Flying to Oz with 2 year old - to pay for her seat or not?

[cat2607]

Hi

We are planning flights to Oz in Jan and daughter will be just under 2, she's a pretty patient child and can sit still for chunks of time with a toy. Whats your advice on paying for her own seat or not? We are looking at cheaper airlines like Air China and we are intending she sleeps on our laps? Child seats are 80% roughly of adult seat prices at around £700.

Advice welcomed, thanks

If you can afford the seat then definitely get it. Really long long haul with child on your lap for that length of time. Plus the difficulty of mangaging space when the tray tables are down.

If you cn afford it, pay. You need to sleep as well.

I thought you had to pay once the child is two? We took my son at he turned 2 over there. It's a long way to have a child on your lap and you won't get any sleep, and she may want to nap in her seat when you want to be awake. And then you have to juggle meals etc.

I remember building all sorts of tents with sarongs (I think I took clothes pegs too for this). On the way back we had a double night flight which was tricky as they slept the first part, but it was night again for the second.

Have a break between flights if you can. We were going to change flights and go straight back on, but the first flight was delayed so we missed our connecting flight. Ended up in a lounge for 4 hours in Hong Kong, which turned out to be great.

Def get her a seat.

Cheaper does not always mean cheerful (not that any flight to Australia is a barrel of fun anyway due to the sheer numbers of hours you are in the air).

I would pay for a seat for your DD; not doing so would be a false economy on your part due to reasons stated like eating meals and going to the toilet. She may well not take to sleeping soundly on your lap either.

Hi, thanks all. She would be just under 2 when we were looking to go in Jan 2013. But having thought about it, its probably best to get a seat. Cheers

We are going in 2 wks time with our super tall & v active 18 month old. We decided to save cash & not get her a seat but I'm starting to get really nervous now. I can let you know in a few weeks how awful it was!

It's not just the sleeping part, you need the space. It is quite common for every single economy seat to be taken and people WILL put their seats back to sleep. Don't ever think that people wouldn't be so unreasonable if you have a baby on your lap - I had a screaming row with a woman once who insisted she had a right to put her seat back on an hour long flight; she jerked it full back without checking and nearly decapitated DS2. She flatly refused to put it upright again and the cabin crew wouldn't help.

There is very little space between you and the seat in front unless you have the bulkhead (and priority will be given to people with babies small enought for the bassinets). Once upon a time I thought anyone flying business class or first clearly had more money than sense, since moving to Oz I'd sell my granny for the chance

Glad you decided to get her a seat, it really is the best option at that age/size. Also, you say she's just under 2 - will she turn 2 while in Oz? because if so, you won't get the option anyway, you'll get a seat because she'll be over 2 when she returns.

When we emigrated, DS was 20m, we got him a seat (by accident because of booking a return ticket, purely on the principle that it's cheaper buying tickets in the UK than Australia, but because we long-dated the return, he would have been over 2 by the time we came back) - and it was far better. He sat between DH and I, we lifted up the seat arms and he stretched out across his seat and us and slept most of the way. Bulkhead seats are then a PITA for this because you can't lift the arms, as the screens come out of them; so actually sitting away from the bulkhead is better IMO.