[MERGED] Flying transatlantic with a toddler (Was The Big Trip ...)

I have never used a car or booster seat when flying with my kids. Call me crazy, but I did it. My then 8 month old was just fine either on my lap or sitting up in his own seat. My then almost 3 year old also had no problems sitting in her own seat. To be honest I think it would have been more awkward with a carseat or booster seat. If you can get an empty seat alongside yours it helps, gives you better space to manage everything.

Crazy thing!

She's going to have her own seat, so that isn't going to be a problem.

Did you just strap the kids in with the normal lap belt then?

Yep, just used the normal belt and tightened it to fit her. With the 8 month old, when the seatbelt light was on, he was on my lap with their seatbelts for that purpose (I hadn't seen the movie Fearless at the point so was not paranoid!). When the seatbelt light was off, he just sat in the seat next to me, and his sister in the seat next to him. We were lucky as we were given a whole row to ourselves which meant the kids had some room to stretch out. Othertimes we had the bulkhead row, which meant the baby could sleep in the cardboard cot, my daughter could sleep on the floor and I stretched out in the seats.

These flights were on Aer Lingus.

Stella,
I used to fly from Singapore to Phoenix with my two from 6 months onwards and never once used a car seat.  First of all my 2 are boys and there was no way they would have ever just sat strapped in a car seat.  They were really really good on the plane but just needed that extra wiggle room the airplane seat provided them.  Also the thought of having to lug 2 car seats and 2 toddlers around airports was way beyond what I was willing to do.
Kathryn

Hi,
 I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I'm going to be faced with this situation soon.  My little man will be 27 months old when we fly and he is the most active little boy I have ever come across.  He never sleeps, is an extremely light sleeper when he does finally decide to sleep and he never stops running around.  This worries me.  We flew with him when he was 3 weeks old and it was great, he just slept.  On the way back he was 3 months and it was a nightmare.  He cried for over half the flight and it really got on everyone's nerves around us.  I guess my question is,  does anyone else have a child that is similar to mine that you have flown with?  I can pretty much keep him occupied for about an hour with his toys without him needing to get into other things and he doesn't like watching tv.  Any suggestions would be great.  Thanks

Jessica,

I'm not sure if you've done your traveling yet~ if so, I hope it was great!  My son is just like yours.  Very active.  Never stops.  Into everything.  He was 15 months at his first transatlantic flight and 2 1/2 (30 mos) at the most recent.  I'll be honest... flying with him is a total pain.  (It has gotten better as he's gotten used to flying, so there's some consolation)!!

Just prepare yourself for the worst, stay calm, and make friends with the flight attendants.  I've listed most of these in a previous post but what helps us is:
*daytime flights.  I can't stress how much more tolerant other passengers are of kids during the day than at night.
*lots of food.
*stickers.
*And letting him walk up and down the aisles (obviously without bothering people, being loud, or getting in the way of flight attendants).

On his first flight, which was overnight, he fidgeted for an hour, then fell asleep for 1 1/2, then cried off and on for 5 hours.  It was MISERABLE.  He couldn't get comfortable.  I ended up letting him sleep on the floor under the seats.     It makes me cringe now to think about it, but it's all that worked.

And don't forget that in the end, it's only a few hours out of your life.  You'll both make it!   

I totally agree with ukmom, staying calm is of utmost importance.  I also found that it was important to never ever let the children get overly excited and silly because once that happens it gets out of control very quickly and there is no going back.  We were on a flight once and my hubby was letting the boys run around a bit and he thought I was a real stick in the mud when I stopped it but he really never travelled long distances with the boys so didn't know.  At the end of the flight he said I was correct. Food it a good idea, not overly sugary though and I would also buy them a couple of new toys, and present them as presents throughout the trip when the boys started to get a bit bored.  These worked great as a bribe for good behavior.  Good luck.

Flight staff on Virgin and BA Amazing helped me every flight I have been on and the first time the boys came over my wife walked all the way to Boston with Oliver she just sat down for the take off and landing the flight staff took Oliver for a walk also and the older boys, Ell's helped collect the rubbish and hand out drinks and at the end of the flight they thanked them and made the boys feel really special.

American was not so good the flight attendent was not nice to this poor couple and their little girl my wife said she felt awful for them the lady was really not nice to them at all and asked them to keep the "child quiet as she was disturbing other passenagers" wife said they looked really upset but what do you do in a confind space when you have used all of your ideas up. errrrrrrrr get on with it and if you have good flight staff they are like gold dust.

We had an issue with our girl one time when she was almost 2.  We were on an American flight of course, and she was in a car seat so that put her way too close to the seat in front of her.  No one was assigned to that seat, but the lady in front of me wanted to lay down and "couldn't rest with my child kicking the seat".  She honestly was NOT kicking the seat, she was pushing against it because like all of us, she needed to stretch and the car seat put her within 2 inches of the seat ahead of her.  Also, diaper changes in the bathroom are a nightmare.  I got the smallest pull-ups I could find and stuck to that because they were easy to pull on.  But people really give you the evil eye everytime you have to get up with a little one to use the bathroom or if they even babble.  Yet a group of adults were next to my husband and they were laughing and carrying on like it was a pub in there.  No one says anything to them....  Toddlers are hard to predict and I do think there has to be a little give such as walking them and they should at least be allowed to talk!  Over all the flight attendants weren't great, but they didn't really listen to the lady in front of me since it wasn't her seat anyways.  Next time, I would love to try Virgin!  I hear they are great with kids.

I just took a round-trip BA flight with an almost 2-year-old and a 4.5-year-old.

F***ing nightmare! I think you have to just surrender to it all and have absolutely NO expections. We were lucky enough to get bulk head seats on the night flight, but the day flight (9 hours) back was absolutely horrendous.

Good luck to anyone who's flying w/little ones!

I have to say that both Virgin and BA, where amazing, Oliver was really poorly the flight my wife had with all of the boys by herself and the air stewards all helped her then they moved her to first class so she had more room, they offered to radio ahead for emergency services and helped her to passport control when she got to London.

BA where also great when we flew over to get married they moved us to world class for bigger seats all of us and then my Bum got so sore I was in pain and they moved us to first class so I could lie down and when we landed they gave us a card signed and a bottle of Champagne, the head flight attendent had over heard my wife talking to her friend and she came and talked to her and they insisted she had some sleep and wrapped her up in a blanket LOL and they kept looking in on me and if there where any problems with myself or the boys they let my wife know straight away.

They really went above and beyond, we could not say thankyou enough we really appreciated everything they did they where really kind and they kept Oliver amused for the flight till he went to sleep.

Over all our flights have been not to bad and Oliver for his age has been good he did cry and said he needed to get off now I think his ears hurt him on the take off and all the passenger sat with them took it in turns to play cards and stuff with all of the kids as well and at the end they all said how well behaved they all where.

There was one child who I would guess at about the age of 5 yrs and the whole way from Boston to London she screamed and shouted I need the toilet I want a poo, I want sweets ect I felt for the parents they looked really flustered and no where to take her, the flight attendants looked like they wanted to get off the plane by the end but they where really good they just kept asking if there was anything they could do and this little girl was really rude to them.

I do not know what future flights will be like but the ones so far have been really good.

Oh and BA the seats are bigger also so for anyone who has to have their child on their lap there is loads of room for 3 if that is the case, and leg room is good also.

Anyone used one of these CARES harness things for securing their toddler in an airplane seat? We'll be flying to Florida in December (Jean will be 19 months).

Anyone used one of these CARES harness things for securing their toddler in an airplane seat? We'll be flying to Florida in December (Jean will be 19 months).

I had to look that one up.  Wow, very cool!!  I've not used one before (Obviously )  But it does look really clever!!  I know some of the airlines have special seats for toddlers.  We had one for Josh last time we flew on Virgin.  It looked just like a car seat.  We just had to request it when we made our flight reservations.

Sorry I didn't actually answer your question, but if you have not bought this yet, it might be worth asking the airline you are flying if they have their own special seat or harness already.

We'd be flying BA, since Virgin doesn't fly to Tampa.  Hubby checked into it but we're considering all the options. Probably buying her a seat because I think we'd all be more comfortable that way.  Not bringing her car seat (taking coach to airport and they don't allow you to use them) so either something supplied by BA or possibly this CARES harness thing.

I considered it..... am flying in a few weeks with my 19month old and didn't want to take a carseat. I love the idea of it, but a few things in reviews I've read stood out. There's no crotch strap so the child can slide down (more importantly slump down when sleeping)  When they slide down the chest buckle apparently gets close to their neck (again, not so good when sleeping) and the shoulder straps end up around their ears.

I haven't ruled it out for future trips when she's older but for this one when I'm flying solo with 2 under 2, I want her pinned down and feeling comfortable so we're taking a carseat. could you put the carseat under the coach on the way to the airport? The Britax Prince is a reasonable price and can be fitted with a lap belt only.

OK, so we're doing this again in a couple of days. Last time we flew to California the munchkin was just about 6 months. Now she's nearly 18 months and hopefully she'll travel just as well as she did last time.

She is ticketed as a lap child, we're sitting on the bulkhead (in economy) and the seat in the middle is still free. When we flew last time (United as well) the cabin crew moved someone to allow us to have that extra seat so hopefully it will stay open...fingers crossed.

We have purchased loads of coloring books, washable markers, we even got a magna doodle so new toys to play with...and bar that we'll pop out the little telly and that will amuse her for hours. We've requested a special children's meal for her and if she doesn't like it we have loads of snacks (raisins, rice cakes etc) or she can have my vegetarian meal. I'm taking about 25 nappies for her for the day long travel (more than enough), 2 changes of clothes, I've got some Cal-Profen sachets (because she is still teething a bit) and her sippee cup. Just in case, we have 8 travel boxes of her 1+ milk and a bottle. Oh and her favorite blanket & Iggle Piggle.

Am I forgetting anything?

Am I forgetting anything?

Your sanity. 

Sounds pretty good otherwise.  We brought 2 sippee cups of water on the plane with us plus an empty one to put juice / milk into for DD.  If there're any ready meals that she'll eat or fruit pots / pouches (like Ella's Kitchen fruit pouches etc) you may want to throw 1 or 2 in your bag.  I really recommend the pouches as they can eat them on their own and very little mess.

The plus side of our recent trip to the states has increased DD's cow milk intake and got her off bottles.  Now she wants a cup with a straw instead.