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I flew internationally with C when she was 8 and 9 month old, by myself. We flew US.

-Time. Personally, I thought overnight flights were easier. Our flight back to London left Philadelphia at like 9pm. She passed out bout 45 minutes into the flight and slept the whole time. Our flight to the states was afternoon and she was awake the entire time. It was stressful, even though she was well-behaved.

-the day after Christmas.... I would be hopeful of an extra seat but don't count on it. US was very accommodating in switching people so I could have an empty seat with me for her.

-You can check both. Just take them to the gate and check them planeside. You're really not supposed to ever check a carseat at the desk, only planeside.

-Seats. I'd reserve the bulkhead seats and the bassinet, if your flight has one. Other than that, I'd go for two seats in your own row, so one of you has a window and one an aisle. The window affords a little more space.

@Foodnerd81: I never checked her carseat as I got lucky enough to get a seat on each of my 4 flights. I checked our City Mini without a bag, but I will probably get one for the next time we fly. And the armrests were not really a problem for me, but no they didn't move.

If you check seatguru.com, it will let you input the flight numbers and it will tell you what type of aircraft the flight is and what amenities it has. US does has a first come, first serve policy with the bulkheads and bassinets, so I'd get to the airport early.

Overnight flights are the only way we travel cross country (we do frequently because my family lives on different coast)

If she isn't crawling, she's probably fine without seat. Does she still sleep on you? I found once baby wa mobile she had to have her own seat

I always get an aisle. Book a window too, just incase middle could be left open. Whoever does book middle will happily switch with the window person.

I agree with what the other bees have said, especially the advice regarding aisle seats. We've always had the best luck with morning flights but I think it really depends on the baby. And bring an extra outfit, 5 hours is a long time to sit with a baby who may have had a blowout! My LO never has blowouts EXCEPT when she's on airplanes!

We've done 3 trips now with our kiddo, ranging from 2.5 hour to 5 hour flights. We've always tried to schedule the flights to go over his nap time, and he's ended up sleeping through most of them. I personally would never do a red-eye flight if I have the option, but that's mainly because I don't sleep well on planes. I couldn't imagine taking care of a baby the next day after an overnight flight where I didn't sleep!

We've only had one leg with an open seat in our row, so I definitely wouldn't count on it --especially over the holidays. I recommend taking and using a Boppy so your arms don't get too tired.

We bought a cheap stroller bag on Amazon, and we check our stroller and carseat at check-in. The bag is large enough to fit our Graco 22 and our Bumbleride Flyer. I just wear him in the K'tan in the airport to cut down on how much we have to carry. We bring on a diaper bag with plenty of extra diapers, a small backpack with our personal items and wallets, and a messenger bag with the Boppy, toys, and extra outfits (for him and us).

Good luck!

Agree with PP! Overnight flights are the best!
My LO has taken 8 flights and he's 9mo. I prefer red-eyes and luckily on all but 1 flight we've had an empty seat next to us.
He just sat on my lap until he gave sleepy cues, then slept in his carseat.

I avoid checking as much as possible. Definitely buy a bag! Our bag got damaged but luckily the carseat was mostly ok inside.

We were delayed 7 hours at a connection, so make sure you take extra formula, water, food, diapers, etc.

We have flown a few times with LO, first flight was around 8 mos for him. The only thing I might add is that regarding sleeping during the flight, think about your overall sleeping plan for LO. We have always put DS in his own crib for naps and overnight sleep and by 5 mos I cannot imagine him sleeping in our laps for any length of time. He did doze off sometimes while breastfeeding, but except for the flights I always woke up him so when he fell asleep nursing on the flight, it only lasted about 30 minutes. It is hard to predict what your LO's schedule will be like at 5 mos at this point but keep that in mind when considering a red-eye. Not all babies fall asleep anywhere - even if they are tired, unfortunately.

We have taken two trips. One at 4 mo and one at 9 mo. Both went great. We like morning trips bc he sleeps better and we are both fresh and not tired. We checked the carseat but use the stroller to get through the airport and hold some of our things like diaper bag. We gate check the stroller. Also you can't pick your own seats. They will move you once you get to the plane. There are only certain rows that have an extra air mask for kids. It is different on every plane and planes can change between booking your seat and the day of. So don't stress out about which row/seats to buy. We have had some luck if having an empty seat in our row. But we've also had no luck and been crammed in between two men. The last flight my DH was the pilot and thus I didn't have his help. Thankfully the two men on either side of me were really nice and helped get things out of my diaper bag or make silly faces to entertain the baby. Have plenty of snacks/bottles in your diaper bag. Good luck

We've flown a lot with LO (13+ flights in her first year!), and so far the best time to fly has been early morning. I won't do a red eye with her yet, in case she doesn't sleep or cries a lot.

When we flew on Christmas, we had an extra seat between us - that is the ONLY time that has happened. Every other time it's been completely booked flights....sardine land.

We never bring her stroller on vacation because it wouldn't get used much (most major attraction places rent strollers, and I prefer wearing her anyway). We always check her carseat at the desk (vs. at the gate), and have never had an issue. Note: carseats are usually unloaded in "oversized baggage" area at the airport, not where your suitcases come out, just FYI.

Definitely nurse her at take-off and landing, or give her a pacifier if she won't nurse.

Since you plan to babywear, FYI: If you wear your LO through security, they will pull you aside and swipe your hands for bomb residue. It's not a big deal, but sort of surprising if you don't expect it. They just take a little piece of cotton and swipe your hands and then put it in a machine and test it - takes about 30 seconds. Some airports may also request to pat-down a member of your party, in addition to the hands-bomb testing (Boston did this one of the 4 flights we've taken out of there with LO, but BOS is always on the higher end of security. The airport in West Virginia, on the other end of the spectrum, did no testing at all and didn't even put our bottled formula through the x-ray!).

Babies are a lot easier than toddler on planes....just bring your LO's favorite things and you'll be fine!!

We took our LO across country at 4 months, and it went much better than I thought. As far as seats, I picked over the wing since supposedly that makes the most "white noise".

Otherwise, my advice would be to gate check car seat and stroller, I used a snap and go, and pushed it through the airport with the carryons piled into it. When you get to the gate, ask if there is room for the car seat on the plane. I've flown with her 6x now and it seems a 50/50 chance you can take the car seat. It has to go in the window seat.

Wear the baby in an ergo, that way you don't have to take them out through security. If it's in the stroller/car seat, you do have to.

I wore her most of the flight, it is the law you have to take them out at takeoff/landing (stupidest rule ever) but the flight attendants didn't' always enforce this.

Even if you are nursing, bring bottles. This just seemed to be easier than trying to nurse a screaming child in the middle of airplane at certain points. You can still nurse, maybe when baby is calm but at least for me a bottle was an instant mute button.

Dress baby in clothes that you don't mind getting rid of if they have an accident, that way you don't' have to lug soiled clothes around in your carry on.

I brought the ergo and also the baby k'tan. May seem like overkill, but she slept better in baby k'tan so once we were settled in our seats if she wouldn't sleep I would switch her to the baby k'tan.

Good luck, most people were super friendly and nice!

Everyone will have a different experience, I'm sure. A lot of it can depend on your flight attendants too.

We recently flew when DD was 5 and 6 months old. The first flight as we were walking on, the flight attendant that was checking tickets saw us with a baby and told us that there was an empty row that we could go snag if we wanted an empty seat between us. It was the only empty row on the plane - so nice of her! The second flight was on Southwest where you get to chose your seat as you're boarding - I sat in the aisle seat, holding DD while DH was sitting in the window seat (so there was an empty middle seat). There were only a couple empty seats on the plane, so anytime someone walked by us and saw the baby, they frowned and kept walking

We were able to combine our car seat and base - snapped together. We didn't bring any sort of bag, so the ticket counter gave us one to use (basically a clear trash bag). We checked it (for free) because we didn't want to deal with it at our layover.

We flew two different times - afternoon and night. She didn't sleep either time. She took a quick 30 minute nap at the night flight, but that was it. The problem though, was that she doesn't like sleeping on us. She NEEDS to sleep on her own. If your baby likes to sleep on you, a night flight would probably be best. Otherwise, it doesn't matter

Even though we had the aisle seat each time, we never needed to walk her. I would suggest bringing 'new' toys to play with. At that age our DD was already getting tired of old, boring toys, so we kept toys hidden from her for a month so they were new to her for the flight.

All the security line people were so great to us! One of the airports had and x-ray only line, but as soon as they saw the baby in our arms, they pulled us aside to use the normal walk-through metal detector one. They would even give us our own security line to use so we could take our time. We brought 4 bottles with 6 oz of water in them, and they just took them to test to make sure it was water. NO problems - so easy!

@kml636: Probably not, because the forward force would crush your baby. They're safer being a projectile.

This is why our son gets a seat on the plane. I just can't bear the what if scenarios.