Buying seats on planes for infants?

[PoohBears#1fan]

Have any of you bought a seat for an infant on the plane?

I know you need to take the car seat along if you choose this route, just wondered if there was any other comments or advice, also did they charge adult or child price or a number plucked from the sky?? lol

Would you recommend it or was it more trouble that it was worth?

 

[BevS97]

Someone posted recently that they had to pay the full adult price, but I thought it was 85% of the adult price normally - it's certainly not cheap.

Would I recommend it? Depends on how old the infant is. if the infant is quite small, then I would request a skycot (which is free), and use that - then baby can lie flat and sleep.
For an older baby (over 1, under 2) then I would consider the carseat, but BA and Virgin both offer an infant seat which is cheaper than paying for a seat on the plane, so it would be worth pricing both options. I think for a wriggly toddler, then car seat would really come into it's own, as the child would be familiar with car seats and understand that it can't get out and walk around.

we used a car seat for our 3 year old and imho it was a nightmare - she had flown before without one, and could remember it, so she knew a carseat wasn't a requirement and she totally objected to being in it. I had wanted to use it, because I thought it would be more comfy to sleep in (since it reclined), but she wasn't having any of it, and there was noway we could remove the carseat once we had taken off, so she was stuck with it - it was a bit of a nightmare.

Consequently, I have quite mixed views of taking one, especially considering the expense - but I do think for toddlers they could be very useful. Also if your baby is 2, then you have to buy a seat anyway - so no additional expense makes it seem like a good option.

Bev

 

[Madjock]

We paid for our 21 month old daughter last year and I think we either paid the fly drive price or the child price, I honestly can't remember but I do know it wasn't adult price. It was definitely worth it however as it would have been a nightmare if she hadn't had her own seat. You don't have take their car seat, we didn't take her car seat with us as she wouldn't have been happy sitting in a 'different' chair from the rest of us.

Annmarie

 

[DisneyBB]

We bought a seat for our 13 month old last October. I did not want to sit with her on my lap for 9 hours. We paid the child price, I think Virgin wanted £100 anyway so it was worth the extra. We reserved a safety seat, when I booked the seats. They fit exactly into the airplane seat. The only problem was they forgot it and I had to request it again when I got on board. Virgin also said that an infant in a safety seat cannot have an isle seat for safety reasons. I would pay for seat if you child is to old for a skycot. At least you can eat your meal while they are strapped in!