The FAA suggests and most airlines require the car seat to be in the window seat. It could impede the evacuation in an emergency.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CARES harness. A 20 month old in a car seat is going to be kicking the seat in front of them non stop.

If you rear face the kid, then they're kicking their own seat, so it's not a big deal.

I don't know that rear facing on an airplane makes a difference in safety, but it absolutely makes a difference in sanity, since you don't have to enforce the kicking thing.

OP, are 2 parents going on this trip?

Yup, two parents. We've actually flown with him a lot so far, and have the routine down pretty well with him in our laps, but having new circumstances with his own plane seat is throwing me a bit and I know I am overthinking it. I always have trouble when the routine changes and we have to adjust a game plan that has worked well for us, ha! Thanks for all the advice and tips - I think we will plan to get a cheap Sencera for plane trips and test it out beforehand. Trip is still several months away, I am just planning in advance. Thanks again for all the help!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heck yeah! My DD knows she can't get out of her car seat and she's 100% happy being stationary in it. In a regular seat she's up and down every minute.

Not trying to be snarky, but do you think she would sit in her seat for 9-10 hours happily? As I said, we don't drive much, so I don't think my son has even been in his seat for more than half an hour or so. I worry that an overnight flight may not be a good time to test out whether he will sit still!

I would not recommend it, especially if you don't use car seats often. You'll have a lot less room, and your kid will be much more comfortable with a little bit of movement. Also, if you decide half way through that you want to get rid of it, you don't have anywhere to put it.

I suspect that most of the folks answering these questions have kids that drive in cars regularly. My child would have screamed bloody murder if we had put him in a car seat on an airplane; I don't think it would have been fair to subject other passengers to that!

I agree. My dd sits in hers for 17 hours or whatnot because she's been trained to sit in it since the beginning. She just knows that she's not getting out until the car stops so she doesn't cry anymore (she did cry as a newborn). She's learned to look out the window. So I'd vote no carseat in your case.