Has anyone booked a seat for a one year old on a flight?

[bluebear24564]

We are probably going to be flying with Etihad. DD will almost be 2 and I really don't want her on our lap for 7 hours. Has anyone booked a seat for their DC under the age of two. How did you go about it? I have read we may need something called a CARES harness. Does anyone know where to get one from?
I rang Etihad today and the lady didn't have a clue and didn't seem to understand me about a harness.

Yes I always did it for mine when they were under two.
They will insist she sits on your lap for take off and landing but otherwise no problem. They give you a special seatbelt to strap the child to your belt while taking off - perhaps that's the CARES harness?

Thank you @MyFriendFlicker did you carry on their car seat? Etihad have said I can check in either a push chair or car seat for free. I will have to check in the push chair. So She said she thinks I could carry on the car seat but she didn't seem 100%.

We flew with Air Mauritius with our 17month old. I was a bit concerned because the paperwork showed an incorrect DOB but I think that was how the agent had to file in booking to get a seat. Was all fine.
On different occasion we used a Britax Römer Eclipse Seat onboard with BA/EasyJet and were able to use that in the economy seating. Took a bit of persuading to the gate staff though and we had to display the “aircraft approved” tag.
I think (not sure as we didn’t do this) if you don’t have a compatible seat then they probably take them at the airplane door like they would with buggies?

I have. In my experience, you still need the child on your lap for take off and landing, but otherwise they can have their own seat. I used my bucket infant car seat (even when my child had outgrown it for car safely) as it was useful to be able to strap them in securely while I was eating, or to let them sleep without needing to lie across my legs. I have a blood clotting issue so risk of DVT is very high and I couldn't allow a child sleep piled up on me. But you don't need the car seat and if the one you have doesn't fit, just use the regular seat

For turbulence or other times the seatbelt sign is on, the practice is inconsistent. Sometimes the staff would ask for the child to be belted in on my lap, other times they were happy to let them stay in the car seat.

For some airlines, the online booking doesn't allow you select a separate seat for a child under two. For the one I used regularly, they told me to put a fake year of birth to make the child two when booking online, then telephone their offices to change it to the correct one at no cost. But others allow you choose between lap and own seat on their online booking for infants.

When ours were that age we always booked seats for them. Like others have said she’ll need to be on your lap for take off & landing with a seat belt extension loop thing. They’ll give this to you on boarding. We once took our car seat on a BA flight. They had a list of approved seats. Etihad may have a list under their ‘travelling with children’ Section. She was 15 months and whilst it was fab whilst she slept it was a bit of a pain when awake as she wanted to walk and faff and understandably not sit in a rather restraining car seat for the whole flight (it was to Oz!!) Take a selection of new toys but only introduce one at a time and save some for way back. Enjoy!!

If the car seat isn’t approved it’ll have be checked in with the buggy. Ours was a jane matrix and was allowed. I think we’ve also taken in a maxi cosi with emirates. But not 100% sure. I do remember that finding out the approved seats was very tricky!! But I’m going back about 13 years or so!!

Thanks everyone! Still not managed to book it yet. Can you remember how you booked it? We tried to book it online ourselves but it wouldn't let us due to DD DOB. When ringing up though they are quoting us £100 more and said they could not give us the online price. It seems unfair that we may end up paying more than if DD was 2.
DH is now saying let's not book her a seat and hope for the best

When we booked a seat for our 18 month old on Ryanair, we had to purchase three adult tickets and enter our child's name as "Infant" (first name) "Comfort" (last name). Then they emailed us the tickets, asked us to call them, amended her name and re-sent us the tickets. Bit of a faff but that is how they were able to process it!

Usually you'll need an airline approved car seat or the CARES harness if you want them to sit on their own seat. This should be in the airline's terms and conditions, though.

If your car seat is a European one then the airline approval is a TUV sticker - quite a few first stage (baby) seats have this, but the only toddler one I know of which has it is the Britax Eclipse - there may be a couple of others. It needs to be fittable with a lap belt, which not many car seats are.

I don't know about the date of birth trick - perhaps it does work? May depend on the customer service agent you get on the day, maybe try again.

I do know quite a few people who have flown with a lap child under 2 though and it was OK.

So you will have to pay the adult ticket price for your child, which makes sense given that they will have their own seat.