Just Press Go Travel

We’ve now been to 19 states, 7 National Parks, 5 Disney trips, I don’t know how many flights, and a good number of road trips with my almost 2 year old. Below are my tips for getting through a flight with a baby or toddler.

Note: Up until now, we’ve only flown with one child. We’re due with number 2 this spring, so I will update as time goes on with flying with more than one.

Should I get my child their own seat?

• Totally up to you and probably depends on you and your kid(s).
• Airlines allow children under 2 to fly as lap children, which would not require paying the full price of a ticket. I stay away from saying they are free as there may be some type of taxes or fees depending on your airline.
• We always fly Southwest, which has open seating and offers family boarding between the A and B boarding groups. For our first year plus, we did not purchase a seat for my son but we always brought our car seat through the airport with us. Here’s why: You can go up to the gate agent and politely ask if it is a full flight. If it is not a full flight, you can ask the gate agent for permission to take your car seat on for your child, essentially getting them a free seat. THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE AND IS ALSO AT THE DISCRETION OF THE GATE AGENT. I would say by the time we started buying my son a seat, we were about 50/50 on whether we could bring the car seat on for free. For the flights that we could not, we gate checked his car seat in the bag.
• For the flights we were able to use the car seat, it was as if he had his own ticket and everything was great. For the flights we couldn’t, he had to sit in a lap. At this age, the flights were bearable. We could feed him, show him some books/toys, or even get a contact nap. But be prepared for a lot of squirming, reaching, and apologizing to seat neighbors.
• Once my son could walk around 14 months, he became hard to handle on flights. He just wanted to move and groove too much. My husband and I were constantly playing pass the kid, which got to be a lot and was not by any means relaxing for either of us. I would say once he was 16 months old we were buying him a ticket every flight, especially because most of those flights were more than 2 hours.
• I always promote Safe in the Seat – they have a course called “Wheels Up” that you can purchase to help prepare you for your flight with kids, especially in car seats. Taking car seats on planes/with you as you travel is a personal choice, but I’ve found that it works best for my family.
• I should add – my son does not mind car seats, so that probably also has helped make this easy for us. He knows when we are on planes that he goes in his car seat. He is content (for the most part), and if we are lucky, he even takes a nap.

Where on the plane should I sit?

• If you are flying with a car seat, your child will always need to be a window seat. 
• If you are flying with multiple car seats, you can either have the car seats in the window and middle, or you may need to split up to two rows so that kids are in the window seat. This will depend on your airplane, airline, and flight attendants you encounter that may or may not be knowledgeable on this.
• If you are flying anything other than Southwest – you’ll clearly have your assigned seats. 
• If you are flying Southwest – ask the flight attendant which bathrooms have the changing table. If it’s only the bathroom at the back of the plane, I recommend sitting in the back. Other reasons I like sitting in the back:
  • More comfortable taking our time to get ourselves set up and arranged for the flight.
  • Flight attendants tend to be nice and hanging out at the back and willing to help or provide some adult conversation.
  • If your baby cries, only like 2/3 of the plane can hear you and get mad at you. (See my tips though – DON’T LET THIS BOTHER YOU! Your baby is a human and has every right to travel like everyone else on the flight.)
  • More time to gather your belongings at the end of the flight and not feel as rushed.  
  • Adding on to the above, if you are last off the plane at your destination, in theory you’ll have less time waiting at the baggage claim, which is nice.
  • If kiddo is a lap child, more likely to have the row to yourself should anyone not make the flight or maybe you all get lucky with the one open seat.

Getting through the flight

• SNACKS. See my previous posts about packing and getting through the airport, but make sure that you are fully loaded on snacks and drinks for your kid(s). 
• Make sure to have snacks, beverages, and potentially binkies to help with ears on take-off and descent. Our kid was a binkie kid, so we made sure he was sucking on it for every take-off and descent.
• We keep ibuprofen handy for flights in case the kiddo’s ears start to bother him.
• Keep the air turned on your kiddo – we’ve noticed that our kiddo runs warm during flights.
• Have books and all the fun things ready. I read a tip to have some new dollar store toys ready to keep them occupied. We also enjoy spinner toys attached to the window and busy books.
• Our last-ditch effort to entertain is typically a tablet preloaded with Bluey episodes and movies we know he likes. Screentime and rules do not matter when you’re just trying to get through the day. I would recommend getting a tablet holder to put on the back of the seat so your kid can’t reach the tablet and mess with it while watching.
• When packing, have a diaper “go bag” ready – this would be a pouch or Ziploc that has everything you need for a diaper change so you don’t need to bring your full diaper bag in to the tiny airplane lavatory. This should include:
  • Diapers
  • Wipes
  • Cream
  • Diaper trash bags (don’t be that person putting a stinky poopy diaper in a trash can without bagging it first – if you don’t have this, please bring it out to a flight attendant that can get you a trash bag) 
  • Disposable changing pad
• At the end of the flight, make sure you take time to look around your seat, especially under the seat and behind, for you may have missed your kid throwing a toy or beloved binky when you looked away for .37 seconds.

Ready for your own flight?

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