Jay99

From experience, it depends less on age, and more on your child, their temperament and their willingness to sit on your lap for the duration of your flight. I've seen 2 year olds who would be perfectly happy to sit on their parents lap for a 6 hour flight. Some kids would rather be held than sit in a seat on their own.

On the other hand, my son after about 1 year old developed a strong desire for his own personal space and not be held for long periods. Flying with him as a lap child became a physical exercise for his parents. Once we started buying him a seat, he would sit quite happily in his car seat (we used the Cosco Scenera as it's super light weight and great for air travel), often sleeping for more than half the flight, allowing us parents to sit back, enjoy our meals and a few drinks ourselves while he slept, watched TV or read books. Indeed, paying extra for our son's own seat felt like our own version of parental business class - if you have afford it, it makes for a much more enjoyable flight.

Also recommended if you can afford it - paying for the seats with extra leg room so you have more room for things. This also ensures the people infront won't have their seats kicked. I prefer these to Premium Economy or Business Class as you still have the advantage of movable arm rests (as long as you don't book a bulkhead row).

That's a good point, it is sometimes worth comparing the price difference for overseas flights between the 10% fare and a child's fare for a seat. It may not be as big of difference as you'd think.

Flying is much safer than driving, and given the number of flights that happen lap-infant injuries and fatalities have been extremely rare - I would have had no problems having my son as a lap child for longer if he would have tolerated it. That said, I don't think there's any denying that in the event of something like a AC624 crash landing in Halifax, a child strapped into a car seat would be safer. Even those incidents are very rare though.

ffsim

This is excellent advice.

This suggestion, however -- that parents who choose to travel with their <2 year olds as lap children don't respect themselves, their significant other or their children -- is downright insulting

+1 ^

global happy traveller

Dont agree..... Air Canada & Aeroplan's policy for under 2 is pretty clear......
- Aeroplan > $100 or 10,000 miles + taxes
- Air Canada > Free within Canada, Taxes to US and 10% adult fare Internationally

For GHT Jr, we received Skyriders activity materials for most of our flights. IME, more to do with whether the crew wants to hand it out.

The other benefit of lugging a car seat is you can use it in a car rental. Other than that its a PITA to carry it around.

Sorry - I rather take a noisy kid than some disruptive DYKWIA person in J class.

Stranger

Being disruptive in J is not OK, but in Y it is?

Jay99

I'd recommend a light weight travel car seat such as the Cosco Scenera ($100CAD). We strap this to a small stroller with a couple of bungees. This works very well - and is fairly quick to take on/off going through security. The setup is also convenient because the stroller can be used to hold other items through the airport.

hireable

I was buying my son a seat at 18 months - he was like a crazy cat trying to get at things and his own seat was way better. There is a catch under 2 - you have to have approved restraint for them either their car seat if it works on a plane or something like then the kids fly safe harness.

AskTravis

Just to add to the thread: My son is going to be 2 shortly after a trip we planned, so we decided to get him his own seat since we have a ton of miles and he is a handful, so being strapped in will be good for everyone.

I was able to book all 5 tickets on Aeroplan by selecting 2 adults + 3 children "over 2" but then when I went to fill in the passenger details, I used his real birthdate (which is "Under 2") and the form accepted it and I got my confirmation. Seems to work easily.

So
Infant own seat, just book it on the site
Infant lap seat, need to call in