Car seat on plane for 2 year old?

[all4fun]

I am a flight attendant. If your child has reached their second birthday they must have their own seat. And you may be asked to show proof of age, if there is any question.

This is what I was going to point out since you mentioned you're going for her 2nd birthday. If she's one when you fly out and two when you return, then you'll only be required to buy her a seat for the flight back, however then you might as well just buy a round trip ticket anyway.

The FAA doesn't require car seats but they do recommend them for children under 40lbs (There are a few higher weight seats that are approved for airline use, though, like the Britax Marathon to name one). Here's a link to the FAA site: Tips for parents using a CRS .

Make sure your CRS is government approved and has "This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft" printed on it. Otherwise, you may be asked to check the CRS as baggage.

As far as not being able to put the tray table down, that was true when we used the convertible (Cosco Scenera 5-pt, which I recommend if you're looking for a travel car seat). Recently we switched to a combo booster with 5-pt Harness (Evenflo Bolero) and since it converts to a bpb it sits lower than the convertible does so ds was able to use his tray table with no problem.

You can enter your airline/plane info on this site: http://www.seatguru.com/ and see what the seat size & configurations are. Sometimes a useful tool, I thought I would mention it.

hth!