[Leeloomina]

Would you fly 8 hours with a 15month old toddler in your lap? Or would that be a nightmare?

Also what are the chances of scoring a bassinet with her age (we are flying overnights). Her size and weight won't be a problem as she is on the small side.

[danielle1985]

When we have flown (and only for 4-5 hours) there is NO WAY ON EARTH my son would have stayed in my lap. We managed to get a spare seat though by asking at the gate and we had a seat blocked out for us. Where are you flying and when? If there are free seats you can what we did but there is always the risk the flight will be full and then you are stuck.

[lclb]

I would prefer not to fly with a child that age without their own seat. I've always bought my DS a seat when we have flown that sort of distance or longer (and he was under the age of 2).

However that said I am seriously considering going on our family overseas holiday before DD turns 2 so that I don't have to buy her a seat! Once you have more than 1 child the ability to save $1000+ dollars is very appealing!

[farfaraway]

I have flown dozens of times with at least one kid on my lap - all long-haul, US to Aus, Europe to Aus, or US to Europe. it's not fun, but it's certainly manageable - 8 hours is a walk in the park compared to 26! - but there's no way I'd fork over the cash for an extra seat. There's no guarantee they won't end up on your lap, or with you wandering up and down the aisles with them anyway.

With all questions like these about traveling with young kids I have the same response - expect the worst, hope for the best, and accept that it's only a very short time (grand scheme of things!) and you will survive.

Happy flying!

[Bluenomi]

We did it with DD from Syndey to the UK and back and it was fine. BUT she wasn't walking and wasn't much of a crawler so didn't mind being restrained to our laps or the floor. If I had a more moible kid I suspect it would be tough.

Some airlines (VA) we happy for us to have a bassinet since they based theirs on weight but others (Emirents) gave us one but only to store stuff, she was too old to sleep in it.

[MakeLoveNotBacon]

We did three flights west coast of oz to east coast of USA with a 19 mth on our lap. TBH I don't think it would have made much difference if we had an extra seat. It was worth it for the extra spending money for us and probably half the flights we had a spare seat anyway. We also had the bassinet a couple of times but there is a weight and height limit and he was right on it so it didn't get used.

[BadKitteh]

No I wouldn't, you know your kid though & for you it might be fine.

[lsolaBella]

As PP have said it depends on how much saving the cost of the child's airfare would be. I have done EU and back with 18-20mos.... On one trip I was PG too. For us saving the money to use on the holiday was worth more. $2k was a big part of our budget.

[meggs1]

I flew to and from NZ with my then 15mo DS (walking). The flight over we happened to have a spare seat, on the way back we didn't. The flight over was a dream - sometimes he sat on me, sometimes in his own seat. Having the 2 trays was also helpful. The flight back was a nightmare - he kept fighting to get down, trying to kick me etc, we couldn't eat properly. I've now bought him a seat for our trip to Broome (2 mo).

[Leeloomina]

We are flying to Singapore then Hong Kong and yes will be able to save about 1k. This will be our first time flying with the kids (have a 2yo DS as well). I am having nightmares already...

I am not hopeful that there will be spare seats on these flights eventhough it's not peak season (thinking maybe late Aug/early Sep)- from past experience the planes are always full...