To thnk that airlines should not allow lap babies on flights?

If you are getting on a plane, sometimes you have to buy a small carseat that is easier to travel with. I don’t understand why people are acting like this is new or difficult.

strap baby in during takeoff, landing, and turbulence. Take them out as needed during calm periods of the flight.

I flew in Central America as a child in the 70s.

One of the passengers was holding a live chicken as he boarded the flight, which he held in his lap the entire flight (no extending restraint/lap-belt for the chicken lol!)

There also appeared to be more passengers than seats, as there were people standing up for take-off and landing.

Maybe they should store them in the overhead locker?

Car seats have got bigger and are attached in more advanced ways now, instead if seatbelts.

So ironically... not as easy to attach to a plane seat with a lap belt. We deliberately chose a Britax seat 14 years ago as it could ve used on a plane, but wasn't isofix for example.

Rowlocks....and I say that as someone who has worked with a few air crash survivors, including someone who was one of the cabin crew at Kegworth and ended up suspended upside down by his seatbelt in the wreckage.

But if you are planning on being fatalistic please book a window seat away from an exit.

We put 10 month DS in a car seat 18 years ago. Do people not do that anymore?

@FairKoala

This idea that child seats must end up flying around on turbulence is nonsense and I'm not sure why it keeps being claimed.

What happens is dead straightforward:

Get on aircraft with an approved seat (and infant).

Thread aircraft seat belt through structure of car seat (if seat hasn't got suitable structure then chances are it's not an approved design and you'll get a ..from the cabin crew..and handed an infant lap belt)

Buckle up the aircraft bely and really tighten it - cabin crew often assist and also remember (?) unlike a car seat there's no inertia reel to slacken things off...it should stay tight the whole flight.

Insert infant, buckle them in, buckle yourself in and go flying.

When working I must have flown hundreds of thousands of miles on flights with some kids onboard in car seats, through turbulence at times, and I never once saw or heard of a car seat or infant coming adrift, lose, or ending up on their heads.

People are imagining a problem that doesn't really exist.

Most people don't bother, because that means paying for another seat when they can just be on your lap for free

If only......

In the OP's situation she still would have been sitting next to the baby! Just in the middle seat with the baby in the aisle seat instead of vice versa.

Why at a reduced cost? It takes the same space.

Just restrained for take off and landing, not the whole flight.

Babe, if the plane crashes it doesn't matter a fuck where or on what you, the baby or the pilot is sitting.

You think a baby sat in a plane seat is safer thah on their parents lap?
If you think anyone is surviving a plane crash because of that little seat belt, you're nuts.

Send them freight, it's cheaper and you get a nice first week on holiday without them there

It’s more of an American thing. Many car seats there are airline approved and tested. I used to have an FAA approved toddler car seat with a specific airline belt routing path and instructions. It’s also common for infant carriers to be fitted only using the lap part of the belt as opposed to the ‘European belt routing’ so they can easily be fitted on a plane too. Whereas there are currently no CAA approved toddler seats on sale in the UK so it just isn’t a thing here.

Interestingly on the point about the safety of lap infants it’s widely accepted that it’s dangerous. The FAA had banning them on a wanted list of safety improvements for decades but never went ahead with the changes because they reasoned that if forced to pay for the extra seat many families would opt to drive instead and because air travel is so much safer than car travel it would likely cause more kids to be hurt in car accidents. I know that’s US specific but still interesting nevertheless.

How do you fit a car seat on a plane seat. How can you get the car seat on the place given you can only take a bag that fits a certain size

Also aren’t car seats going to be incredibly dangerous if because they aren’t designed for airplane seat belts they become loose and end up with turbulence lifting off the seat with baby in them and ending up who knows what position.

could you imagine the queue to take your seat if there are mums and dads trying to attach a car seat to a plane seat.

Even in cars you can travel with a child on your knee. Without the seat belt going around them

Why didn’t they book one then?

I remember the first flight we took withDD (now 12). She was tiny, so appeared to be a small toddler, although was 2.5 (they visually thought she was about 16 months until they checked her passport)The pilot was asked to make the decision about whether she was safer on a lap for take off/landing or in her own seat. It clarified... its based only on age, not actual size so yes the tiny toddler had to sit alone, but the massive 21 mo in the row behind had to sit on his parents lap. She was gone a baby life jacket however.

I'm surprised that airlines haven't designed a proper baby seat yet, similar to a car seat.

This.

You could have read your book in any seat and an aisle seat would be easier for a parent with a baby

Or pack them in their suitcases

Where are they meant to go if not on
lap

Parents with infants should seat in the window seat... If there's an emergency, you don't want them between you and your exit.

You can get headphones for small children.

It isn’t safe. It’s that it is safer than road transportation so babies lives are put at risk because people can’t be trusted to make smart decisions.

I still think it should be banned. It is an imposition on adjacent passengers. Babies can also become projectiles. Most regions don’t use any sort of tether and even if they do it doesn’t protect the baby during turbulence, it just makes sure the baby stays in the crush zone of the parents body.

people should be buying a seat and using a car seat on the plane. If that is too expensive, they can’t afford the travel.