Transatlantic with 10 month old- is it worth buying her her own seat? Experiences very welcome

[CharlieBoo]

We are yet to book our flights next month to Florida, they have been coming down in price so keeping close eye on them. The other reason is we really don't know whether to buy a seat for dd who will be 10 months then. Some people say yes worth weight in gold, others say waste of money. There will be mysf, dp and ds as well as baby dd. Any advice welcome, we need to book them quick xx

If you can afford it I would book a seat

My child was too big for a bassinet at 10 mths and so was stuck on me the whole time

Some airlines have bassinet seat things instead of bassinet boxes - check what your options are

Yes, book a seat and take the car seat (you have to anyway, so check the seat sizes and call the airline). It'll be a lot easier to cope with DS if you have DD in her own seat.

Have a lovely holiday.

I wouldn't bother. Had DD (3) in seat and DS (23 months) in lap to California, and it was fine. Ask yourself if it's worth the cost of a child fare.

Would seriously not bother.

Unless she is an extremely placid child, I cannot see her sitting still in her own seat.

In my experience, it's worth getting to the airport early, being at the front of the check-in queue and requesting/demanding (!) the bulkhead seats. She can sit on your knee, toddle around in front of you, or lie across you and DH to sleep.

A thousand times yes to the own seat. Worth every single penny and more. Some airlines let you take a car seat onto the plane which you can put into their seat so that they can sleep. Works brilliantly. Virgin don't let you do this (although the do provide their own toddler seat, which I didn't find to be as good).

Oh Lordy I knew this would happen! Lol. With the car seat option did you buy a special one or did your normal seat do? My reservation is we would have to carry it which with ds and dd and lots of hand luggage might be a nightmare, but on plus side will save us hiring a car seat for her which last time was 12 dollars a day. The flight is with thomson and they don't do sky cots and no guaruntee we will get bulkhead. Dd is at the wriggly, bum shuffly stage but on the whole is very good. The car seat would be great when she wants to sleep.... Oh I still don't know haha, thanks for replies so far. Xx

Charlie, we used our Britax first class on BA. We carried it as there were four adults but I thought what you could do is get one of those collapsible trolley thingies to wheel it around (we've got one and the car seat went on it okay, just didn't need it in the end). Our DS3 is a nightmare on planes and it was really the only option for us - he was familiar with his seat and slept for a good part of the flight, thankfully. Not sure he would have done so on my or his daddy's lap and it would have been impossible to cut up DS1 and DS2's food and supervise their dinner and film-viewing otherwise. I think if you did it, you'd then know if it was a waste and not bother in future but if you didn't, you might end up weeping half way through the flight. Not a good start to a holiday! I'd say it's worth it on balance, assuming the seats aren't really expensive. 12 dollars a day is 168 dollars for a fortnight so you'd be saving that.

Thank you for replies, they have been so helpful. Thank you Ilovegregoryhouse, I think your post summed it up really, play safe and get the seat, I could be pulling my hair out midflight. Right, can I now please ask which seat you used and was it easy to set up once on board? I rang thomson n mine is too big by 2" which is a buggar but we might get second hand seat. They also said we would have to set up once on board. Thanks again

It's tricky as most car seat dimensions seem too big for the plane seats. Our Britax First Class was fine, despite being "too big" but I think you get more slimline ones - Amazon show exact dimensions of seats and you can check on the manufacturer's websites too. No problem to get the seat on the plane seat although not sure how exactly - DH did it in a minute or so.

Good luck on the hunt. There's a big hoo-ha in the US about proper seats for kids on planes, if you google, you might find some interesting info.

unless the airline insist on you taking a car seat on board don't - it is a huge hassle

mine slept much better on a pillow instead of in the car seat