We're going to be flying from San Diego to Omaha next month (and then driving another 5 hours to South Dakota - ugh!) and I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to buy a plane ticket for Jackson.

He's 16 months old now and of course very mobile. The flights have a one-hour layover and the longest leg on each flight is about 3 hours (the other leg is about 2 hours). Are we nuts to think we can just hold him on our laps during the flights? It's a difference of about $130 or so if we get him a seat (his would be about 1/2 of our ticket prices).

What should I do? I need to figure this out asap so I can get our flights booked. TIA! :)

Hmn...my first question is this....when you are in the car, does he usually fall asleep??? Aidan does. That is why when we went to CA when he was 12 months, we got him a seat. And he slept the entire ride there and back. HEAVEN. Well worth the $, IMO.

I wouldn't. I've flown with Katie several times, and at several different ages (including around 16 months) and it was fine every time. Actually, most of the times we've flown, there has been an empty seat beside me that she could sit in. When we flew to CA in October (when she was 16 months), I upgraded us to first class so we'd have more room, and there ended up being an empty first class seat next to me for her to use. :lol: We just seat-belted her in (which is safe because it's only a lap belt) and it was fine. But she would have done fine on my lap as well, I just wouldn't have been able to read the paper. :) If you bring along snacks, and maybe some of his favorite books and small toys, I'm guessing it will be fine. If he's anything like Katie, he'll want to be on your lap a lot of the time, anyway.

Are you flying with your DH? Because you can always trade off baby wrangling duties if you are. When I flew with Katie at 16 months, it was just she and I, and we were still fine. We're flying to CA again at the end of this month (she and I, not DH), and she'll be almost 23 months, and I'm not getting her a seat this time, either.

I'd definitely buy the ticket. Even if you end up holding him most of the time it's really nice to have the extra space. You might get lucky and have an extra seat anyway like Anne said, but I wouldn't want to risk being stuck on a full flight. If it was going to cost a lot more, then I could see taking the chance, but for only $130 it's a no-brainer IMO.

Dennis

i'd buy the seat. for me it's a safety issue.

i took tony to florida (3hrs) and he slept much of the way in his carseat. as far as tony was concerned, he was in the car, so there's no option to even get out of the carseat is there? :lol:

while awake i plied him snacks and toys and he was great.

I would definately buy a seat for Jackson. We are flying, with Peyton, for the first time in May and are going to buy her a seat. I figure that since she'll be in her carseat threre will be less of a temptation to want to get down and run around.

Thanks for your advice, everyone! I ended up buying Jackson a seat, just for peace of mind. He's just so squirmy that I know it would be a nightmare trying to keep him in our laps, even if we alternated. Hopefully he'll sleep for part of the trip. :crossfing (He occasionally falls asleep in the car, so I'm optimistic.)

Also, I feel better having our Marathon with us and not thrown around in the cargo hold.

We are debating about this for Courtney. We are flying to New York in September, Courtney will be just 12 months. I want to get the seat, but dh doesn't. She does really well in her car seat now. And like Nichole said, I don't really want my car seat thrown around under the plane. I was thinking if they say to replace a car seat after even a slight fender bender because you can't see internal damage, what will bagage handlers do to it?

We are flying to Florida in May and after a lot of thought we ended up buying Nicholas his own seat (he'll be almost 18 months old). We are going to use a Sit N Stroll for him so we don't have to lug a heavy car seat with us.