would you book as a lap child or buy a seat?
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@matador84: Totally depends on the length of the flight. Most of our flights are 2-2.5 hours so I'm taking her for free as long as they let me!! But anything over 3 hours I would probably get a seat.
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For me, it would also depend on if I was flying alone, or with DH. I could definitely do a lap child for a short (2-2.5hour flight) with DH, but would prefer another seat if I was going alone. The toddler is going to want to move around and I'd prefer he wasn't trying to climb up into a stranger's space.
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Depends, if you're flying alone, and it's less than 3 hours, I'd do a lap child.
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Seat, no question.
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I flew with LO as a lap child at 20 months and she did great! I was really glad I didn't buy a seat. The flight attendants were super helpful and on one leg moved me to where there were two empty seats next to each other. She sat there like it was her job.
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@MamaMoose: only about an hour, change planes midway through! i don't want to pay for a seat. he is well behaved so it helps!
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@Weagle: dh is flying with me so i don't think it will be too bad, i think i'd be mad if i bought a seat! i'll have the baby, he'll take the toddler!
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Seat! Much safer for everyone to have their own seat.
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Seat. I just did lap child with my one year old. Never again.
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@matador84: I change my answer.. for an hour flight, I would not buy a seat.
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one hour flight, i wouldn't buy a seat!
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I do a lap seat for 3.5-4 hour flights. I can't justify the costs. Most times i've been able to get a seat with a free seat next to mine.
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I would not buy a seat for a flight under 3 hours.
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I'd just do lap for 1 hr!
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For just an hour I would say skip the seat. We had a 3 hour flight with our 19 month old last month though and I was incredibly grateful that we bought him his own seat.
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Definitely a lap infant for that short of a flight! I'm cheap though and will always go with a lap infant as long as I can. We're heading to England from Australia via the US, starting next week, and my 21.5 month old DD and my two month old will be lap infants all the way. A 4 hour flight, 14 hr flight, 4.5 hr flight, and a 7.5 hr flight, although we are breaking it up with some breaks between flights. DD will be six days shy of her second birthday when we take our last flight.
The way I see it, toddlers aren't going to be easy on a flight regardless, so the thought of spending an additional $3000 for her to probably not use the seat very much anyway didn't make sense to me. Also, unless the flights are fully booked, the airlines are generally pretty good about giving parents with lap infants a row with an empty seat, or so our experience has been.
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@Ree723: I don't know if you know this but you can request a bassinet for your LO as well. The nice thing is you'll be able to sit in the bulkhead seats which tend to have more leg room. Good luck on your flights! We just did a flight that was 9 hrs and that was scary but we survived.
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I'd have a lap seat if it's 5hrs and under. I'm cheap. I figure it's my last opportunity to not get charged for a seat!
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@sunny: Thanks! Yes, we've requested a bassinet seat for the long flights (we're on Qantas and British Airways respectively) but if it's a choice between the bassinet or a row of three with an empty seat, I think I'd take the empty seat. Our infant is perfectly happy to sleep on us and I'd rather the extra room for our toddler. Ideally, there would be an empty seat in the bassinet row, but I doubt we'll get that lucky, lol! Glad to hear your flight went well!
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@matador84: for that short a flight with dh, I wouldn't pay for a seat! Although I don't have a second LO yet. Still, it's short!
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I'm cheap... so I would always do a lap infant until I had to pay for LO at 2 years.
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@Ree723: I am flying with DD a week shy of her 2nd birthday, too.
I figure the lap infant because she will probably want me to hold her anyway! And I am cheap. She will be 23 3/4 months when we fly.
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Lap. I did a cross country flight at that age alone, and it was fine.
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I've flown with DD a handful of times (she's now 20 months) and we have always done lap. But I started doing research and it's so much safer to have them in their own seats. So for our flight next month, she's got a seat. It's more expensive, sure, but if there was really bad turbulence or an emergency landing... I mean, they don't let you keep your purse on your lap but you can have your baby there?
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If it's a short flight, I would wing it without a seat and pray there was an extra empty one, assuming my husband was there. If I was by myself, I would buy her her own seat.
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depends on the child. charile i bought a seat when he was 1. olive was a lap child at 22 months (for 8 flights including international). But she was still nursing so that made a big difference.
for a one hour flight i'd just do lap if it were me.
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