Flying to Orlando w/12-month Old

[MUcrick]

My wife and I have planned a family trip to WDW for early Dec. At that time our DD will have just turned 1. Are we crazy for not getting her a seat on the plane for herself; instead, expecting that she will do fine on one of the many available laps (mom, Dad, two grandpa's, a grandma and a handful of aunts and uncles)? Our flight is broken-up (KC to Dallas, Dallas to MCO) so neither leg will be much more than a couple of hours. Appreciate your thoughts.

mucrick

 

[Jordan's MOM]

You are not crazy but perhaps a little uninformed. While I am sure your little one would be happy changing laps with all those people that love her, the fact is that she is not safe on laps. You are not allowed to put your seat belt around her and the truth is in bad turblance or an emergany landing, no adult could hold on to a lap baby. She would be so much safer in her car seat and them you will have it for transportation to the resort. We had planned to fly with our then not quite two year old as a lap baby almost 10 years ago when almost everyone did that. After hearing the airlines horror stories, we changed our minds. it is a lot of money and every family has to decide what is bests for them. No judgement alt all. just sharing some not always know facts.

Happy planning

Jordan's mom

 

[MUcrick]

I'm beginning to think like you. We may go ahead and book an extra seat this weekend.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

mucrick

 

[NotUrsula]

Aside from the safety factor, there's the squirm factor, too. You can't put down your tray table with a baby on your lap. No coffee for the grownups, it might get knocked over. Should she get airsick, the person whose lap she's sitting on at the time will be wearing it (this I know from experience!) Keeping her away from the overhead switches is likely to be quite difficult; being passed around, she'll come close to them, notice them, and be *determined* to find out what they are. Also, the seats are tight, restricting movement, and if she falls asleep, so will the legs of the person she is sleeping on. This really isn't good for the adult's circulation.

IME (and I have rather a lot, as we are an intl. family), lap babies are usually content to sit until about 7 months. After that, it begins to be quite difficult to keep them content on a lap, and difficult escalates to "darn near impossible" by about 18 months.

 

[r3ngels]

I agree with the everyone else on this... we traveled with my oldest DD at age 1. She spilled our soda, wouldn't sit still, wanted to run up the isle, and the crying ughhh (but the crying came from me and DH, LOL) Ever since then we have always bought a seat for all 3 of the girls. I think they are so much better because they are used to staying in their carseat when traveling they aren't quite as fussy.

 

[amylovesdisney]

We've traveled w/our DS & DD since they were each infants. I've always bought them their own tickets since I've heard so many horror stories about turbulence, etc. We've flown to WDW several times and some of those flights were pretty rough.

Not to mention, it may be more difficult to get her to sit in a seat by herself as she gets older. If she only experiences having her own seat, she'll be accustomed to it when you HAVE to buy her a ticket (as of 2, I think).

You'll be glad you booked her a seat.

 

[skippelm]

Here is a link that may help.

http://www.onestepahead.com/jump.js...t=117&iSubCat=27179&iProductID=323&change=117

 

[NotUrsula]

Don't waste your money on something like a Baby B'Air. Those are not FAA approved for any part of the flight except cruising, and because they are not, the airlines often flat forbid them to be used at all. Besides, testing has shown that they won't hold a baby upright anyway; they slump.

Use your carseat for a child under 40 lbs. who has her own purchased seat.

 

[Annette_VA]

I just wanted to share w/ you my experience w/ flying w/ a 12 month old. When my 1st ds was almost one, we went to Disneyland. Flew from VA to CA, via TX. We did buy my ds a seat and brought his carseat on the plane. For the first leg of the trip out there, he sat in his carseat the whole time & loved it. 2nd leg, he hated it. I held him the whole way. Return trip, we checked the car seat and just enjoyed having the extra space of a 3rd seat.

Something to consider, too. After we were seated on the TX to CA leg, the flight attendant made us move because we were in the row *in front of* an exit row - apparently kids can't sit in the row in front of or behind an exit row. Who knew? Obviously not the ticket agent b/c I'd bought a seat for an infant! So, you might want to check w/ your airline & see if they have any restrictions on where kids can sit.

 

[jcemom]

We took our DD last month at 16 months old. DH insisted that he would rather hold her and that we not buy her a seat. Just let me say NEVER again! We were lucky in that #1 there was no turbulence, #2 flight attendants moved the person next to me both times to give us an extra seat, #3 DD fell asleep both times shortly after we got in the air and slept most of both flights. Even with all of that, for the 20 minutes or so on each end of each flight that *I* ended up holding her my normally calm, well-behaved DD was nearly uncontrollable! She didn't cry or disturb anyone else, but squirmed something awful. She kicked me and I had a heck of a time keeping her from kicking the seat in front of me and even keeping her in my lap. She wanted down in the worst way! It was a pretty tough task keeping control of her in the tiny amount of space that you get. I was so happy the people next to me got moved and didn't have to deal with us the entire flight. I would've felt just terrible for them!

It's worth the money to buy them a seat in terms of both safety and comfort (yours, the child's, and the strangers next to you...lol)

 

[MUcrick]

Many thanks to all for the great advice! I called AA this evening and booked a seat for DD!

As an FYI, you probably are all well aware that you cannot purchase a single child's ticket via the Internet. (My DW and I already have our seats.) So when I called AA directly to buy the single seat, they wanted to charge us $565 for one RT ticket! When I told her I could get the exact same ticket on the Internet for $241, she told me to purchase the seat as an adult online. Then, once the seat had been purchased, call AA to let them know that the ticket is actually for a child. Apparently, AA no longer distinguishes b/w adult and children tickets.

mucrick