I'm planning on traveling to Florida (from MA) for Thanksgiving. I know at six months babies can go on your lap, but I'm thinking the extra room would be nice! Especially since it's a given the plane will be busy. Is it worth the extra money for the extra seat?
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@Eko: I would save the money, but you know your baby best!!
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For us, no. The extra cost of a ticket was never worth it, so LO always traveled as a lap infant. I especially wouldn’t do it on a flight that short, and since your LO won’t be mobile yet – but totally your choice.
If you are flying JetBlue, the difference in the “extra space” seats is nice when flying with kids who don’t have their own seat, and is a cheaper upgrade than buying an additional ticket.
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@Eko: Oh also, you can try to get the bulkhead seats - some airlines will offer a baby bassinet to kids under a year old!
http://www.gypsymomma.com/2012/07/19/bassinet-weight-height-restrictions-on-airlines/
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We never bought a third seat because my LOs hate the car seat. I'm sure that if we bought a seat it would go unused. The times we've gotten an extra seat by luck LO has been right on top of me anyway.
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Not at that age. We flew this summer when LO was about 8 months old and I wore her getting on and off the plane. I would have just wore her the whole time and hoped she fell asleep but our plane was ridiculously warm.
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I think it is. We flew to NC (2 hr flight) when LO was 8 months old and I was cursing not having an extra seat. We went to SC in August and bought the extra seat even though we didn't need it (LO was 22 months) and I was so glad to have it. She still sat in her dad's lap most of the time watching Daniel Tiger on the iPad, but having the extra space was so nice.
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@mrbee: oh that's really helpful! I will have to look into that. I guess I'm more concerned about elbow room. I figured LO would be on my lap no matter what.
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There is no question that the extra seat is safer, and the extra space I'm sure would be nice. But we never have. I'm sure at thanksgiving the prices are already going to be really high, so unless your LO hates being held and loves his car seat, probably not worth it. At least not to me. Car seat safety experts would disagree...
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I recently sat next to a mom traveling alone with her lap baby and I think an extra seat would not have been worth it. Sure when the little one napped his feet took up some of my space, but for the most part he breastfed or snacked assisted by his mom. The mom packed light on the plane. She wore her son and just had a back pack full of supplies. This baby was walking, not talking and before we boarded the plane the mom let him stretch his legs quite a bit. In fact she didn't even pre-board, which allowed him lots of time to move freely.
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Wasn't worth it for us when we flew with infants. Tip: if there's assigned seating (aka NOT Southwest), reserve an aisle seat and a window seat, leaving the middle seat open. Most single travelers would rather select an open aisle or window seat for themselves rather than a middle. So hopefully, you would end up with an empty middle seat for your LO, and if someone does choose it, ask them to swap seats.
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@mrbee: looks like southwest doesn't offer this, and we have to use them
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Not for us. DD will be 1 when we fly and I don't even plan on getting her a seat b/c she will most likely not sleep in the carseat anyway. I'd be so mad if I paid so much for a seat just to hold stuff!
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@HabesBabe: I have tried this for every flight for the past I don't know how many years. I guess I'm always flying during peak times because it NEVER works. But that middle person is never upset to take the window or aisle at least!
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we traveled a lot and never bought a 3rd seat until we had to! he mostly will want to be on your lap anyhow.
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@Eko: Can you fly southwest? We always could pre board and would go to the back of the plane and take a whole row. It was the last seat anyone wanted to sit in (next to a couple with a baby) so we often got a seat for him anyways even though we didn't buy it.
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@winniebee: yeah we are flying southwest. I know we are going to be the last people anyone wants to sit next to, but being thanksgiving I figured all seats would be booked. I thought perhaps the extra elbow room would've been worth it, but perhaps not.
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When do you change their diapers? On the layover?
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@Eko: we changed diaper before boarding but she pooped during the flight so we had to change then too. DH changed her in the plane bathroom- I held her the whole flight (she nursed a lot) so it was the least he could do.
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@Foodnerd81: there's room to change them in the bathroom?
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We always buy an extra seat for our LO. It is not worth it to me to save some money to potentially put my baby in a dangerous situation. The way I see it is, during turbulence, literally everyone on a plane gets strapped down except lap infants. The other reason I do it is that my LO is used to sleeping in a carseat, so on flights she can take a nap (we have done MA to FL and back, and that is a nice length for a nap). However, many people fly with lap infants and have a good experience. It is really up to you and what you are comfortable with.
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@Eko: the planes we were on had a tiny changing table that flipped down above the toilet. Like half the size of one you would see in a regular public bathroom. I only ever used it once, I made DH do it usually but she pooped twice on our last flight so it had to be my turn. But we still managed then even with a 19 month old.
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Southwest doesn't give great priority boarding to families. They board families between A and B. You can get in the A group by either paying more or being really fast at the 24 hour check in. It's approximately 60 people in the A group. You will still have a decent selection of seats available.
Also, it will be a full plane. Southwest has a way of selling out their planes - as does pretty much every domestic flight with how much they have cut flights. I would not bank on a extra seat for free.
Our flight was short, but we just changed LO before and after flight and didn't have any poo we needed to deal with mid flight.
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We never bought a seat for DS, but he didn't mind being a lap infant. I did get a bulkhead seat when DS was older and that helped a lot. I put him on the ground when it was safe to do so and he played there for a good while, like 20 minutes by putting pieces of paper in and out the air sickness bag - lol!!
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We've taken our LOs on Southwest flights from San Diego to DC and San Diego to Chicago. We didn't buy them a seat until we had to (I think the maximum lap baby age for SW is 2yo). For the most part they just stayed in our laps or the ergo to sleep. I made sure to schedule the flights during their nap times or a red eye so they would sleep most of the way. Last time we went to Chicago with both of them we took a red eye and lucked out on having a partially empty plane. So DS had his own seat between us and I wore DD in the ergo the whole flight. When I flew to Chicago with DD by myself I wore her in the ergo and sat in a window seat that gave me a little more elbow room on one side. That time the plane was full since it was a daytime flight. It's up to you if you feel you need the extra room and if your baby is pretty mobile.
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@Eko: If you're going to pay for 2 econ tickets, I would put the money towards 1 first class ticket. More space, less people, comfy and lots of snacks!
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We always buy the extra seat.
Our LOs are kind of squirmy kids so it's easy for us to just strap them into their car seat, stick a bottle in their mouth during take off and bam have them fall asleep. DH and I talked about this in length the first time we traveled by plane with our LO.
All in all you and your DH know what's best for your baby.
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I think if money is no object and you have a baby that would likely be content to sit in/sleep in the carseat, it would be worth it. If money is tight and/or the kiddo is going to be on your lap anyways, then it's probably not.
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LO has flown on two trips (a total of 6 flight-legs) and we never bought an extra seat. We just got back from a trip that had 4 flight-legs and she is 5 months old and it was really no big deal at all keeping her on our laps. Southwest is different with their free boarding style but for future reference many airlines (Alaska is one) will give parents an entire row to themselves whenever possible. We had a whole row both coming and going on our trip to Hawaii, which was great.
Some airplanes don't have a changing table in the bathroom so be sure to check. On our trips, LO has pooped A LOT in the air, like every time I nursed her and then some. I guess she likes to poop on planes. So we made a lot of trips to the bathroom. When we wanted to change a diaper that was just pee, we just did it quickly in the seat.
Definitely bring a carrier so you have somewhere she can go to sleep, with the hood up. Six months is old enough she might resist napping on the plane which is not good.
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@yoursilverlining: I feel the same way. We have never bought tickets for our LOs until we had to. We have 3 more months for DD before she turns 2, and we may try to squeeze in one more trip. In any case, my two are not used to car seats and would HATE being strapped into a seat on a plane.
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We did not buy a seat for LO when we traveled at 8mos but the plane was half empty so we ended up having one for her. It was great - we put her infant carrier in it and she napped most of the flight. Much easier than the way home where we had no extra seat bc she got really sick of us holding her...
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It's safer to buy an extra seat and use the car seat. We don't, but that's a consideration besides space.
Recently flying with LO (23 months) I have really wished for that extra seat but I suffered to save the $. It will suck to buy her a seat when she turns 2 but by then it will be really useful.
At 6 months though, she literally nursed and slept the whole time. I would always time it with naptime, pop her on at lift off and she'd be out for most of the flight if not all. The extra seat would have been a waste unless we used the car seat.
@MamaG: We actually have had good luck getting flights with Southwest that aren't totally full. Recently I was able to actually bring my carseat on with LO even though we had not bought a seat for her because the flight wasn't full.
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My mom flew with DD on her lap last week (3.5 months). It went great!
And we'll be flying to the Dominican Republic next May at 12 months and also didn't get an extra seat.
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