Top 10 things I wish I knew about flying with babies before I flew with a baby

Last week I posted a reel on Instagram that talked about one of our hacks of flying with a baby. It was the tip that talked about calling the airlines ahead of time and asking to book the seat with the baby bassinet. It was one of my most watched reels with thousands of views and I had a lot of messages pouring in of people telling me they never knew that was an option and asking for more details about it. Then I got to thinking and I thought, I guess I never knew it was an option until I had kids and someone told me, so then I started thinking about some of the other tips that I wish I knew before I flew with a baby for the first time, so here are the top 10 things I wish I knew back then!

1. Children under the age of 2 fly free as long as they sit on an adult’s lap. It is one child per adult’s lap, so for a while when we had 2 under 2, we would only pay for 2 adult tickets, for our family of 4. Take advantage of this when you have little ones this age! This is true on US based airlines and most airlines we have flown throughout the world. In some countries, you still pay taxes on the infant, but even still, that price is far cheaper.

2. If you have a child under 2 who you did not pay for a seat for, you can always ask the gate agent if they have any open seats and a lot of times, they will be able to offer that extra seat so baby can have their own seat for free. I would say this has worked probably 2/3 of the time for us and we have gotten a free seat for our little one.

3. If you do want to pay for a ticket, you can bring your actual car seat on board the airplane for your child to sit in. This is the safest place for your baby to be. It also gives your child a place to sleep and lets you be hands free. Also, if you choose not to pay for your seat and were lucky enough to get a free seat for your baby by asking the gate agent, if you were planning on gate checking the car seat, you can instead just bring it on board the airplane and have your child still sit in the car seat.

4. You can check strollers and car seats for free. You can either check them at the counter where you check your other luggage, or what we typically do is wait to check them at the gate. That way, you can use the stroller through the airport. We have also noticed that they are more picky about what else you put in the stroller bag if you check it at the ticket desk versus when you gate check it. We never put valuables in the stroller bag, but will do extra diapers/swim diapers, things like that, that we would not be heartbroken if we lost. The one time, we checked it at the ticket counter, they were very picky and checked to make sure it was only the stroller in the bag and we had to take the diapers out. But do note, security does want your stroller to go through the security machine so everything has to come out of the stroller.

5. You can carry as much breastmilk or formula onto the plane as you think your baby will need. This also means that if you are formula feeding your baby, you may bring water through security as long as you tell them it is for the baby. Now they will check each bottle of liquid at security but this is a pretty seamless process. I have found its easiest if I place the liquid in a 1 Liter clear bottle because then they just scan it and never have to open the container. Versus if you have 4 bottles of milk, they will have to check each individual bottle. You can also bring it in a non-clear bottle, however, then you have to open each container (say like a sippy cup) and they put a tag over it to double check that the fumes coming off it are not a threat. That’s why I like the big clear bottle that they scan, security never opens it and you move through security pretty quick. I also try to always send my liquids through the security scanner first, that way by the time I get myself and the kids though, they are already done scanning it. You can also bring a cooler with ice packs to keep it cold. And then if we are on longer flights, I ask the flight attendants for a bag of ice to keep it cold, (if you don’t have a bag, as bad as it sounds, the CLEAN vomit bags work great as an ice bag because they are water-proof).

6. Infants get a free diaper bag that does not count towards your carry-on allowance. This means that if you are flying on a budget airline where you only get a personal item, you can bring a bigger bag and call that your diaper bag and that bag will be free!

7. Breast pumps are considered medical equipment and if you are bringing a bag that carries your breast pump and supplies, that bag is also not included in your carry-on baggage allowance.

8. Children under 3 get to board the airplane first on most airlines. If you are on an airline, where you don’t have an assigned seat, this is a huge benefit because then you are more likely to get to sit together with your family. Even if you do have assigned seats, the gate agents are typically less picky about your baggage allotments because they are just trying to get you and your kids through the line so they can board the rest of the flight.

9. A lot of international flights offer baby bassinets for free use for babies under a certain weight limit. You can either pick the seats that you know offer the baby bassinets or you can book the cheaper seats, as the baby bassinet seats are typically extra legroom seats that cost more money as they are typically the seats in the front row or right after the flight attendants station. If you book the cheaper seats, call customer service well ahead of time and ask if they can change your seats to the seats that offer a baby bassinet. Now most of your airplanes that are a 737 (your typical plane that flies for 2-4 hour flights in a 3+3 seating plan) or smaller will not offer baby bassinets. These are reserved for larger planes with a longer duration flight, more for your international flights. There is typically 1 seat per cabin, so they can be found in business class, economy plus, and economy cabins. We have used these on United Airlines and the weight limit for infants was 22 pounds. And also note that babies can not be in the bassinet on take off or landing or any other time that there is turbulence and that captain has the seatbelt fasten sign on. But even with that, it can be a lifesaver so both you and your infant can get some decent sleep on the airplane!

10. The majority of major international airports have nursing rooms or nursing pods. You are free to nurse/pump anywhere in the airport or while on the airplane. It is actually beneficial to your baby’s ears to feed your baby on take off and landing to help them with pressure relief. But if you are not comfortable, there are plenty of comfortable, free spaces designed just for you as their mama. You can look up the pod locations at https://www.mamava.com/find-mamava. All airplanes also have changing tables in the bathroom. Now, they aren’t the biggest or the most convenient, but at least they have them and give you a spot to change your baby or to use it as a table if you need to clean pumping parts etc.

BONUS: If you have TSA PreCheck or global entry, children age 12 and under may use the TSA PreCheck lane when traveling with a parent and follow all the same rules as their parents!

So there you have it, those are my well 11 top best tips for traveling with a baby through an airport in order to make the trip as seamless for both parents and baby!