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Hawaii Babies
we're going to Hawaii & Manila!
We are going on a trip to Manila (Philippines) this November! Yay! I have family who live there and it's been 4 yrs since I last visited. Since it's a looong flight, we found a good excuse to stop on Oahu to break the flights :-). We'll stop on Oahu to/from Manila. We'll only be in Hawaii for 5 days total but I'll take whatever I can get. It will be Elle's 1st long flight! She hasn't been on a plane yet but we plan to make a short/practice trip on a plane prior to November. Thanks goodness for miles, we will be able to fly 1st class on the DC/HNL-HNL/DC leg!
Question for you frequent travelers...since it's going to be a long flight, do you think we need to get a seat for LO? We'll be traveling a few days after LO's 1st birthday. I am assuming she'll be a little bit mobile by then. As much as possible, we do not want to pay extra to get a seat for her but if we'll all be uncomfortable for the entire trip, then we may reconsider. One of my friends who traveled to Manila recently with her 1 yr old said her LO pretty much sat/slept on her lap the entire time so buying a seat (~$1000 ticket) wasn't worth it. What do you think? Should we just cross our fingers and hope that there is a free/extra seat that we can take?
Anyway, I am psyched!! I am so excited to bring LO to Hawaii and show her off to family and friends in Manila. As the trip gets closer, I'll check back here and see if we can plan a mini gtg on Oahu :-).
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Re: we're going to Hawaii & Manila!
For safety reasons, yes, especially since it's a long flight.
Cassie was 11 months old for her first plane ride and I didn't purchase the extra seat because it was a very short flight (1 hour) and I figured she would just sit on my lap anyway. Not trying to scare you here, but it wasn't until I returned from our trip and heard stories on the news about turbulence and babies getting injured that I realized the risk involved
https://www.babycenter.com/404_should-i-book-an-airplane-seat-for-my-child_7297.bc
Sounds like a fun, fun trip! I'm very jealous
How exciting for you!
Those are really long flights! If you can swing it I would buy a seat - especially if LO likes her carseat. J falls asleep in his carseat so easily. The times we have had a seat for him on the plane made it a lot easier. He was strapped in and saw that everyone else was too so he was fine with it and played with his toys or slept.
Travel has gotten harder and harder as he gets older. We don't buy him a seat and don't plan to until he's 2 but have gotten lucky and given an extra a couple of times. At 6 mo. he easily slept in our arms. By 7-9mo he wanted to sit up and go back and forth between us. At 1 year he still slept a little, but really wanted to crawl and walk around. 2 more trips before he turns 2. Not really looking forward to the 5+ hr. flight to Maui in Nov. because I know he isn't going to want to sit still. In Dec. I'm flying with him alone (in order to avoid the red eye DH has to fly on) and know it will be unpleasant.
I know safety is a concern too, but the issue is restraint, not the carseat itself so I always have the ergo handy and would strap J in if I felt like I couldn't hold on to him. The FA's would presumably be strapped into their jump seats and couldn't tell me otherwise... So for now we are ok with traveling with him a a lap child to save money.
I hope we are in Hawaii when you are there!
We have flown 10 times and have not purchased a seat for Kaya. We don't plan to until she turns 2 either. We haven't gone on such long flights, though. 5.5 hours max (Hawaii to Vegas). I think it really depends on the kid. Kaya is very active, always has been. We've gotten lucky and had an extra seat for her almost every time (we fly Southwest a lot and since it's open seating it's easy to save the seat in our row). I always have the Ergo, too, so that she can nap on me. You can't use it during take off or landing, but during the flight is fine. I think you'll be fine since you have a Beco and can face her out. I'm thinking I should bring my Belle carrier so I can sit her in my lap and face her out yet have her strapped to me.
It also depends on what time your flights are. If you're taking red eyes I really wouldn't buy a seat since she'll probably sleep a lot. We booked red eyes both ways for our next trip to Hawaii but I'm still dreading it and am just praying she sleeps the whole way.
For safetey reasons, yes, a seat is better. But I wouldn't buy one. You never know if your LO will actually stay in the seat and since we end up trying whatever works to keep baby happy and quiet while traveling, you might not really use it. I would just take the carseat and gate check on each flight, taking it on board if they tell you there's room. Some airlines will even re-seat the three of you so that you'll be next to an extra seat, if available.
We've done 5+ hour flights twice with A, the first being when he was about 13 months old. We lucked out and got an extra seat between us for both legs of that flight, and it was great. He does well in the carseat, and we were able to keep him in it for 4 of the 5 hours of each leg. Way better than dealing with a jittery, excited baby who wants to climb and get into everything!
On our second trip, however, the planes were booked solid (as happens a lot with flights to/from HI), and he had to stay on my lap in the Ergo. This was totally fine as well. He slept most of the time and, even awake, stayed put. He's used to being in the Ergo, so that probably helped. Also, we happened to be seated near other children and that was a huge plus. He was entranced -- just staring and observing everything they did. Better than TV, which he doesn't show much interest in!
For us, it worked out well with or without the extra seat. I felt safer when he was in his carseat, but it was just fine without it as well.
Really?! I was able to use mine on take off and landing both times we were without the extra seat.
they are not approved FAA devices so they are not allowed during take off and landing. I am always told to unbuckle it as I board the plane and then again at landing prep -- sometimes not very nicely
but no one has ever had a problem with me wearing him to sleep by walking around near the back lavs.
eta: although I had actually never looked up the law. According to this post on mothering.com it seems like it could be ambiguous...
The FAA?s written policy about take-off and landing is actually not very clear. It stipulates that belly belts are banned (Duquette said they have been shown to cause abdominal trauma in turbulence) and that children may only be strapped into FAA-approved restraints, but it says nothing specific about front carriers or slings.
According to the FAA, ?The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) strongly urges you to secure your child in an appropriate restraint based on weight and size. Turbulence can happen with little or no warning. And when it does, the safest place for your child is in a CRS (child restraint system), not in an adult?s lap. Your arms just aren?t capable of holding your child securely, especially when turbulence is unexpected.?
I had to read that twice: Your arms aren?t capable of holding your child securely, especially when turbulence is unexpected.
Yet parents with lap babies may not hold them strapped securely into an Ergo Baby carrier, where they have no chance of flying out of their arms and bumping their heads on the airplane ceiling.
This seems both confusing and counterintuitive to me. Perhaps the policy was designed based on specific safety studies? Apparently not. Duquette was not aware of any tests comparing the safety of an infant being held in a parent?s arms versus strapped securely in a front carrier.
We've flown from Hawaii/MD twice with Ashton...long flights but we didn't purchase a seat. The first time he was 4 months old and slept the entire time. The second time he just turned one. He slept on our way to MD for most of the trip but was pretty much awake coming home. He just played on our laps.
Regarding the safely issue?.for me and what the airlines have told me, the main issue is when you are walking around the cabin holding a baby. If thing got rough you could fall and the baby could fly out of your arms, etc. We only got up to walk Ashton when we had to chance his poopy diaper. We kept in him in our laps the entire time. You may also look into asking for a bassinet for the long flight (bulk head seating). I wish I had known about this before.
Good luck! I would bring your car seat anyway to the plane and if they have an extra seat, great!
Maybe they didn't notice he was strapped in? Flight attendants are supposed to tell you that they have to be unstrapped for take off and landing.
Yeah, I'm guessing they didn't notice either time. I actually find it really interesting how different flying with a baby can be from one flight to another. Usually his lunch bag of milk and food just goes through security with little oversight, but at LAX they actually removed his bottles and tested the liquid. Also, once they re-seated us so we could use the carseat in a free seat and another time they told us we weren't even allowed to take it onboard if we hadn't purchased a seat for it, regardless if there were extra seats. We just took it on anyway since we'd heard earlier there was a spare one next to us. I guess it just goes to show that sometimes you luck out and sometimes travel involves a few extra steps.
And if they don't give you an infant lifevest to keep with you on trans-ocean flights, ask for one. I was surprised that Hawaiian Air didn't do this (they just tell you they're located over seat XX -- and good luck getting there in an emergency, I guess!), but United did. Now I know to always request it!
How exciting that you get to introduce LO to HI and family in Manila!
Do you know if your DC>HI plane has fully flat seats in First? The reason I ask is that we've flown with K at 6 months and 8 months to/from Hawaii and India (via Japan and Thailand) and if we didn't have fully flat seats, there's no way he could've slept for long periods of time (3-4 hrs at a stretch). Our flights were 4 hrs+6 hrs+9 hrs. We are going back to Hawaii (this time going from India to Korea and then to HI - 6 hrs+8 hrs) in September and I have a feeling we're going to be doing a LOT of walking around the plane. K does not sit for long periods of time now that he's learning to walk and is so curious about his surroundings. But, he does settle down if I put him in the Ergo (although, all the flights I've been on - internationally, they've made me take him out during take-off & landing, too).
We don't plan to purchase a seat for him until we have to, since shelling out another $5-6k on a business class seat is a bit pricey.
Christine - will you be in Hawaii in Nov?? We'll be there Nov 10,11, 12 (morning flight out to MNL) and then on Nov 25, 26 & 27 (red-eye flight to DC). Hopefully, our travel dates would overlap!
Thanks for the great tips! We'll bring our Ergo or Beco carrier on the plane. I really want to avoid paying an extra seat for her which would cost us $1000 vs $70! (for the international portion)
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I don't think the first class seats on Delta lay full flat. I think they only do for international flights.
We're also debating whether we need to bring both our stroller (we have a BOB Rev) and carseat :-/. In Hawaii, we can always request a carseat when we rent a car so that's no problem. In Manila, we'll be staying with my parents and use their car. Car seats are not mandatory in the Philippines so we can do without one if we want to but knowing how terrible drivers FIlipinos are, I don't want to take the risk of not having her in a carseat while in the car. Plus, I do not want her getting used to not being strapped in. Can we gate check both or are we allowed to gate check only one?
I also have to figure out how the food situation will be. On the flight from HNL-MNL, I was asked if I want to request baby food. I said yes. LO would have turned a year old a week before our flight so she's probably not 100% weaned off of formula. I haven't researched whether we can bring powdered formula on the plane?
DH just booked our hotels in HNL using hotel points and we only had to pay with $ for 2 nights. Yay for $ saved! We'll be staying in Waikiki :-).
We don't have definite plans yet for November but I'll take note of the dates you'll be there and I'll let you know. That would be really awesome if our dates overlapped.
Can you parents get a cheap car seat in PI for you? It would be kind of a pain to have to bring both the stroller and the car seat on such a long trip. I wonder about this, too. I mean, we want to go to Europe but I'm not sure if we would have to bring both. The only thing good about bringing the car seat is that if there happens to be an open seat on the flight, they may let you use it. I think they say you can only gate check 1 but we have gate checked both. Some airlines (like Hawaiian) say that jogging strollers aren't free, though. Double check on that. We plan to bring the BOB to Hawaii next month and I think we might have to pay but we'll see.
Like Melissa said, sometimes they tell you you can't even if there is an open seat. I was pretty annoyed the last time we flew back from HI because I asked at the ticket counter if the flight was going to be full and she said probably and she told us to check the car seat. And then there were a lot of open seats! When we flew TO HI from Vegas, the guy was SO nice at the ticket counter and blocked off a seat for us. So it really depends on who is helping you.
You should be able to bring powdered formula. I don't see why not. I was thinking of getting powdered goat milk for K so let me know what you find out.
Depends on your activities and your preferences, I think... but if you do take a stroller, could you take a smaller, umbrella-type? Aside from outdoor activities, we rarely use our jogger since a travel-sized one is so much easier to tote and serves him just as well.
Personally, I wouldn't want to lug around both the car seat and the BOB. It's pretty hectic getting through security with a LO, and add TWO big items to it... and taking them from plane to plane whenever you change flights... phew! So far, we've only traveled with the car seat, not the stroller. I took the Ergo and he's been a good walker for awhile, so we felt confident leaving the stroller behind. It was more important for us to have his own seat (for the plane if we could, and for rental cars so we didn't have to pay extra each day to rent), plus we didn't have anything planned where it'd make sense to have the stroller with us. Plus, I sort of agree with you about wanting the car seat, even though it's not required there. I traveled there once and was holding on for dear life! ;-)
how fun! it's so different planning a trip w/a LO huh?
we've never traveled w/a stroller but i'd probably get an umbrella stroller that you don't mind getting beat up. no real reason to bring a fancy one, i don't think.
check the TSA website about the powdered formula or call your airline. i'm not sure on that one but i know there is no limit to the amount of baby food or cow's milk if you want to bring that on board
(they say the limit is just "within reason"). i have always brought our own food on board for her, and use this nibble tray which is awesome for travel 
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
I would really hate to travel with our BOB (especially since it doesn't lock closed). I bought an umbrella stroller for travel. We have only flown domestically but we bring our car seat with us and at least once I know we have brought both and had no issue gate checking both. The stroller we have has a carry strap and also came with a free travel bag that is really handy. After just a couple of flights the bag has torn
but better that than the stroller itself.
We travel with a cheap-y cosco scenara carseat. It's super light, pretty simple to install (although I think someone else on this board had some difficulty with it) and I bungy cord it to a rolling bag to make it easy to carry. We don't have a bag for that because I don't really care what happens to it - but I am going to start asking for a plastic bag at check in b/c after one flight it was SOAKED. We were snow delayed at our lay over in Denver and I think they just let it sit outside all that time. Luckily we were flying to the ILs and MIL had a couple of extra towels in the car in case we needed them to roll up to get a proper install.