Plane trip with 2 yr old

[Anonymous]

Did you need a harness or was car seat sufficient? Do I need to carry a passport as form of picture ID?

First trip after turning 2. Before that there was a single trip when he was younger so it was easier. Now I know I will have to keep him engaged but this is not southwest so baggage is limited. Though we will certainly need a additional bag or two. Any words of advice welcome.

[Anonymous]

We never brought ID for domestic trips. We skipped the car seat and used the CARES harness. Also, it's actually easier at this age, IMO. They are more capable of sitting and doing stickers, or coloring, or watching Sesame Street on a tablet. I brought lots of paperback books, including some new ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you need a harness or was car seat sufficient? Do I need to carry a passport as form of picture ID?

First trip after turning 2. Before that there was a single trip when he was younger so it was easier. Now I know I will have to keep him engaged but this is not southwest so baggage is limited. Though we will certainly need a additional bag or two. Any words of advice welcome.

We have never bothered with car seats. They sit in the seat belt just fine. You don't need a picture ID for him. We just brought toys that we didn't mind losing for the flights.

[Anonymous]

Unless you have a very slim carseat, I hated using the carseat on the plane. Rearfacing, the person in front of him couldn't recline, and forward facing, he kicked the seat in front of him. Not to mention the seat buckle while FF was right in the middle of his back. I tried so hard to keep his feet down, but the carseat was too far up to use the tray table, and his feet were just at the exact right height relative to the seat in front to put his feet on it and PUSH. It was a very long couple of flights. If I had it to do over again, I would buy a cheap carseat, gate check it, and use a harness on the plane. Also, he only slept on one of 4 flights, even though at least two of them were during times he would normally be asleep. He was about a month shy of two (but I didn't want to hold a wiggly toddler on my lap for a cross country flight). I can't remember what we did about ID, but it was a domestic flight and we don't have a passport for him yet. I think I may have taken a copy of his birth certificate? Can't remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you have a very slim carseat, I hated using the carseat on the plane. Rearfacing, the person in front of him couldn't recline, and forward facing, he kicked the seat in front of him. Not to mention the seat buckle while FF was right in the middle of his back. I tried so hard to keep his feet down, but the carseat was too far up to use the tray table, and his feet were just at the exact right height relative to the seat in front to put his feet on it and PUSH. It was a very long couple of flights. If I had it to do over again, I would buy a cheap carseat, gate check it, and use a harness on the plane. Also, he only slept on one of 4 flights, even though at least two of them were during times he would normally be asleep. He was about a month shy of two (but I didn't want to hold a wiggly toddler on my lap for a cross country flight). I can't remember what we did about ID, but it was a domestic flight and we don't have a passport for him yet. I think I may have taken a copy of his birth certificate? Can't remember.

Oh, and don't carry on more than one small bag (preferably a backpack). You'll need your hands available! Everything we carried on was to entertain/feed/change on the plane. We checked everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you have a very slim carseat, I hated using the carseat on the plane. Rearfacing, the person in front of him couldn't recline, and forward facing, he kicked the seat in front of him. Not to mention the seat buckle while FF was right in the middle of his back. I tried so hard to keep his feet down, but the carseat was too far up to use the tray table, and his feet were just at the exact right height relative to the seat in front to put his feet on it and PUSH. It was a very long couple of flights. If I had it to do over again, I would buy a cheap carseat, gate check it, and use a harness on the plane. Also, he only slept on one of 4 flights, even though at least two of them were during times he would normally be asleep. He was about a month shy of two (but I didn't want to hold a wiggly toddler on my lap for a cross country flight). I can't remember what we did about ID, but it was a domestic flight and we don't have a passport for him yet. I think I may have taken a copy of his birth certificate? Can't remember.

This is why I liked the harness at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you have a very slim carseat, I hated using the carseat on the plane. Rearfacing, the person in front of him couldn't recline, and forward facing, he kicked the seat in front of him. Not to mention the seat buckle while FF was right in the middle of his back. I tried so hard to keep his feet down, but the carseat was too far up to use the tray table, and his feet were just at the exact right height relative to the seat in front to put his feet on it and PUSH. It was a very long couple of flights. If I had it to do over again, I would buy a cheap carseat, gate check it, and use a harness on the plane. Also, he only slept on one of 4 flights, even though at least two of them were during times he would normally be asleep. He was about a month shy of two (but I didn't want to hold a wiggly toddler on my lap for a cross country flight). I can't remember what we did about ID, but it was a domestic flight and we don't have a passport for him yet. I think I may have taken a copy of his birth certificate? Can't remember.

This is why I liked the harness at that age.

Yep. Never again.

[Anonymous]

We bought the harness sooooo much easier than lugging the carseat. Here's the website kidsflysafe.com This company makes the only one that is approved by the FAA. It's expensive so you may want to check with a friend to see if they have one if you don't plan to fly often.

If there are any cartoons they like load them up on your ipad or phone. I also bought the special Crayola markers that only draw on the special Crayola paper. I didn't want us both (not to mention our seats) to be covered in marker ink. If they still like milk buy some at one of the airport stores before you board. My DD always asked for milk before the drink cart ever came around. Bring snacks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We never brought ID for domestic trips. We skipped the car seat and used the CARES harness. Also, it's actually easier at this age, IMO. They are more capable of sitting and doing stickers, or coloring, or watching Sesame Street on a tablet. I brought lots of paperback books, including some new ones.

Agree with all this. And bring a lollipop for takeoff/landing.

[Anonymous]

We had a cross country red eye and loved having a carseat so DD could sleep in it, reclined. She was not yet 2 though.

I assume your flight is not a long flight and you don't need to sleep. If you do need to sleep, might want to think about carseat...

[Anonymous]

We got a harness for our kid who is just over 3. It worked great except that he figured out almost immediately how to unbuckle the regular airline seatbelt that you loop through it (not the top part). It was frustrating having to tell him over and over to stop doing it. But I think it was WAY easier than hauling around a huge car seat. I definitely wouldn't advocate for that.

As for ID, unless you are traveling internationally, you don't need a passport (and not sure if you do even then). DH, DS, and I recently traveled, and they only needed our IDs. Basically, they saw that there were two parents with the same last name taking a child with the same last name on a trip. They can request a copy of the birth certificate, I think, although no one ever has. We just made a copy and brought it along in case.

[Anonymous]

Just a tip -- if given the option, I'd recommend putting the kid in the window seat. We had three seats across with DH next to the window, DS in the middle, and me in the aisle, and we quickly realized that DS could not see out the window at all from the middle seat. We were using the harness (not a car seat), so he wasn't elevated enough to look out. He liked the trip much better when he was next to the window.

[Anonymous]

Definetly get the harness.

[Anonymous]

OP. So glad I posted. Invaluable tips, thank you. We will gate-check the car seat as we will need it at our destination where we are renting a car. Ours is a diono radian. Don't want to risk it getting damaged so will get a cheaper one. Good toy and video ideas as well.
I checked out the harness, we don't fly often but I guess the $60 is worth it. We've already paid full price for his ticket

[Anonymous]

OP, I have a different opinion. What is the weight of your 2 yr old? What is the duration of the trip? We flew last year right around the 2nd birthday to visit grandparents and my girl was only 23lbs, she kept slipping though the harness and hated it. There were two other kids on the plane both young 2s and their parents hadn't gotten any car seat and harness. One of them said, she had carriedthe car seat on a previous trip but the airline disallowed sitting in it during take-off and landing which is when the child had to be held in the lap anyway. So for short flights, you may do better to just hold during take-off and landing and then let them walk the aisle, eat their snack, play a game and look around in their seat or on your lap. If it is safe to carry an infant in one's lap, I can't imagine turning 2 suddenly makes them prone to dangerous projectile hurtling if you are holding them. If you have a chunky one then especially you don't need a harness (you know you can use it only till 30lbs anyway) so what a waste.