travelling solo to hong kong with 14mo - car seat?

[kt09]

i'm travelling to hong kong in january with my daughter, who will be 14 months.

i am trying to figure out what the best seating arrangement would be. it's mainly a night flight and it looks like we will be able to have two seats as my husband's company will pay for ticket.

should i bring her car seat for her to sleep in? i think she'll still fit into her maxi cosi cabrio fix, which also fits into my pram. or do you think she'll still fit into the bassinet? (seem to remember this was a tight fit at 10 months), also wondering if the car seat will be a bit bulky and get in the way when she's awake.

not sure which airline yet but probably lufthansa, ba or klm. any thoughts on which is most baby friendly?

it's my first flight with her alone and feeling a tad apprehensive as she's definitely not a placid baby. grateful your thoughts

Both my DC have travelled well at that age in a car seat. They are used to being strapped into it, so it's a bit of familiarity for them.

When DD was about 22 months (so a bit older) we had to change planes in Amsterdam and our car seat got sent out to the baggage collection instead of given to us. Which meant that DD flew to Singapore just in a seat. It was a nightmare, she wouldn't sit still, she wouldn't have the seatbelt on, when she fell asleep I had to stay away as she rolled off the seat in her sleep. The journey back was much easier with her in her car seat.

When DS was little we did the same journey a few times, always in his car seat. One of the flights had a lot of turbulance and all the children in the bassinets had to be picked up and strapped to their parents' laps. They screamed, but DS just slept through undisturbed.

Lufthansa and KLM are both OK, avoid BA IME.

I had to stay 'awake' not 'away'.

thanks for your advice. am definitely leaning toward taking car seat. dd generally sleeps pretty well in it and i can clip it to my pram, which should mean we can avoid it going into the baggage collection when we change.

The best thing about car seats is the take-off and landing. If you have a non-placid baby (both of mine were too) then there's an awful lot of restraining to be done when they're strapped to your lap. We had to do it for short-haul as the seats in small planes won't take car seats. They will try to undo the lap belt, kick, wriggle, hit and scream. In a car seat the worst your DD can do is scream, and you at least have the freedom of movement to offer toys/treats to amuse her.

thanks. just wondering - do car seats fit all plane seats? or is it still best to try and book the bulkhead seats that would fit the bassinet.

just found out that all the bassinet seats are full on the flight i was thinking of getting so would have to get regular seats.

They generally do fit all seats on long-haul planes, but because the carseat positions the child a bit further forward it's a bit of a tight fit on their legs when the seat in front is reclined. Check with the airlines that their seats will take a car seat (just in case they have narrow seats for some reason) and go for one with as big as possible seat pitch.

Check out Seat Guru for pitch comparisons.

If the airline has an economy plus category it might be worth paying the extra for a bit more space. On BA it's called world traveller plus, on KLM it's economy comfort. I'm not sure whether Lufthansa offer it or not.