Maybe I did go too far with the "speaks volumes" bit. But really, the parents were just trying to make the best of a bad situation. It's the airline that's to blame.

Speaking as a flight crew member and pilot-in-command, Mrs. Breeder needed to book in advance a window seat for her baby carrier it if was so large as to impede a cabin evacuation. This is the same deal as not putting blind people in emergency exit aisles.

My flight to Heathrow in July was made a perfect hell by a family of four who hoped they only needed three seats because they belted a basinette to the bulkhead in the 767. Their scion wasn't happy with his accomodation and spent most of the seven hour red-eye squirming in Daddy's arms, with feet and arms flying in random directions, some of which included space I had hoped to use, inasmuch as it was on my side of the armrest and was occupied by various parts of my body.

Now *that's* something to complain about.

And it's why the family in the first post of this thread did a great thing by booking a seat for their kid instead of holding it on their lap. When the seat was being booked, the airline should have assigned an appropriate seat. It knew that it was selling a ticket to an infant in a car seat.

It did? How? Surely not just based on the fare...

If there's some mechanism for the airline to have determined this I'm not aware of it, but then I haven't flown airlines with small children in several decades.

In the Cardinal, a child seat can be fitted in the back, but there's doors on both sides of the cabin, and you won't be getting up to go to the lav.

Last time I flew with the kids (a year ago) I had to give the ages when I booked the tickets. I just went to Travelocity to confirm this, and they have the system set up a little differently now. They have age groupings, and kids under two require a special call to the airlines, you can't even book reservation for them on Travelocity. It's fairly complicated.

Aye, was looking into flights with my 1 yr old a couple months ago. It is complicated and the ages of all party members are required. As I recall, there was a check box for car seat (which required an additional seat reservation) or not. So it appeared that I may have had the option of taking the car seat or holding the baby.

I ended up not taking the trip, by the way.

Stormie

G-Force Baby
 

The kid next to me was great the whole time. No crying or yelling. And she did not flinch or even seem to notice the takeoff and landing.:p

No poopie smell either:o

I never really understood this. Why do all passengers have to wear seatbelts during flight, but regulations allow a baby to be help on a parent's lap? We've always bought a seat for all family members. It's expensive, but much more convenient and safer. It should be mandatory, IMHO.

My goodness, Maggie, you would not be here to fly about in your plane if it were not for breeders.

I'm pretty ambivelent about breeders myself; that will be another post.

Maybe something needs to change. I saw a show some time back about the importance of the person seated in the exit doors knowing to throw the door out of the plane, not just throw it to the floor. In a controlled crash situation, every second counts because of the smoke accumulating in the cabin. Having to crawl over the removed door wastes those precious seconds. Wouldn't a large car seat also be a hinderment to movement? This is not safe for the poor children or the others on the flight.

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that parents with young children are not allowed to sit in an exit row, and the flight crew is supposed to check this before take off.

So they aren't up and around, annoying the bitc... flight attendants.