Thanks for the tips. As we packed tonight we had resigned ourselves to checking the car seat with our luggage. But based on what Eclipsepearl has offered to us as advice we are now going to bring the car seat to the gate and see what happens.

We are flying on a 767-400ER. My wife is bringing on the diaper bag and I am bringing on a laptop bag.

It looks like the flight might not be very full so who knows? Maybe we can use the car seat for our son to sit in during the flight? That would be great!

I'll be sure to check back in after the trip and let you know how it works out. If we pull this off then we will have Eclipsepearl to thank for sure!