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Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Old Sep 13th 2013, 2:51 pm
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Smile Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Hi everyone. These will be our first flights from the USA-UK with one connection in December. Did you buy a seat allocation for your child of 9 months? Did you bring your baby car seat and use that? Did you just hold your baby?
We need to weigh up what is safe v what the airlines allow v cost

Thanks in advance
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Old Sep 13th 2013, 3:00 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by savannah_boy
Hi everyone. These will be our first flights from the USA-UK with one connection in December. Did you buy a seat allocation for your child of 9 months? Did you bring your baby car seat and use that? Did you just hold your baby?
We need to weigh up what is safe v what the airlines allow v cost

Thanks in advance
We did not use our car seat in the plane and our son did not have his own seat. We did however get a seat with a bassinet/cot (I phoned up the airline when booking the tickets to ensure I got this). At 9 months our boy still fitted (just).

However, now (he is nearly 2) we have found it is much more pleasant for him to have his own seat.

EDIT: I posted a thread about flying with a 6 month old a while back. It has some good information in it
Transatlantic flight with a baby

Last edited by Bink; Sep 13th 2013 at 3:02 pm.
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Old Sep 14th 2013, 12:12 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

I took full advantage of the free fare until two. It depends where you're flying from also. I found my babies slept most of the way east coast to London.
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Old Sep 14th 2013, 2:00 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by savannah_boy
Hi everyone. These will be our first flights from the USA-UK with one connection in December. Did you buy a seat allocation for your child of 9 months? Did you bring your baby car seat and use that? Did you just hold your baby?
We need to weigh up what is safe v what the airlines allow v cost

Thanks in advance
We used the skycot until they got to big. This last flight (BA) they gave us a carseat thing that attached to the skycot anchor points. That was great for our toddler.
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Old Sep 14th 2013, 2:48 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by savannah_boy
Hi everyone. These will be our first flights from the USA-UK with one connection in December. Did you buy a seat allocation for your child of 9 months? Did you bring your baby car seat and use that? Did you just hold your baby?
We need to weigh up what is safe v what the airlines allow v cost

Thanks in advance
We flew when my youngest was 10 months and we bought a seat for her and she sat in her car seat. We knew we needed the car seat when we arrived the other side so this killed two birds with one stone. I can't imagine having to hold her all the way on a trans Atlantic. The bassinet seats aren't always available so it's a bit of a lottery if you get these, even if you request. Added bonus you get your child's baggage allowance if you buy them a seat.
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Old Sep 14th 2013, 8:54 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Depends on how you feel about the lap. For a long flight I usually buy the extra seat and just used the car seat that fits in the stroller,. If money is an issue I am sure you can manage, I did on shorter term flights within the US but if the jerk in front wants to be a jerk pull the seat all the way back all the way even though they know you have a child on your lap, and make a scene if you cannot get out the seat and also complain about babies on board, that has happened to us, you will be very tight so, may want to consider an extra seat. Quite often they end up on your lap being so young anyway.
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Old Sep 15th 2013, 12:50 am
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

We have a foldable seat that we use on planes. Fits in the overhead bins (the large ones) when not in use. We used it when eating and whatnot but put it away during our flight. Note however most UK car seats are illegal in US autos and vice versa.
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Old Sep 15th 2013, 1:08 am
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Bear in mind that if your car seat says it is supposed to be rear facing for a child of that age (which it should), you must install it rear facing on the plane as well. It's VERY important for kids under 2 to be rear facing.

Some flight attendants think that the seat has to be forward facing. This is not true. It's a misunderstanding of a regulation saying that the PLANE seat that the child is in must face forward. The car seat in the plane seat must face whichever way the manufacturer states for a user of the child's age and size.
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Old Sep 15th 2013, 1:12 am
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by avanutria
Bear in mind that if your car seat says it is supposed to be rear facing for a child of that age (which it should), you must install it rear facing on the plane as well. It's VERY important for kids under 2 to be rear facing.

Some flight attendants think that the seat has to be forward facing. This is not true. It's a misunderstanding of a regulation saying that the PLANE seat that the child is in must face forward. The car seat in the plane seat must face whichever way the manufacturer states for a user of the child's age and size.
who wants their child rear facing in a plane? Depends US law may be different as I have realized with the car seat issue recently! Up in the sky it is probably your own law.
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Old Sep 15th 2013, 9:38 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by avanutria
Bear in mind that if your car seat says it is supposed to be rear facing for a child of that age (which it should), you must install it rear facing on the plane as well. It's VERY important for kids under 2 to be rear facing.

Some flight attendants think that the seat has to be forward facing. This is not true. It's a misunderstanding of a regulation saying that the PLANE seat that the child is in must face forward. The car seat in the plane seat must face whichever way the manufacturer states for a user of the child's age and size.
The last BA flight I was on out of SAN nearly didn't leave because the captain wouldn't let the parents have the car seat rear facing. There was a huge standoff that went on forever. Airline won.
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Old Sep 16th 2013, 7:57 am
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

We flew to Europe twice using the bassinet position rather than a seat, once at 7 months and again at 18 months, both times with BA. When booking, we did so over the phone and made sure that the appropriate seats were available and reserved for us at the time of booking. Both times we flew business class (using miles, of course ), but the procedure is the same regardless of cabin (we did some pre-reading on Flyertalk before booking).

The first trip we used the actual bassinet:


The second time the seat that BA supplies for bigger babies:


Those are publicly-available images from Google. They aren't of our kid, nor are they business class!
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Old Sep 16th 2013, 11:55 am
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by tonrob

Those are publicly-available images from Google. They aren't of our kid, nor are they business class!
I was about to say - those aren't club world seats!!
The interesting thing to note about the photo for me is that the tv monitor is up - in a lot of planes (I don't know which ones off the top of my head) you can't put the screen up once the bassinet is up... Thus when you finally get your child to sleep (our son is far to excited to want to sleep on a plane) you can't watch any films...
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Old Sep 16th 2013, 2:48 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

Originally Posted by savannah_boy
Hi everyone. These will be our first flights from the USA-UK with one connection in December. Did you buy a seat allocation for your child of 9 months? Did you bring your baby car seat and use that? Did you just hold your baby?
We need to weigh up what is safe v what the airlines allow v cost

Thanks in advance
When I flew with a 3 month old we did not buy him a seat, and we did not bring a carseat. We weren't give a seat with a bassinet so we held him all the way. It is possible but not comfortable. A baby carrier helps if you're travelling this way and also forgetting any idea of actually eating a meal. Still, as a parent you're probably used to that :-)
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Old Sep 16th 2013, 6:07 pm
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Default Re: Baby seat or not for 9month old travelling from USA to UK

My daughter was 8-9 months old when we flew over. We didn't buy an extra seat, just told the airline we needed the child spot. We got pretty much the thing in the second picture above, with BA. Be warned that you may have to walk them up and down the aisle a few times (mine was walking with help at that age and would have crawled on the disgusting floor if I hadn't helped her walk)
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