I know, I’m a boring bastard – but you just bookmark this stuff now for when you grow up and have kids m’kay…. I spoke yesterday about how I had shifted my strategy towards frequent flyer programs by adding in Delta, SouthWest and JetBlue. I transferred enough Amex Membership Rewards for 3 JetBlue seats, even though our little cherub could fly for free (really free) as a lap infant.
Most parents will tell you – buy the damn seat. The reason is that you can feel confident that you can put the child into a car seat between entertaining them in order for them to nap. Having done both with and without a car seat, I can say its pretty helpful, though we managed to get from New York to Spain without one (even if it meant I had to stand for a while as someone stole the seat….
Anyway, back to JetBlue. After making the transfer, I decided at the last minute to only ‘buy’ 2 seats, a window and an aisle, in the hope that we might get lucky and have a free middle seat. Below is our seatmap (we are in row 8A and 8C – I have a funny feeling that across the aisle from us are some other savvy travelers….
As you can see, the plane is almost empty, and if you were going to select a seat you’d think it wouldn’t be in the middle when there are so many windows and aisle open right?
Strategy
So the goal is to get all three in a row, and then hope for the best, you approach the gate and ask if there is anyone assigned to that seat and if not could you please bring the car seat with you. When we did this last on an American Airlines flight they moved the other person out of his middle seat (which he didn’t mind at all) so we were free to use it.
We’ve done this twice, and had issues both times. So it isn’t plain sailing. The first time we did it the gate attendant opened up the middle seat for us, but then sometime between then and the 15 minutes before the gates closed someone was assigned that seat. It was a really stupid thing because there were at least 8-10 open seats, including further down the plane in Aisles and Windows, which were much more desirable. However, we had just installed the car seat into the middle when the passenger came up with a boarding pass, and we looked like we were stealing his seat. Cause a bit of a stir, but he moved and was ok about it all.
The second time (the return trip) the plane was just chock full and we had no option to make this happen. However, we just gate checked the car seat and made the best of it. I’m pretty sure it should go smoother than that, but it’s good to see the screw ups so you have perspective.
Tracking the flight
I don’t have an automated tool for this, but i’ll be dropping in periodically to check the seats on the plane and how busy it is. With some airlines, such as American Airlines I make a dummy booking and get as far as ‘choose your seat’ before bailing out again. I have found that searching for a revenue ticket is better since American and other carriers list different inventory for Award Seats vs All Seats. IE you could look at the plane and seat only 3 award seats left, but the cabin is still empty. If this JetBlue flight should start filling up, I’ll go back and buy the other seat.
Conclusion
I have the miles, but I am just being a big cheapie. A penny saved is a penny earned and all that…. I wasn’t going to go for the free seat in this case, but with so many empty ones it seems very unlikely that I’d need to pay for the seat. The way I see this worst case scenario I do pay, and perhaps the price in points increases (it is demand based pricing) or really really worse case I have to sit with him as a free lapchild. The duration of flight (3hrs 45 mins) makes that something I can live with at a push.
That you are even considering not securing an extra seat is proof you are a much braver man then me. Or more efficient traveler. Or both! The youngest child I’ve traveled with is two, but even for an infant I would still purchase the seat. Even if you’re fine with holding the child for the entire flight (which doesn’t sound ideal in itself), having that seat there for extra room when you need to dig into the diaper bag or prep a bottle is huge.
Im simply suggesting when its that empty we are guaranteed to get a row of 3. As it builds up the odds change and I will step in and acquire one when I feel the balance has shifted.
Gotcha. Makes sense.
My Wife and I flew with our daughter on two transpacific trips before she was 2. While I would have loved to strap her into a middle seat I wasn’t going to eat the $1000+ for the sake of comfort. In addition to the savings in cash or points… it built all kinds of extra character. I just can’t get comfortable enough in coach to sleep anyways, so it made no real difference for my trips. I can thoroughly understand those who do buy the seat though.
Paying money for Coach! Stop the madness! Yeah, its a haul…. coming back from MAD with him wasn’t smooth sailing, but it works out.
I would kill to have a child who tolerated a car seat for more than 2 minutes. My wife and I look at each other in awe when we see babies just hanging out in car seats on airplanes for hours at a time. Ours screams EVERY time we put her in her car seat and will continue doing so until she exits the car (we’ve even spent many hundreds of dollars on multiple car seats hoping that would solve the problem, as well as ipads, cell phones, books, toys, food, drinks, everything to no avail). Luckily for her, we live on an island so we have to fly when we want to go somewhere more than an hour away, and for time being, it remains socially (somewhat) and legally acceptable to let her sit on our laps and she absolutely loves it.
That sucks – he starts out like that, screams a lot, but once we get going in the car he settles. In the plane we were very active, toys, talking, bottle etc to distract him, but we are lucky he can chill out for a little bit. It’s still a tag team, but it gives one of us 1-2hrs of downtime.
We always got a seat for both of the kids. I am not an anxious person by nature, but right before we started flying with my son (first child) as an infant, I saw a video about a lap baby in a plane & turbulence. That was enough to make me decide to always buy a seat & bring the car seat. And then he ended up being a super cranky baby, so having his carseat to sooth him & help him sleep prevented the other passengers from giving us the crying baby stink-eye. Win-win.
I was literally just typing some thoughts on this – the only flight I regretted not buying a seat was when she was 23 months old. I’m wired to take as much “free” stuff as I can – and did!
Yeah, I couldn’t bring myself to pay for a ticket. Didn’t regret it until she was 23 months! That was only one flight
No kids, but my husband and I always book aisle and window and hope the middle stays empty. If the flight gets fuller, my advice to you would be to choose slightly further back, maybe row 14 or so. Especially in the anecdote where someone was assigned to your middle seat twice, I’m assuming you were near the front of the plane. The front (especially the free seats) are more likely to fill up with people who just want to be at the front of the plane.
Be VERY careful making dummy bookings with AA, apparently they have a “feature” in their system that creates a PNR whenever you click through, and then they accuse customers of using it to manipulate inventory:
http://roadwarriorette.boardingarea.com/2014/03/21/american-penalized-aadvantage-account-for-seat-blocking/
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage-pre-consolidation/1598505-hayes-usdot-aa-fictitious-bookings-checking-upgrades.html
We never paid for a seat for a <2yr old. We didn't travel that much back then, though. I never regretted it. Wished we had a free seat for her, but never so badly that I would've considered paying money for a seat… we weren't in the miles game back then, but I doubt I'd had been tempted to part with miles either. Probably should, though. It's much safer for a kid to be in a car seat.
We always bought a seat after the first trip where we didn’t! For us, it’s a safety thing primarily, but it also buys you the full row if you’re a family of 3. Our daughter still hates sleep, but even she would eventually get in her car seat and sleep back then.
We considered the window/aisle trick before, but honestly, planes go out full from PWM/BOS. I haven’t had an empty seat next to me in well over a year. One trick I’ll give you, if you can call it that, is to book your seats near the back of the plane if you’re trying this. When gate assigning seats, most airlines fill from front to back – so that back middle seat is more likely to go out empty than one toward the front of the plane.
I’ve researched it and decided to always book a seat and bring the carseat. My son is traveling this way even at age 5. Here are my reasons:
– Having my son sit in his car seat is safer. Even though air travel is safer than car travel, turbulence, take off, and landing can still cause enough bumps to seriously harm a baby or small child. Better to be strapped in.
– Since my son is used to traveling in his car seat, he’s more comfortable and relaxed during flights. He also never asks to get up and walk around in the plane, which makes things safer and easier.
– Honestly, I’m kind of picky but I just don’t trust baggage handlers or even flight attendants to properly handle our car seat. I’ve seen them break guitars and wheelchairs… I’m not going to trust them with my son’s safety seat.
Pay for something for which, in the end, would be free (getting your family quickly and safely from point a to point b)? I thought I knew you Matt… 🙂 That’s like paying for bottled water when tap water is just as good.
Ironically I just returned from the JetBlue trip… The middle seat filled up. So it was better to buy it.