I did. Strapped her safety seat in, and fed her until she passed out in a digestive coma. Peaceful and comfortable flight ensued.
Just make sure you visit the paediatrician a couple days before teh flight to make sure there aren’t any incipient ear infections lurking… Your fellow passengers will thank you.
Surely he can fit in an overhead bin?
Definitely take your stroller. You can gate check it just before you board the plane and the airline will bring it back to you at the arriving gate after the plane lands. You will want it when you are walking through the airport. This is very common and all airlines are accustomed to dealing with gate checked strollers.
For a flight to Florida from NY, you shouldn’t need to worry about your one year old having his own seat. Our daughter flew probably a dozen times before she turned two, and we never purchased a separate seat for her, we just held her.
You will want to check your car seat. Most airlines do not charge a fee for checking car seats or strollers, unlike the other checked baggage fees. Just pick it up in baggage claim in Florida and it’s there for the car ride from the airport.
Get there early and ask that you have a spare seat inbetween you for the baby. 9 times out of 10, they’ll give you what you want (unless it’s full to capacity).
Given traveling capacity these days, 9 times out of 10, the flight will be oversold. But good luck.
Oh, this reminds me. Our doc gave us some ear numbing drops, helps the with the pressure change. Seemed to help the little guy. You might want to check into that.
I dunno - I’m very reluctant to drug my kid solely for somebody else’s convenience (or my own, for that matter). :dubious:
Another observation comes to mind on this vein: If you use something like this plus the car seat as a stroller through the airport, you may wish to consider not bringing a stroller at all. Cheap umbrella strollers can be purchased at a pharmacy at your destination for $15 or $20, which is a good deal less than what it would cost on many airlines to check a stroller both ways. (I think - I’m imagining that a stroller would just be another piece of baggage as far as fees are concerned, but I don’t know this for sure.)
It was not an issue on our trip, as we were visiting my parents and they had a stroller at their house; we neither brought nor bought one.
That seat-roller thing in the link claims to mate with most popular car seats - I believe the manufacturer has a list on their website. Our seat is a Britax Boulevard, and the fit seems perfect.
Within the last few months we’ve gate-checked the stroller for our baby on Alaska, Southwest, and United airlines. None charged a fee for this, although Alaska and United do charge a fee for normal baggage check.
Please tell me you didn’t just HOLD ON to your baby without a child restraint? 
I’ve done a couple of flights with an under two year old on my lap but the airline provided a child restraint that went around my girl’s lap and hooked onto my own seat belt. That baby was going nowhere in turbulence.
With respect to the stroller - is there any way you could just bring a sling? They’re not quite as convenient in that they don’t have pockets where you can stash things, but the kangaroo-style slings are all cloth and roll neatly into a teeny bundle that can fit into a purse or diaper bag. We used ours in the airport in India. It held my son comfortably on my hip while we were walking throughout the airport. Plus, our son was a little leery of all the people in the airport, so he liked being close to my face. Then again, it would’ve been nice to have someplace he could’ve just fallen asleep and we did have to carry the added weight, so there are definitely some cons.
This is what we’ve used with the Firebug when flying. In combination with the airplane’s seatbelt, it creates a 4-point safety harness for your kid. But it’s small, light, and easy to travel with. Generally takes us about a minute and a half to hook up, once we’ve found our seats - really easy to use. And I note that Rhythmkid meets the weight requirements for its use - he’s already slightly heavier than the Firebug was when we brought him home from Russia, and we used the KidsFlySafe harness on that trip.
I highly recommend it.
And what Wilbo523 said about gate-checking strollers. We’ve had no problems with that on any airline.
Awwww yeahh… now I can’t wait to be coming into the approach. I’m going to turn to Mrs. Devil and say “let’s get this baby on the ground!”
Slings are great, but he’s outgrown the primary one. We have a frontloader that he loves, so there is that. When does he start walking? When does he start carrying his own bags? Hmmm…
:D.
I am actually surprised no one has suggested this because it is what I have done anytime I traveled with a baby and a companion.
- Book two seats separately on line. The first passenger chooses a window seat as far back as possible. The second books and then chooses the aisle seat of that same row.
2.Do not buy the baby a seat.
3.Bring car seat.
4.Baby sits in the middle unclaimed seat in their car seat.
Ten or more flights like this and only one time was someone assigned that middle seat. He asked to be moved and was.
Even though most flights claim to be completely booked, they often are not and that back middle seat is very unpopular and would be the last one taken.
Hah! That reminds me of a flight I took from Frankfurt, Germany to Chicago. I was on the type of plane that has three seats in the middle and I was seated in one of the aisle seats with my two seatmates being a young couple with a baby that appeared to be just under a year. Being as it’s just over a 7 hour flight, I was anticipating all kind of horror and casually said, “Those things fit very nicely in the overhead bin, you know.” They chuckled uneasily and said they hoped that baby wouldn’t cry during the flight and she was usually very well behaved. I responded with “Not to worry, I carry duct tape with me for just such occasions.” They were not amused and the woman said, “You’re frightening us.” with a look of horror on her face and didn’t speak to me for the entire trip.
Turns out that the baby actually was very well behaved and slept most of the trip. Lucky for her… 
One piece of advice unrelated to buying him a seat: change his diaper with as little time left as possible before boarding the plane.
I have never even heard of this-
We just kept her on our laps, and she was fine. None of our flights had any more than very minor turbulence, but I have been in some bone rattling turbulence with luggage bouncing around, and it wouldn’t have affected my grip on kiddo…
I do, however, recommend the seat if you can comfortably afford it and bring the safety gear (but we never did until she was past 2.5, and never safety gear other than normal seatbelt). It’s a case of what is reasonable to your budget, and the extra safety could matter in those one in a million cases of bad bad times.
Well, I won’t tell you then. But we did, it is currently accepted practice in the United States and perfectly in line with regulations. See post 19 on the quiet controversy on this. At the time time the device you describe was not available.
Yes we should have bought a seat for the baby. I was not entirely happy about the situation at the time, but did not put my foot down. Now, I would not repeat it and would urge the changing of regulations to prevent it. Of course, I have no children under 2 and I am unlikely to take them flying anyways.
I’m not critical of you at all, I’m just utterly astonished that the FAA would allow unrestrained children on an aircraft. It goes against the entire safety ethos of the aviation industry.
We just held on to our son, too. The flight attendant told me to put my arms securely around him during takeoff and landing; other than that, he could move around as much as we let him, which wasn’t much.