Flying with Infant + Toddler

Gandhi

We will be flying transatlantic at Christmas with 2-and-a-half-year-old and a 6-month-old. We are flying on a plane with a 3+3 seat configuration and we are trying to figure out which seats to take.

Our plan right now is to have the baby in the window seat, my wife next to him, the toddler in the aisle seat (in his car seat), and I will sit across the aisle from the toddler.

We think this is the best way to keep the kids under control, and minimize impact on other passengers. Anyone else been in similar situations and have experiences to share?

It will be the toddler's 11th time on a plane and he has been a great flier so far. It will be the first time for the baby, and his mother expects to still be breastfeeding him, if that makes any difference.

Moonbeam

They normally won't allow 2 babies in the same set of 3 seats as there will only be one child oxygen mask so it will be one of you and baby and one of you and toddler in different aisles.

Gandhi

First off, excellent avatar!!!

Does the oxygen mask regulation apply to kids that have their own seat, though? Poking around the web, it seems like there are commonly four oxygen masks per cluster of three seats, so there is a limit of four people (three adults plus one lap-baby) per cluster. There do not seem to be different oxygen masks for adults vs children. They seem to be one-size-fits-all.

MrsA

Are you paying for a seat for the 6 month old? If not then the 4 of you will be in the three seats together.
We have a 1 year old and a 2 year old and the 4 of us have flown transatlantic many times and always manage with 3 seats, and even managed for 2 seats a few times when they were both under 2.

I don't know what we will do once March comes and they both need seats, I quite like the 4 of us in the 3 seats.

TheQ47

MrsA wrote: »

Are you paying for a seat for the 6 month old?

A good point. In my experience (we've never flown transatlantic with the kids, but have flown to Europe a number of times) children under 2 generally can't have their own seat, and therefore you only pay a nominal fee for them, around €20/€30.

They will then sit on a parent's lap, with the special lap belt. Check with your airline what their rules/regulations are first before trying to choose seats, and maybe running into difficulty when you get on the plane, and it may be too late.

Gandhi

Yes, we are paying for a seat for the baby. We always got a seat for his brother, and it has worked out fine. Flights from States->Ireland are usually overnight, so we always stuck him in his car-seat and all three of us slept through the whole thing.

By the time we booked, the bulkhead seats were long gone so there was no chance of doing the cardboard bassinet thing.