Airline Travel Tips Needed

I am going to be taking an infant on a plane for the first time next month! Sarah, age 9 months, has her own coach ticket; she's window, I'm aisle. We have a short hop on a commuter plane to Tampa, then a longer flight on a large jet to Newark. We turn around two days later.

We have some Britax seats to choose from: classic RA, classic MA. She probably would still be fitting in her KF22 at that point. We have a full-size car booked to use in NJ. I guess I need to figure out which stroller and carrier to bring too!

Looking for any/all advice you can offer about air and rental car travel! My husband and I travelled with our son at that age, but always in our own vehicle and as a team. At least I will have reinforcements when I arrive! My sister and cousin will be in the suite with us.

Thanks in advance!
Megan

D'oh, I meant to say I'm in the middle seat.

I would recommend traveling with the keyfit if she still fits. I will be easier to carry her in the seat when entering & exiting the plane. For the carryon, I'd bring only a large backpack/messenger bag rather than a pull one since you'd need both hands free.

For the stroller, I would recommend using one that you wouldn't be too upset if it were broken by baggage carriers. I bought a used Britax Preview years ago just for travel for $25 and it was the best travel gear ever. They don't make it anymore, but basically it was an umbrella stroller (but more substantial than most) that reclined (almost fully). When traveling with both an RA & MA when my kids were toddlers, we'd nest one seat in the stroller, put the other one on top upside down, and bungee the two together.

Some people have a lot of luck with the pull thing that you can put a seat into and then the child in the seat. However, for our budget we couldn't afford to spend $75 on a single use item at the time.

Read about the FAA's car seat policies and take a copy with you: http://carseatblog.com/8037/guest-blog-flying-with-a-car-seat-know-your-rights/

Take the infant seat if she fits, and whatever stroller will work with it. Know that a few airlines won't let you gate-check "large" strollers. ("Large" might include strollers over a certain rather low weight, like 15 lbs--I forget what American's cut-off is.)

Bring lots of new little toys for giving out along the way.

Babies are exempt from the liquid restriction at security, so if you want to take a bottle/sippy of juice, water, milk, formula, etc., you can. You just need to declare it at security.

I agree with taking the KF for the trip and taking the FAA guidelines so that if anyone gives you a hard time about using the carseat you have backup. With liquids, it is a good idea to bring an empty sippy cup and whatever liquid/babyfood/etc in small original sealed containers so that it is obvious ot them what you are bringing rather than mystery liquid in a sippy (you can also pack an empty water bottle for yourself to fill up at the drinking fountain if you want). Just make sure to pull the liquids out when you go through the scanners.
Many airports have an express/handicapped/family line at security where you can be a bit slower going through without feeling rushed. You will have to take baby out of carseat and send the seat and stroller through the scanner seperately, so if you do have a baby sling/carrier that you can use hands free, it might be a good idea to wear it through security. You may or may not have to take baby off and send the carrier through the scanner, but at least then you can sstrap baby right back on and have her taken care of while you unfold stroller, situate car seat, gather all belongings, put on shoes, etc, etc.
I find asking for priority boarding (doesn't always work) so that you can get into your row and get baby all settled without people all around you, and then deplaning last really helps make the on and off easier.
Most airports have family bathrooms so look for those for diaper changes and bathroom breaks. Be sure to bring at least one full change of baby clothes (and maybe an extra mommy top) and a ziploc/wetbag for blowouts/major spills/spitups.

FYI-if you travel in the future with a bigger carseat, skip the baby gogo cart and get a simple luggage cart or even better a small folding hand truck (like magna cart $20 at sam's club). Set the carseat on and either attache with bungie cords or I used the latch and tether anchors and hooked all three onto a D ring and tightened until secure on the cart. It was strong enough for a kid to ride in the seat, but I had two car seats and a couple of backpacks strapped on there and it worked perfectly!
Have a great trip!!!

I believe that only American Airlines has the 20lbs gate-checked stroller restriction. I'm not aware of any other company (tell me, if so!)

Most importantly, it's a myth that babies need to drink something on take-off and landing. I had breastfed babies (no paci's, no bottles) in their own seats on countless flights and never did this. Please don't wake her unnecessarily and if she's breastfed, there is no reason to remove her from her seat during those times.

My travel tips are in my siggy.

We just flew cross-country for the first time with our 11-month-old, and I was amazed to find that it was actually pretty easy! You can definitely do it!

There were two of us which obviously helped, but together we took a stroller, car seat, three backpacks, a diaper bag, and a rolling suitcase on a train to the airport, and then took all but the rolling bag (checked that) onto the plane, and it went pretty seamlessly.

What worked well for us, and what I would for sure do traveling alone, was to wear the baby and put the car seat in the stroller. Then I hung the diaper bag on the stroller and piled two of the backpacks into the car seat. My husband pulled the suitcase and wore the last backpack, but on your own you could wear a backpack too, if you can't fit everything in bags that sit in the stroller. I would not have been able to pull a suitcase and push the stroller, though, and I wouldn't give up the stroller for ease of moving everything.

Our particular combo was a Cybex Callisto stroller and a Combi Coccoro. The baby hit the height limit for our infant seat just weeks before the trip, but I was ecstatic to discover that the Coccoro fits pretty perfectly on the Cybex Aton adapters, so we left them on and used that. We gate checked the stroller with no bag and it came out perfectly on the other end (but we also bought it used for very little, so no big investment there). I did see lots of Britax seats and several of the GoGobaby things, though, so people seem to think that works fine. Security was easy--they had a special agent for babies and baby did not have to come out of the carrier or go through the new scanners. Just an old-school metal detector, wand, and litmus test for hands.

For the flight, we took books and toys and snacks--only fussing was tiredness when baby was too overstimulated to fall asleep at naptime. Once he finally fell asleep, though, he slept for 2+ hours (of 6). He was not interested in drinking on takeoff or landing and seemed okay on the ear front without it. All in all, a great first experience; airline was also great. Only thing mentioned at all was triple checking that we had, in fact, bought him a seat when we declined gate check for the car seat (and they confirmed that we had a window seat at that point). Otherwise, smooth sailing.

Good luck!!