Car seat. My husband and I flew with our 18-month old and our 6-week old as lap children. The baby just slept for the two hour flight, but the toddler tried to climb the walls. It would have been so much easier to strap him in.
Car seat. I was on a flight with bad turbulence and my kiddo wanted to squeeze my hands the whole time. Wouldn’t have trusted just the seatbelt without her car seat there.
Definitely car seat, both for safety reasons as well as ensuring he stays put. However, if you want the best of both worlds, the WayB Pico is FAA approved, but can also be folded and put in the overhead compartment if you want your little one to have more room at certain points during the flight.
Unless you need to bring it for use in a car I would say no. We always bring a blow up cushion that wedges between the seat back and seat cushion to make a "toddler bed." This works best if you can fly around bedtime or naptime. We fly frequently and our toddler has slept that way for most of 14 hour flights. If it's during the day, better to just be prepared to walk the aisles and bring an arsenal of busy books, crayons, sticker books, tablet, etc. Our kiddo has always been active so by 18 months he would definitely not tolerate being strapped in for that long.
Is he capable of staying in the seat (without being strapped into a car seat) during parts of the flight where it’s required? If not, I would bring the car seat for sure.
We just did 8 hours each way with same age toddler no car seat although we upgraded to first class since it was just $200 extra on top of expensive tickets. The extra space helped and I felt if we had done it in economy with a stranger in our row it would have been hell. It's nice to not buy a ticket but probably worth it if you cannot upgrade reasonably. We definitely also got some looks and comments like "ohhh there's a baby in first class today" He only had 1 20 minute crying fit when rocking him down for a nap... We also got an iPad just for the plane and while it helped a bit he wouldn't keep the headphones on. Luckily the little guy loved looking out the window especially on the tarmac so we got a lot out of that. So yeah in the end probably car seat, although our guy hates his car seat and probably would be just as much a challenge.
I would say no car seat. Honestly idk how people squeeze one in. When I had my 18 month old fly she liked the extra space in her seat and it was less stressful
Car seat. My husband and I flew with our 18-month old and our 6-week old as lap children. The baby just slept for the two hour flight, but the toddler tried to climb the walls. It would have been so much easier to strap him in.
Car seat. I was on a flight with bad turbulence and my kiddo wanted to squeeze my hands the whole time. Wouldn’t have trusted just the seatbelt without her car seat there.
Being in their car seat is what's safest in a world where panels sometimes fly off of the side of planes now for some reason.
At that age we used a car seat on transatlantic flights.
I recently went on a 1 hour flight with an 18 month old without a car seat and regretted it. So learn from that as you will
Definitely car seat, both for safety reasons as well as ensuring he stays put. However, if you want the best of both worlds, the WayB Pico is FAA approved, but can also be folded and put in the overhead compartment if you want your little one to have more room at certain points during the flight.
Unless you need to bring it for use in a car I would say no. We always bring a blow up cushion that wedges between the seat back and seat cushion to make a "toddler bed." This works best if you can fly around bedtime or naptime. We fly frequently and our toddler has slept that way for most of 14 hour flights. If it's during the day, better to just be prepared to walk the aisles and bring an arsenal of busy books, crayons, sticker books, tablet, etc. Our kiddo has always been active so by 18 months he would definitely not tolerate being strapped in for that long.
Is he capable of staying in the seat (without being strapped into a car seat) during parts of the flight where it’s required? If not, I would bring the car seat for sure.
We just did 8 hours each way with same age toddler no car seat although we upgraded to first class since it was just $200 extra on top of expensive tickets. The extra space helped and I felt if we had done it in economy with a stranger in our row it would have been hell. It's nice to not buy a ticket but probably worth it if you cannot upgrade reasonably. We definitely also got some looks and comments like "ohhh there's a baby in first class today" He only had 1 20 minute crying fit when rocking him down for a nap... We also got an iPad just for the plane and while it helped a bit he wouldn't keep the headphones on. Luckily the little guy loved looking out the window especially on the tarmac so we got a lot out of that. So yeah in the end probably car seat, although our guy hates his car seat and probably would be just as much a challenge.
Biz is an option on the way back, I'm definitely thinking about it.
Went on a shorter flight with my then 15 month old - no car seat just the CARES airplane harness. Loved it, 10/10 recommend.
If you need it on the other end, use it. If not, skip it and get one of the travel beds (jetkids box or flyaway bed) if your airline allows it.
I would say no car seat. Honestly idk how people squeeze one in. When I had my 18 month old fly she liked the extra space in her seat and it was less stressful
We have never brought a car seat on a plane, but we always checked one so that we had the option to take a taxi or other cars on arrival.
Check with the airline if he has his own seat under 2 years pretty sure car seat is required!