out the magic--- M&M's!!!
But we got lucky on the flight home the seat next to us was empty so we buckled her in and she sat there like she had done it a 100 times.

If I had a choice again I would not buy a seat but then again it depends on the baby parents know if your child just does not like to be held then yes you better buy a seat. Just for your own sanity.

[justhat]

We also have about a 2.5 hour flight to Orlando and we always get our daughter a seat. She's 17 months now and has flown on 12 trips since she was a week shy of 3 months and she has had her own seat on all of them-we'll be flying 2 more times this year, including once to Hawaii, and she'll have her own seat on them too. We are by no means rich people, neither of us are employed-we're both in graduate school living on loans-but we just don't look at her seat as an option, even though it means taking out a little more money. If she were 2 she'd have to have a seat, and we're not going to stop travelling when she's 2 cause we have to buy another seat so we just look at it like it's a requirement. About 80% of the time we've gotten 1/2 price tickets for her so ask your airline about it. Out of those 12 flights, about 4 of those were just me and the baby, but I managed to carry her, the carseat, stroller, and diaper bag without a problem, and we switched her to a Britax Roundabout at 9 months so it wasn't always with the infant carseat with a handle. We have a backpack for the carseat and we wear it on our backs, and if I'm alone with her I wear her in the Bjorn (luckily at 17 months she still fits in it). We keep our stroller in a bag so I can't push it through the airport, but pull it like a luggage, and if I can manage by myself then I'm sure you guys will be okay.

Here are my 2 big reasons that I'm glad we always buy Madison her own seat and bring her carseat--Last May we asked Tiffany Towncar (who we've always had great luck with) for a carseat. We were bringing our own anyway since she had a seat on the plane, but we wanted to see their carseat for the future in case we decided to use theirs and not get her a seat sometime. Well I told them her age (she was almost 3 months at the time) and that we needed an infant/convertible carseat that could be used rearfacing. We arrived and the guy said "uh, do you have your own carseat cause I just have this one" and he showed me a backless booster. I said yes, we brought our own but that we had requested one. He apologized but then told us that they don't have many seats that accomodate infants and so you should really bring your own cause they don't always have them. Okay, no one told us that on the phone-they asked her age and what we needed and said okay. That alone was enough to always make us bring her carseat-even if you don't want to get the baby a ticket bring the seat and gate check it.

The 2nd reason is that we had 2 very, very turbulent flights when Madison was almost 3 months and 4 months old (1st and 3rd trips for her). One required us to divert and circle for a long time, but only after struggling to proceed in the bad weather for awhile first. It was so bumpy I would have been very nervous about holding my baby-that she could have hit her head on the armrest or something. The other flight was so bad that they aborted the landing (I seriously thought we were going to crash during the landing) and flew to another airport in another state where we refueled and waited out the storm. If we had hit the ground, no doubt in my mind that we all would have been pretty jostled around, and who knows what would have happened to my daughter, who was happily sleeping in her carseat instead. The flight attendant on that flight told us that if we had landed and she didn't have a carseat that she would have been placed on the floor between my legs for landing. (She came to check that we had her in the carseat before we started to land, and told us not to take her out till we landed so when we were refueling I asked her about it.) Now, I don't know if that's true, but that's what she told us is the procedure for hard landings/crashes. Well she was barely 4 months old so how the heck would I keep her sitting on the floor between my legs!?! And how scary would that have been!!?!!

After this 'crash' in Canada, I told my husband I'm so glad we buy her a seat because I'm guessing that those passengers would have had to put lap babies on the floor for that landing.

The other thing is that my daughter will stay in her carseat just like she does in the car. No way would she stay on my lap or just a seat. We take the train a lot and there are no seatbelts there and she is all over the place! At 6 months we flew to DL (5 hour flight) with her and she was pulling herself to stand and starting to crawl. During the times we took her out of her seat (we do take her out on long flights if the seatbelt sign is off and the flight is smooth) she was climbing all over me, my mom, and her carseat. She did not want to be held very long and was happier sitting in her seat (unbuckled) so she could stand, turn over, look out of the window, etc. A month later we flew to Vegas and by then she was crawling and no way could I have held her for 4.5 hours!

Oh, and I also nursed her (in fact she still nurses, but just once a day now) and never used bottles, but for vacations I'd pump to give her a bottle on landing. Sometimes I'd do it in advance and bring the bottle with us, other times I'd do it on the plane during the flight and be finished in time for landing. She had no trouble taking a bottle then, though many times she simply wasn't hungry and was fine on landing with just a pacifier, or many times nothing at all. She has rarely cried on a flight so I dont' think she's ever had ear pain.

[IwannaseeMickey]

I personally never bought seats for my kids until they were 2. I'm okay w/ them sitting on my lap. What I did do though, is buy a car seat bag (Babies R Us) and put the seat in the bag and then checked it thru baggage. The bags are big and have shoulder straps to either carry them or wrap on a stroller handle.

I have 2 bags and have used them zillions of times. Several of attendants at check in have commented on them, saying how nice to have them protected.

Oh, and, you can stash a few things in there too...towels, diapers etc. I usually use a twisty tie to keep the zippers closed, but easy to get off in case of inspection.

[kidshop]

I have always bought a seat for my kids. It is safest and the money doesn' t matter in the long run, and won't matter at all if there is a problem on the flight. JMO

Now they they are over 2 anyway, we don't fly much anymore. It's much cheaper and easier to drive. I'm hoping they will make it mandatory for every person to have their own seat, and then safety will be 'forced'. I just think it is better that way.

[tlbwriter]

I believe you should absolutely buy a seat for your child. Here's why:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=9160649&postcount=31

[ZachnElli]

I always buy a seat for my infant. Their safety is more important than the cost of the 1/2 price seat. We got a seat for Noah in June and I bought a small stroller that connects to the infant carseat carrier, available at BabiesRUs.com. It was easier to push him in the stroller on our connecting flights than carry him. If it costs too much now at 1/2 price, then what will you do when they are over 2 and have to pay full price? He already has a seat booked for our trip home at Christmas too and will again for our trip to WDW in March.

[ZachnElli]

I believe you should absolutely buy a seat for your child. Here's why:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=9160649&postcount=31

Good post Tracy! I'm from Iowa originally and was a teenager when the crash happened in Sioux City. I'll never forget it. Maybe that's why I'm so adamant about the car seats on planes. The baby in the over head compartment flew out of their parent's arms into that compartment. Scary.

[lulugirl]

We have flown many times and always got Dd her own seat, a child is just safer if they are in a carseat. If I could not afford a ticket for every member of the family then we wouldn't go.
As far as lugging a carseat around, your child will be 6 months and perhaps still in his/her infant seat/carrier.....MUCH easier to carry around and install.

[stacy6552]

Buy the precious baby a ticket and secure him or her into an FAA approved carseat. There is no money better spent than on your child's safety.

[JerJan]

BUY THE SEAT!!!! I would pay ANY PRICE to PROTECT my CHILDREN!!!! How can you put a price tag on a child's SAFETY???? IMHO this is a NO-BRAINER!

[grlpwrd]

Buy the precious baby a ticket and secure him or her into an FAA approved carseat. There is no money better spent than on your child's safety.

::yes::

BUY THE SEAT!!!! I would pay ANY PRICE to PROTECT my CHILDREN!!!! How can you put a price tag on a child's SAFETY???? IMHO this is a NO-BRAINER! :cheer2:

We have always bought our kids a seat no matter what...

you just never know these days.

[tlbwriter]

BUY THE SEAT!!!! I would pay ANY PRICE to PROTECT my CHILDREN!!!! How can you put a price tag on a child's SAFETY???? IMHO this is a NO-BRAINER!
While I agree with you that every parent should buy their child a seat, I'd hate to turn this into a "you're a bad parent if you don't" thread. Most parents skip the seat out of ignorance. They aren't putting a price tag on their child's safety. They just assume it's safe because it's legal. But it's not. As I said in the post I linked to, there's this myth that carseats are useless on an airplane because, if there's a crash, "we're all going to die anyway." This is not true. In fact, most crashes are survivable. Your chances of surviving increase significantly if you do certain things - and one of those things, if you're a child, is to be strapped into a carseat. I think that most parents don't realize this. Nor do they realize that, in the event of an anticipated crash landing, you will be forced to put your lap child on the floor so that he/she doesn't injure the other passengers while being flung about the cabin. Or that turbulence causes injuries daily, and that you cannot physically hold onto your lap child during severe turbulence. Let's educate and inform without making inflammatory judgements. Yes, when you know how it works, it's a no-brainer. But parents have to know first. :flower:

[Loriannf]

Hi:

I'm all for the buying my daughter a seat and having her fly in her car seat - always have on the 20+ flights she's taken in the last 3 years. Could we please make this topic a sticky so the debates don't just go on and on? We could post the links to the articles and the FAA regs and mention the 1/2 price fares for kids under two and the fact that once they're in a booster seat that chances are the seat isn't FAA approved. We could also include ways to get your carseat/stroller through the airport and instructions on gate checking - maybe the title of the sticky could be "Traveling with Kids - Carseats, etc."

Just a suggestion,

Lori

[Berrygood]

YES! You should get a seat for your child. Most airlines offer a discount for children under age 2 (me experience has been 50%). You should be aware that you must install the car seat in the window seat (you can't have a car seat between the aisle and another passenger, even yourself) and you can't be seated in the exit row or the rows immediately in front off or behind an exit row. I also don't recommend the bulkhead seat because you won't have access to your carryon luggage. The rear facing car seat will prevent the seat in front of you from reclining so if possible, have one of your family memebers seated in that seat.

As far as lugging the car seat through the airport, I isn't a good idea to check the car seat as luggage. They could loose the seat or worse, damage it in transit.

Those carriers in catalogs that are "approved for airline use" cannot be used during landings and takeoffs.

The safest place for your baby during the entire flight is strapped into his/her car seat.

HTH

[Huntava]

We've flown six times with twins since they were 4 months old. On every flight except one we were able to bring on our car seats (for both of them) and not get charged for the extra seats. Check your flight and see how full it is...normally they are not going to be 100% full, and you can ask the gate attendant to move you to a seat that has an empty seat next to it, and they will let you bring your carseat on and not charge you for the seat. If by chance the plane is oversold and will be completely occupied, you just gatecheck your car seat with the gate attendant, and it will be waiting for you when you deboard the plane. They will normally allow you to do this until the kids are 2 years old.

[CrzyforPiglet]

Thank you everyone!!!!!

I'm sorry if I started a potentially hot topic - I honestly didn't know and am happy to hear everyone's opinions. I've decided to go with my initial instincts and buy our baby a seat. I think we'll all be more comfortable that way and I'll feel better knowing we have a seat for the baby for safety more than anything! Like I said in my original post - we're newbies and just plain don't know about these things. We're still dazed and confused by Babies R Us but I'm sure by next year we'll have the aisle's memorized!! But as far as lap children go, I mean you see it done all the time so you think it must be okay but after the recent Canadian crash and what happened at Sioux city I would never take a chance with my child's life. That and heaven forbid even if the flight were fine but we didn't have a car seat for the town car and got into an accident - I'd never forgive myself!! So like I said the decision is made - we're buying our baby a seat!

:goodvibes :flower: :goodvibes :flower:

[justhat]

I just wanted to add that if you buy an infant fare on Southwest it is fully refundable. So if it turns out that there are empty seats on board they'll refund the money for your baby's ticket. Not sure if that applies to you, but thought it would help anyone thinking of Southwest.

Oh, and one other thing about checking your carseat, even gate checking it. When we flew from Savannah to Orlando in April we gate checked our stroller (along with 2 other families). When we arrived in Atlanta for our connection we were told that they never loaded our strollers onto the plane and they left them in Savannah. They put them on a Delta flight to Orlando that ended up coming in the same time our connection arrived in Orlando so we walked over to the Delta counter, claimed our stroller and left. The bag the stroller was in (it's a stroller bag that Maclaren sells, pretty heavy material) was torn and damaged, so who knows how the stroller was thrown around. However, we could have been less lucky and the stroller would have been on a later flight and we would have been carrying our 13 month old around Disney that first day. While that wouldn't be the end of the world, if it had been her carseat it would have since we would have been out of luck for the towncar to the airport. So even when you gate check things happen and I'd rather be safe and have her seat onboard than risk the chance of not getting it when we arrive.

I also agree that a sticky thread would be a great idea!

[NotUrsula]

I wouldn't bet on an empty seat on SWA; they are running full to the gills on most flights into Florida these days. Coming home, maybe, if it is relatively early, but going down? Almost never an empty seat. A discounted fare is almost always way cheaper than the infant fare, but it's nonrefundable.

A clear cover or one that exposes the wheels and handles is best for gate-checking; it insures that the ramp personnel know that it is a stroller. They don't usually keep the heavy clear bags for carseats at the gates; ask for them from a skycap or at the main bag-check counter.

[the kabuki]

I've purchased seats for mine, but they were pretty close to 2 years old when we flew. Although safety was a factor, just having some more space in the plane was good too.

[justhat]

I wouldn't bet on an empty seat on SWA; they are running full to the gills on most flights into Florida these days. Coming home, maybe, if it is relatively early, but going down? Almost never an empty seat. A discounted fare is almost always way cheaper than the infant fare, but it's nonrefundable.

A clear cover or one that exposes the wheels and handles is best for gate-checking; it insures that the ramp personnel know that it is a stroller. They don't usually keep the heavy clear bags for carseats at the gates; ask for them from a skycap or at the main bag-check counter.

We almost never fly SWA to Orlando because we can get really cheap fares on USAirways and fly out of Washington National, rather than BWI, so we save about 45 minutes travelling. So thanks for pointing out that flights to Orlando are usually full. We have only gotten the refund on other routes so I don't want to get people's hopes up. We have gotten cheaper fares on SWA than the infant fare, but many times we've had to take flights where the infant fare was cheapest. Other times (like last month when we flew to Cleveland for $78 rt) we just buy her the discounted fare rather than risk the flight being full and paying more for a refundable ticket.


About the stroller (I assume you were referring to my stroller being left at the gate in Savannah), even though mine was in a bag, the other 2 strollers were not in any kind of bag, just folded and left by the door, so it was obvious they were strollers. Our stroller bag (made by Maclaren) says Maclaren on the sides (if they happen to know that's a stroller) and we also labeled it with Mickey paint samples from Home Depot. So there are little Mickey heads that say "Stroller" all over the bag. We did this cause we've been asked if they were golf clubs by many airport workers when we check in, go through security, etc. Our stroller won't fit in those plastic bags that the airport gives out, it's too long, so it's either send it by itself and get it all dirty like our other strollers are, or put it in a bag.

The problem with the stroller was that as we were boarding the gate agent taking our boarding passes told us to leave the strollers at the beginning of the jetway and she'd bring them down. My husband insisted on taking it to the plane door, but she said she'd definitely bring it herself. He even said "you won't forget right? Cause we're going to Disney and that would be a very bad trip without a stroller." He was kind of kidding, and she laughed and said of course she'd remember. You can't really argue with airplane personnel or they won't let you on, so we agreed and did what she said. Well she didn't remember and so all the strollers stayed in Savannah! Really would have been a problem had it been a carseat though since we would have been stuck for the towncar. (And our carseat is in a opaque bag too, clear plastic not an option for that either, though it would fit, cause we wear the bag on our back, which we couldn't do with the plastic. We never check it though so it's not an issue.)

[NotUrsula]

"Our stroller won't fit in those plastic bags that the airport gives out, it's too long, so it's either send it by itself and get it all dirty like our other strollers are, or put it in a bag."

Tecnically, you can use those bags to cover a Mac; you just need two of them. Put one on from the wheel end and tie it tight, then put another on from the handle end and tie that, too.

What I used on my Mac (and my Chicco and my Pliko--I collect strollers) was a ripstop nylon sleeve; just a rectangle of fabric with elastic on the wide ends, and velcro squares down the narrower end. The wheels and handles stick out, but it protects the upholstery and is much cheaper than an official travel case. I can roll the stroller down the jetway with it on, then just set the brake when I leave it by the door. It also has "BABY BUGGY - DELIVER TO GATE" on it in big letters, and it is neon yellow. VERY hard to miss.

Never let a gate agent tell you not to carry your stroller to the end of the jetway; fold it and take it down yourself; putting it next to the exterior jetway door (but NOT blocking the door, of course.) BTW, I don't let any amateurs fold either my Mac or my Pliko; those aluminum frames are way too easy to bend out of whack if you try to cram them shut rather than folding them as they are meant to be folded. Most breakage to strollers comes from airline personnel trying to fold them (or refold them if the clip didn't hold) --play it safe, either bag it or bungee it.

[bjakmom]

CrzyforPiglet - I am so glad you decided to purchase a seat for your little one! - I'm a mom who was actually forced to place my then 5 mos old DS on the floor between my feet and assume crash position on a trip from LA to Chicago when we had some difficulty with the landing gear. Fortunately all went well - but it was a real shock to me to learn THAT procedure !! :earseek: - and, believe me, the crew aren't the least bit interested in arguing with parents about their 'policies' under those circumstances !! I had travelled many, many times with DS and my older DDs on my lap, but never again - as you said, not worth the risk !! Now that I'm a grandmom I will always pay for my grandkids to have their own seat for just this reason.

NotUrsula - did you purchase the stroller cover you are describing? I've never seen one and am interested in sending something like that with DD when she flies down with DGrD and my (treasured) Mac - I'm worried that once in the navy blue stroller bag that comes with the Mac, they may not recognize that it's a stroller - and there's no way I'm going to let her gate check my Mac without some kind of cover protection!

[justhat]

Ordinarily we wouldn't leave the stroller anywhere other than outside the plane door, but we couldn't fight with the gate agent (and trust me, my husband tried cause he just knew that she'd forget it) so we did as she said.

Thanks for the tip on the plastic bags. If we're ever without our stroller bag we'll try it. Problem is that we love the stroller bag-it's got wheels and a handle, plus it can hold lots of things that we don't want to check so we can use them in the airport, but don't want the hassle of carrying on the plane. We also usually stuff it with diapers, just in case the checked bag with diapers doesn't arrive (though now we're not sure of the stroller bag either!). We do have about a million labels on it that say stroller and have never had a problem other than that flight (though we have had pilots check on it for us when we were waiting awhile as I don't think they always see the stroller labels and bring up unwrapped strollers first). It has always been loaded onto the plane at the gate and generally waiting for us when we get off. When it wasn't there, and the pilot would check, they'd always bring it right up, it never went to baggage claim.

The airline damaged it when they forgot it and sent it regular checked on another airline, but they gave us 3 one-way tickets to compensate us so when we have to buy a new bag it won't bother me too much. Right now it's still useable so I'm not too worried, but when the time comes to replace it I'll have to remember the free tickets so I won't care about the price!

[have2getaway]

I would buy the seat. My dh and I traveled when my ds was 18 months, which is older than your child. It was so miserable. Our son is rather large and it was the most unenjoyable flight. We had one connecting flight where the flight was empty--much, much better! Now, I'm sure your six month old is not as large as our son, but keep in mind the room on the airplane seats is very small. I encouraged a co-worker recently who was traveling with her son (12 months) to buy a seat. Well, she didn't buy a seat and she said that she would never not buy a seat again. It was just too uncomfortable.

The safety issue is a concern too. Naturally, when your child is in their own seat, they are safer. the price of a half-price ticket for an infant seems so appealing when you have been cramped for 2+ hours!

[jinglesmountjoy]

My DW and I flew a 4.5 hr flight with our 4month old a couple of years back and we simply asked for a bulkhead seat and asked to have a bassinet (which attaches into the bulkhead at the perfect level for you to watch him/her). You also don't have to pay for him/her then. For the takeoff and landing, DW just nursed and all was perfect. In fact, 2 other passengers sitting around us actually came over after the flight and commented on how impressed they were with the fact that DD didn't let out a peep for the whole flight.

Of course aren't they all different.

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Not to add fuel to the fire---but it is no longer the crash procedure to place an infant on the floor. I have traveled with ticketless under 2's several times and I have always verified with the flight crew.

I'm not insinuating that what they have you do is safer than a car seat---but you do not place your kids on the floor. I believe it was changed some time after the Iowa corn field crash--where parents babes slid underneath the seats on impact.

[justhat]

Like I said, my daughter was in her carseat, but on a flight last summer the FA told me that if she didn't have a carseat we'd have to put her on the floor for what they expected to be a hard landing. Maybe she was just trying to scare me into always getting her a seat (though we bought one on that flight so why bother with scare tactics?) or maybe she was just uninformed. I'm not saying that you're wrong, and I really hope that they did change that policy since it sounds horrible, just saying that there's conflicting info. I've also had a FA tell me I had to move to the 2nd row of a plane because the bulkhead is considered an exit row so I can't sit there with my daughter. Now I know that I've sat there with my daughter in her carseat on the same exact type of aircraft many, many times, but this one FA claimed it was a rule and so we had to move to row 2 like she told us too. So if you get a FA like mine last summer, I don't think you'll be able to start challenging that they changed this rule.

[RangerPooh]

Our 5 month old has gone on so many flights in her life so far (including the 5.5 hour flights to both Orlando and Hawaii) and we have never purchased her her own seat. I just made sure that DH and I were seated next to eachother (if you have the entire row to yourselves then I recommend the window, otherwise the isle if you'll need to get up and change the baby), placed our dd in her jammies and blankies and she slept almost every flight that we took. To avoid issues of cries we would have a pacifier or bottle on hand. We've been fortunate enough to never have an outburst and have received compliments on how well she behaved.

Just buy yourself a seat carrier bag (Babies R Us) and check it with your luggage. One thing that we learned the flight crew won't allow is flying with your baby placed in a Snugglie front pack due to if there's flight trouble. But if you have the extra money you can spring for the seat (some airlines offer 50% discount), other wise it's not too difficult flying with a lap infant. You still get priority boarding.

[NotUrsula]

No, I made them. Not hard if you sew even a little. Just measure the length of the folded stroller not counting the handles, that is one side. Then measure around the widest point of the folded stroller and add 50% + 4 inches; that is the other side. Fold over 1 inch on each edge and sew that down. On the top and bottom edges sew on the elastic by stretching it as you go (do 2 lines of stitching). For the other edges, cut about 8 2" squares of wide velcro and sew them down or put them on w/ super glue. (Don't use stick-on velcro; not strong enough.) Using a fat sharpie, write your wording on it and also your surname and cell phone number. Ta-da.

[bjakmom]

NotUrsula - Brilliant idea !! Thanks for the details - I can do that !