What we learned travelling with kids....

[megan4777]

Here's a little something we learned the hard way while travelling this trip.
We were taking our DD's (2.5yrs and 3.5m) to Disney.
When you go to the airport...MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BOTH BIRTH CERTIFICATES with you (or copies...in my case). I was asked for them flying southwest and was told that it's a law to have a birth cert for all kids (I can't remember under what age, though).
When you approach security (for those flying for the first time)....take kids OUT of the car seats (infant) and out of the stroller. Fold down the stroller and send thru x-ray and send car seats thru x-ray. Walk each kid through metal detector and then you're set. Albany, NY has only 1-3 lines so we held up 1 for like 6 min just trying to get through. I didn't know this and that's why I'm writing it. We learned the hard way but had great people in line behind us. My 2.5 yr old wouldn't come back to me after she met the security woman, though, and she's VERY afraid of strangers. I tried to leave her but they wouldn't keep her
DD#2 did awesome both ways so no report on her....
My DD#1 vomitted quite a bit coming home and when we arrived in Albany, the gate guy came on the plane and YELLED at us for being on the plane. We were cleaning that for 20 min before and when we landed he said, "do you need help, folks, because we need you OFF the plane NOW!!" and walked away. He didn't know she puked but he also didn't look at us. We cleaned up as much as we could ( I wouldn't expect anyone to have to clean up after us) but I wanted her to puke again just for him...sorry I'm a witch.
The flight attendants were great and we ran into them after we got off and they were very sympathetic and said he shouldn't have snapped at us.
anyway, that's my lesson for first time fliers with kids.
Noone ever checked the stickers on the car seats, just their b.certs.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We traveled with our kids on Southwest before (ages 4.5 and just over 2 at the time) and we didn't need bc's. This was out of MCO and BWI in January.

It could be the law/regulation for your airport/state--but are you sure this is an FAA/law nationwide?

I did fly with my youngest to Hawaii (on Delta) as a lap child and had hers just in case--but noone ever checked it. (She turned 2 the following month).

 

[dcgrumpy]

I've flown Southwest ISP-MCO several times and was never asked for a birth certificate for my kids. The last time was less than a year ago. We flew Jetblue this past May JFK-MCo and wasn't asked for a birth certificate either.

As far as taking them out of infant seats it depends on the airport. In May we only had to take DD out one way, I can't remember if it was at JFK or MCO.

 

[tiffany123]

Not sure why you were asked for birth certificates. We've flown with kids all over the country and with many different airlines. Have never been asked to produce ID for them once.

 

[Disneyrsh]

Sounds like you were visited by the Arbitrary Fairy.

I like the Tag Fairies better...

 

[graygables]

I've flown with kids more times than I can count in the last 20 years and I have NEVER been asked for any proof of ID unless we were leaving the country and needed passports. Even now, my youngest have state ID cards (my choice) and the airline/security folks are always surprised (and very pleased...makes their job a little easier).

Going through security, take off your shoes, coats, etc and put them in a tub, remove your laptop from its case (it has to go in a tub by itself), cell phones, stuffed animals, anything along those lines, put in a tub. Then get your kids out of their seats/strollers, and if they will fit on the belt send them through. Ours won't fit, so they have to do a manual check. If the child is old enough to walk, they prefer they go through alone, so we always try to do parent-child/ren-parent to make sure no one gets lost.

When your plane lands (esp if it's SWA) you need to get off quickly. If you have a "mess", then you leave it for the ground crew to deal with. They have to go through the cabin and make sure it's ready for the next flight and have a limited time (but excellent resources) to do so. They can't bring their cleaning equipment on until all the passengers are out of the way. While he shouldn't have been short with you, his next review may depend on the number of flights he had with an ontime departure.

As far as seats go, most FAs know what is approved and what isn't, so they rarely, if ever, need to check the stickers.

Sorry you had a puker...I have BTDT and it is NO FUN at all. I hope everything else went well!