Originally Posted by ashill

Our 23 month old did just fine on transcon flights in our lap, as she has throughout her life. We certainly prefer when she gets a seat (for both comfort and safety reasons) but not enough to pay for it (since our personal reading of the statistics is that flying with her on our lap is still safer than driving to or from the airport with her in the car seat). Of course, those days are over very shortly.

Many airlines will give you a plastic bag for the car seat. I know Alaska always does (most of the time we've wound up gate checking the car seat, it's been with them); dunno about Delta. But bagged or not, we've never had trouble with damage to the seat. In fact, the only time the car seat got damaged at an airport was when it was in our possession and I inadvertently dragged it along the ground, which put substantial wear on the cover. And if you gate check it, the airline is still handling it and it's still going outside in the weather. Not for as long, but it's not like you completely avoid trusting the airline and the elements with the car seat by gate checking instead of counter checking.