I'm travelling on an overnight international flight (8 hours) in a few weeks with my 24 month old and 5 month old, solo. My toddler has her own seat and the baby will be a lap infant. We're flying American Airlines and are not likely to get a bassinet seat, and as we're flying on a very busy route at the height of tourist season, there are not likely to be many, if any, empty seats on the plane.

To make my life easier, I've decided to purchase a car seat for my toddler in the hopes that she will sleep in there easier than she would trying to sit in a normal airplane seat. Despite the many, many long haul flights we've taken with babies. I have yet to fly with a car seat, so this is a whole new experience for me!

I'm looking at buying the Cosco Scenera as it is small enough to comfortably fit in the seat (I think!), and very cheap - the seat won't comply with UK requirements so this seat will be exclusively for plane travel, hence not wanting to spend much money; however, I am open to other suggestions!

So, if you've flown with a car seat before, can you answer some or all of the questions below and/or tell me about your experience?

1. Did you buy a roller attachment to roll your car seat through the airport? Were you able to roll it down the aisle or was it too wide? I'm ideally looking to push my toddler in the seat whilst wearing the infant and carrying our carry-on on my back.

2. Did the seat fit into plane seat comfortably enough? Does a car seat automatically mean you get a window seat (I hope?)

3. Did you have to call the airlines ahead of time to let them know? Do they have the right to deny the use of an FAA approved seat when a ticket has been purchased for the toddler who would be using the seat?

4. Logistically, how difficult will it be to set it up on the seat with an infant strapped to my chest in the Ergo and a 24 month old crawling all over the place? Have you found the flight crew to be helpful in this regard?

Any other suggestions or sharing of experiences would be so helpful! Thanks!