Has anyone flown with a "mobile" (crawling or better) child without having a seat for that child?

[peanut4us]

Yes, I know, most of you want me to have bought her a ticket, but I didn't. I'm a bad mom, and if anything happens to her, I'll have to live with that for the rest of my life.

Having said that... anyone else ready to admit to flying with a child without purchasing the child a seat? I am looking specifically for folks whose kids were at least semi-mobile. I am getting concerned about her ability to stay in my seat for 2.5 hours on the plane for Thanksgiving. Any tips? We are thinking of taking my laptop to play a Baby Mozart for her, but I am looking for more ideas.

Also, did any of you bring a car seat on the off chance that there would be an extra seat on the plane? Did you just gate check it if not? Was it "handled with care?"

Why am I so just not looking forward to this? I am planning on calling the airline this week to see how many seats are still available, if any, to see if bringing the car seat is even worth it??? As well as their rules for flying with baby. I had just planned on having her in my sling during most of the flight... we'll see.

BTW--if you have flown without a seat for your child and you feel more comfortable... just email me or PM me. Any information is greatly appreciated.

[Sarah1]

Hi Joey,

We usually do buy a ticket, but I will tell you that the last time we flew, DD would NOT nap so having the extra seat was practically irrelevant. She spent most of the time on my lap or standing in the aisle. We walked up and down the aisle a lot too. BTW, this flight was a little over 2 hrs. It's definitely do-able...not enjoyable, but definitely do-able, and people are always surprisingly tolerant IMO. There was another couple w/a toddler who did not have a seat, and he screamed the whole time, and seriously nobody seemed to care.

And you're not a bad mom for not buying a ticket. It's really not that big of a deal...now if you were flyingn to Europe, that would be another story!

[Annette_C]

Joey,
We flew to Asheville and Florida without a seat for Sabrina so don't feel bad! There were a lot of babies and toddlers on the flights and most of them did not have a seat.
The reason why we did it was because we knew that it would not be used and, plus, we would have to log around our big Marathon on top of everything else! Sabrina hates the car seat and we knew she would not stay in it...especially on a plane.
Both flights were short (about 2 hrs) and it wasn't that bad. DH brought his laptop and we played baby Einstein DVDs. I also brought some new books to read, a couple of new toys and plenty of snacks.
HTH,
Annette
SAHM to Sabrina 6/24/02

[flagger]

Don't forget you are going to need the car seat when you get where you are going, or are you renting a car with a car seat or does whoever you are going to meet have a car seat? I would gate check it if there are no seats available if there will be no car seat waiting.

I worked for an airline in my past life. Even if the flights are not full with paying passengers, over the next seven weeks or so, just about EVERY seat will be filled with stand-bys or employees of the airlines.

Just some things to think about.

HTH

[jojo2324]

I've flown twice with Gannon (once cross country), and I didn't buy a ticket for him either time. I did bring my carseat along all times, but was only able to use it once due to the flights being booked. Also, you can only use the car seat on the window side, so that cut down on availability. (And I would check the car seat at the counter when I checked in, because that's when I would find out if there were any seats available.)

The first time, he was standing on his own and crawling. The second time, he was walking. The hardest flight was coming home from CA (to NY)...Six hours with no place to put him was a nightmare! And he was getting sick, and teething, and just generally grumpy.

But you might find that Sara sleeps through much of the flight. The noise and rumble tended to knock him right out, for at least two hours. Luckily, I did have a seat next to me on all of those flights, so I could kind of prop him there.

That said, I don't think I'll go without a definite seat for him in the future. It stinks, because it's very expensive, and the last thing I want to see is a whole plane of empty seats. But it would just be too hard at this point to corral him. Then again, I don't know WHEN I'll be flying again, because I've heard travel with two is dang near impossible. :)

[khakismom]

Kathleen has flown about 8x without us buying a seat for her. Every flight but one the flight was not full and we were able to secure an empty seat for her. I agree with the previous poster that passengers are very tolerant, and most flight attendants are very attentive to babies and toddlers.

Definitely bring the car seat and if the flight is full, give it to the flight attendant and have them gate check it so that it is wating for you on the jetway when you get off the plane. The one time we did that it was definitely handled with care. :) Absolutely pre-board so you can take your time to get situated in your seat. Pack lots of toys--but don't worry. Sarah will have a great time--I actually loved traveling with Kathleen at this age. They will be fascinated by the people and the neat stuff on the plane, like the safety card in the seat pocket in front of you (Kathleen's favorite! :))

Have fun! :)

[peanut4us]

Annette,

Did you guys have headphones for Sabrina? Or did you just let everyone enjoy the classical music??? i really think this would help her on the trip, but I am trying to figure out logistically whether it will work.

[peanut4us]

Thanks Flagger, but supposedly, the in-laws are to borrow a car seat to have ready for us when we arrive... although for some reason it's not sticking that we need "rearfacing" but not newborn carrier. Sigh. I don't know.

I think my biggest problem with lugging the darned thing along is that she hates it... so on the plane probably wouldn't help that much. And I am picturing the charming words that would come out of my mouth trying to install the flibbety thing after the flight into the in-laws car (80s Mercedes, sigh). Then reinstalling the fricken fracken $%^& in our car when we get back... both times at night! And you're probably right, there will be NO extra seats. Sigh.

[elvisfan]

Been there. Done that. If your child can stand and move around even a bit, get a seat. You'll be glad you did!

[Momof3Labs]

Sounds like a fun trip! Honestly, though, do you trust your in-laws to get the right kind of seat for her AND get it installed correctly in their car? I think that you'd be better off bringing your own (checking it or whatever) and installing it yourself - then at least you know that it is done right! Personally, I'd rather be installing my own car seat at the airport than trying to reinstall someone else's crappy seat!

[Karenn]

Joey,
I played a video without headphones for Colin on our last plane trip and honestly, the plane engin was so loud that even with the volume turned up pretty high the other passengers still couldn't hear it. (I know because my family were in the neighboring seats.) The video was worth it's weight in gold! Such a lifesaver for us!

That trip was a couple of months ago and he had a seat for that one, but not when we flew at 5 months. When we didn't buy him a seat, there was room for our carseat on 3 out of 4 planes. On one flight, the only open seat was in first class, so that's where they put us. :) That made it well worth the effort of lugging around a heavy carseat!

Good luck!

[nathansmom]

Joey-
I'd be more than willing to help your inlaws get the correct car seat. Heck I'll even help them install it. Have them give me a call, its not too much trouble or I wouldn't have volunteered.

[KMommie]

I haven't flown with DD, but I have flown with my nephew when he was 21 months from Los Angeles to Orlando. He sat on my pregnant (6 months along) SIL's lap the whole way! Going wasn't too bad, we took the red eye and he slept most of the way. On the way home, the flight was 2 hours longer because we had to go around a huge storm. She kept him busy with stickers and board books and food. I really have to give my SIL credit. She never complained, and I can just imagine how uncomfortable she must have been!

Jeannie
mommy to Kiki 4/18/03

[emilyf]

We flew to London and back this summer without a seat, DS was 8 months but not crawling yet. He did just fine. We decided to leave our car seat at home so it was one less thing to travel with. My guess is Flagger is right-most flights around Thanksgiving are booked. Worth a call I guess, but if it were me I would probably leave the car seat behind.
Emily \r\nmom of Charlie born 11/02

[peanut4us]

Point well-taken. Especially given that though my MIL is a dear... she still hasn't found a "non-infant" rear facing seat... we've talked about it a few times... and she always sounds surprised when I bring up the fact that it must be rear-facing. *Sigh* I think we are just going to bring ours. I just dread carrying it around on the connections, blah, blah, blah.

[Melanie]

I know you didn't ask...but if it's at all possible, for your own sanity you might want to buy a seat. They're usually half-price.

Let's see, your little one is 9-10 months? Could you plan it for a nap-like time? Our second flight Ds was so utterly exhausted that he fell asleep (in his car seat) when the plane was taxi-ing and didn't even wake up for 2 hours, not even during takeoff or announcements! If not, does she eat finger-foods? Snacks saved us on a recent trip, even with his own seat. Another suggestion I have is whatever toy (1 or 2) you bring on the plane, have them be new, so they are more interesting. Ds was much older than your daughter, but for an example we did the magna-doodle-like toy and we ended up needing to break it out in the airport, but he spent the first 10 minutes fascinated with just the tag.

Lastly, I decided never to check a car seat b/c I saw baggage handlers hurling them off of the plane onto the ground one time. They were not treating them with car. But, as an aside, if you have a travel system I wonder if you could keep the car seat with the stroller and then gate-check both of them? That way, I *think* they avoid the baggage handlers - right?

Have a nice trip!

[heidi_timms]

My sister never bought a seat for her infant and flew on flights that were at odd times and not full. Thanksgiving will be hard though.

She gave me a tip though with the carseat. She takes the Britax RA and places the seat face down around the corner of her rolling carry-on and bungees it to the bag? Make sense? The carseat "hugs" the corner of the bag. One less thing to carry. She then checks it on in case there is an empty seat.

Good Luck in your travels!

~Heidi
Mom to Kailey Ashlin
4/27/03

[Sarah1]

Joey--I know this is probably not what you want to hear, but I would bring the carseat too. Last summer we went to the in-laws, and my MIL is the nicest lady in the world and insisted that she had borrowed a carseat to use. Well, first of all we bought a Sit 'n Stroll since we travel frequently, so I told her constantly that we wouldn't need it.

When we got there, it turned out the seat she had was in fact a booster seat for an older child. She had no clue.

Taking the seat with you will not be as bad as you think. It's the anticipation of traveling that's the worst!