Blueskyheaven

My son will be 23 months when he flies CX long haul to HKG. The business class seat can be made to bed and maybe he can sleep?

I am in Dilemma.
Child Restraint Device (CRD) and a car seat? The former will be provided by Airline? I have never used CRD on him on flights so I have no idea how that is.

Thanks

fredandgingermad

You'll need to provide the child restraint device

Hokie Gator Flyer

We will be flying to London & Amsterdam with DD. She will be 5 and at least 46 inches tall on the trip and is in a high back booster at home.

We may take 1 or 2 short taxi rides (train station to hotel when coming from hotel), but plan to primarily use public transit & tourist buses in both places. Do the strict booster seat laws apply to taxis? If so, would a Bubblebum be sufficient?

fredandgingermad

No idea about Amsterdam but never had to use a car seat in a taxi in London since my daughter was 3 so I wouldn't imagine you'd have an issue

opus2002

When in Europe, do you install the car seat on your taxi for the ride from the airport to the hotel? If so, would I be better for using a limo service instead?

ivan89

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here. I know that this topic has been raised before (e.g. here) and I've read an excellent guide here, but I feel like I have a few specific questions, so I've decided to start a new thread.

My wife and I are thinking about flying from the San Francisco Bay Area (SFO or SJC) to Moscow this summer with our son, who will be around 1-year-old by then. This will be our first trip with the baby, and now we are deciding on whether to buy a separate seat for him. My wife prefers keeping him on lap / in a bassinet, while I prefer buying a separate seat for him, so we are looking for some advice. Here are the things we are thinking about:

1. I know that having our son in a separate car seat is safer than having him on lap. However, my wife thinks that he will be sleeping better in a bassinet, and she does not like the idea of keeping him in a car seat for too long. She is afraid that even if we buy a separate seat for him, we'll end up keeping him on our lap or walking around with him most of the time. What is your experience here? Where do babies usually sleep better: in bassinets or in car seats? For how long do you keep your infants in car seats?

2. The only airlines that provide bassinets large enough to fit him (he is 70 cm long at just 6 months now) are Lufthansa and possibly United. However, United have the weight limit (10kg) on their website but not the length limit. Do you know how large United bassinets are?

On top of that, I guess on United we would need to buy Economy Plus seats to get the bulkhead seats that are better suited for bassinets. On Lufthansa, we don't need to pay anything for better seats, but it seems that the bulkhead seats get booked very early. Is there a way to guarantee the bulkhead seats and baby bassinet on Lufthansa?

3. If we end up buying a separate seat, would you recommend installing the car seat with or without its base? The owner's manual does not address this question specifically.

Finally, I guess I should mention that there are no direct flights from SFO/SJC to Moscow, so even if we get bassinets on the transatlantic flights, we would still have to keep our son on lap for the remainder of our trip (e.g. flights from Germany to Moscow). Also the extra price for having a separate seat for our son is not really that big, because we have more options to choose from if we buy him a seat. So the choice is primarily about comfort and safety, not money.

If I have missed anything important, please let me know. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

FindAWay

Welcome to FT, ivan89!

Are you willing to fly non-Star Alliance airlines (the only airlines you mention are star alliance carriers)?

You mention Lufthansa. What about Austrian, Swiss, LOT, etc.?

British Airways has a Child Seat or a Bassinet/Carrycot.

ivan89

Thank you, FindAWay!

We are pretty flexible with the airline choice and are happy to consider other options, but I guess I should have said that Lufthansa and United are the only reasonably priced airlines with convenient connections and large bassinets.

I personally like both Swiss and British Airways (had good experience with them in the past). Unfortunately, BA are about $2000 more expensive (in total) than Lufthansa or United, and their connections are far less convenient. In turn, Swiss bassinets are for babies up to 8 months only, so we won't be able to use one.

As for Austrian or LOT, we'll have to make at least two connections with them (vs. one with Lufthansa or United), while we definitely prefer having one connection.

rjque

My advice would be to get the extra seat. Even if your child sits on your lap much of the flight, you will want the extra room to put down all of the stuff you are going to need for the flight, and it gives you an extra tray table for drinks, etc. That extra room is incredibly important, particularly at that fidgety age.

If your child sleeps in a car seat, I'd bring that, too, unless you are sure your child can sleep in a coach seat. Mine cannot, so I bring the seat onboard when I know she will need to sleep. You don't bring the base - just the seat itself. Make sure you know how to instal it using just the lap belt, and that it's not too big for the seat.

It's possible that you'll be able to use a basinet, but I would never rely on that, particularly for such a long flight with connections. Nearly all children will be too large to use a bassinet at that age - they are really designed for very young infants. You also may get shuffled to a non-bassinet seat, it may not be functioning, or the basinet seats might be reserved for status pax. Also, keep in mind that you can't have the child in a basinet during takeoff, landing or turbulence, so you may need to wake your sleeping child, which is never a great idea.

ivan89

Thank you rjque. I think we'll end up getting the extra seat, especially if we decide to travel in September, when our son will be 14 months old (probably too big even for Lufthansa bassinets). If we buy him a seat, we'll have a few extra options to consider, e.g. Air France and KLM: they are somewhat more expensive but fly to SVO instead of DME, which is more convenient for us. I guess their service is better than United's one, too.

Our child slept well in his car seat until recently, but now he is curious about what is going on around him. However, things may (and probably will) change by the time we are going to travel. I doubt that he will be able to sleep in a coach seat though.

fumje

If you book a ticket with United you can call to get yourself a bulkhead seat with the bassinet (no fee): http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...nomy-plus.html. On some planes the seats are blocked (and so appear occupied) but can be assigned to you by an agent.

Why not? I'd think it would seem positively palatial to him at that age and size!

ivan89

There are two main problems with using the bassinet in United. First, I am not sure if the bassinet will be large enough for our son (he is 70cm at 6 months, and we are going to travel in June, when he will be 11 months, or even in September, when he will be 14 months). Second, there are no direct flights to Moscow from SFO, so we'll have a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Moscow. Lufthansa does not offer bassinets on short-haul flights, and even though it is manageable to fly for about 3.5 hours with a lap infant, I do not think that it is very convenient.

fumje

OK; good luck! Hope you have a nice trip.

BeatCal

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...ts-080414.html

or

http://www.counselheal.com/articles/...chers-find.htm

GUWonder

Increased risk of death from hypoxia. But infants of lap-child age are at increased risk of hypoxia than older passengers who no longer qualify to be lap-children on common carrier flights.