Well, this caring parent has taken his infant son on five trips as a lap child and would do it again without thinking twice. As virtually any parent of an infant or toddler knows, it is darn near impossible to keep them happily seated. So you can pay for a seat, but won't get much use out of it to show for your outlay of cash. Or, if you do, you will likely have a irascible and, accordingly, noisy child. As for the safety issue, it is really overblown. How many lap children do you know of who have been killed in the history of aviation in an otherwise survivable accident/incident? I haven't heard of even one. And even a lap child can be secured with a device like the Baby B'Air.