Air Travel with young kids

[hehateme]

We are going for a short vacation in San Diego in a few weeks.
DS1 is 4 years 39 lbs and 42.5 inches tall
DS2 is 20 months 23 lbs and 34 inches tall
Each kid will get their own seat. The flight will be 3 hours long.
We will rent a car in San Diego.

We plan to take Combi Coccoro for DS2. We will take it into a plane.
We will also take Evenflo Secure Kid 400 with us to use in the car but don't plan to take it into the plane.
Reason why we are thinking of checking in our Evenflo is because DS1 struggled to sleep in Evenflo SecureKid in our previous trip.

Is he tall enough to sit in the airplane seat comfortably?
Should we buy something like cares harness along with rider safe travel vest and skip the car seat all together. We plan on taking other trips in near future so can invest in cares harness and RSTV if it makes sense.

We will gate check BJCM. Do you have any recommendation for a bag that will hold BJCM?

We will carry DS2 in Ergo and let the DS1 sit in the stroller if he is tired.

In our last trip we had both the seats in the plane and we used go go kidz to carry the evenflo and tied up combi cocorro with a bungie cord to a Uppababy g-luxe stroller.
Our brand new gogo kidz broke down in the first flight of the cross continent trip so my spouse is refusing the consider another car seat carrier.

Let us know if you have any suggestions for us. I want to do whatever I can to make travel comfortable for the little ones.

[hillview]

I think he is old enough to sit on a plane without a seat (DS1) but I always worry about checking a seat in case it doesn't arrive on the other side. I sometimes take a high back booster that comes apart and take the seat with me on the plane and check the back as a fail safe. Good luck!

[hehateme]

I did not consider the possibility of losing my checked in car seat. It is very light and easy to install.
I purchased Rider Safe 3 Vest and will skip carrying a car seat with us during this trip.

Thanks

[fedoragirl]

We fly 2-3 times a year--mostly, transatlantic. I am getting ready to fly with my toddlers soon. I don't bring any car seats because we have them available at our destination. I do bring a carrier or a stroller to restrain one of the kids while I can attend to the other.
We have a CARES harness for DD and she has used it since she was 2. You can rent one through ebay for much less. I wish I could do that but I am not based in the U.S.
My kids have never had a car seat on the plane. DD has no issues sleeping in the plane. I recommend the middle seats so you can move around to make some room for a sleeping child or better still, get an available seat for the child to sleep on. We raise the armrests and let DD sleep over 2 seats. Also, if you get to the airport early enough you can request bulkhead seats which allows for some freedom of movement.
Good luck!

[Mommy_Mea]

Your DS1 is too tall for the CARES harness, it is only up to 40". We are planning on buying the safe rider travel vest for DS1 for a few trips coming up this year so we don't have to lug, or check, a second car seat.

If you travel even once a year, I would think the travel vest would be worth it. You can use it for DS1, and then eventually DS2. It can also be used as a spare car seat at home if you ever have an extra rider.

[hehateme]

DS1 can now sit comfortably in the plane seats. Lack of car seat also gives him flexibility to lie down to take a nap.
DS2 still likes his Combi Coccorro.
Even though price of Ridersafe travel vest seemed high I bough Ridesafer Travel Vest 3 and like it a lot.