flying with baby

We flew with our baby a couple of times. Twice to Sweden / Denmark from New York when she was 10 and 14 months old, and once to Florida from New York at 15 months old. We didn't buy our baby a seat for any of the trips (we were trying to be economical), but four out of six flights we could put her in her car seat in an empty seat next to us. Having the baby in the car seat was so incredibly helpful, it made the trips so much easier not to mention that it's also much safer for the baby. Having the car seat there helped her to sleep, which made the trip much more relaxing.

Before we bought our first flight, we were how likely our baby would get a seat without a ticket. Then we talked to an a continental airlines employee and were suggested to call up 24 hours before departure or go check in really early and explain your situation to the staff. If the plane is not completely full, the will most likely make sure that you have an empty seat next to you for your child. Regulations for airlines in the US states that car seats can only be installed on window seats so we made sure that we booked a window seat when we bought our own tickets. Sometimes when we got to the airport the staff was not sure how full the flight would get, but we asked to bring along our car seat to the gate anyway. It's a bit annoying to have to carry the car seat all the way through the airport and then have it gate-checked if there's no empty seat for you baby but I think it's worth a try (obviously my husband is the one lugging the car seat). 

When we traveled to Sweden we found out that some countries outside the US doesn't allow gate-checking for the purpose of safety (in Scandinavia they said it was because in winter it gets so icy and slippery). Luckily we had the baby carrier with us!