Baby car seat on plane or not?

[xandsch]

Hi all
We have booked two short haul flights within Europe in the next couple of months and did not choose to buy an extra seat for 8 month old DS. In retrospect we are wondering whether we should have for DS safety.
Have you bought extra seats in the past and strapped baby in a car seat or do you tend to go with them on your lap?
Really starting to doubt our decision.. 

How many topics are you going to post this ridiculous question in?!

You won't need one, baby will be fine on your lap!

Never! Short haul at that age, just have them on your lap.

Baby on lap

How do you think the child will be safer in its own seat? It's a plane, not a car.

We paid for the extra seat and took his car seat on board so we didn’t have to wait at baggage. It was the most stressful experience of my life. The belt buckle got stuck on the bottom of the seat and the seat had to be cut to get it off, after nearly an hour of wiggling it! And nearly every member of canon crew told us he would be sat on our lap and his seat checked in, despite his boarding pass having his own seat number.

Don’t do it!

For safety?

Baby will be fine lap strapped to you in turbulence which is the only risk you can do anything about.

I'm paying for a seat for our 4 month old but we're going on a 9 hour flight and don't want to be juggling the entire time. I wouldn't pay for a short haul flight though.