10+ tips on how to get your baby through an airport
We just survived our first trip flying as a family of three, huzzah!
I'll be the first to say I'm not an expert, but I researched what to do for months before these flights from Los Angeles to Chicago and back and I was still caught off guard a few times. So here are the tips and tricks I learned along the way that I wanted to pass along to the parents of other tiny first time fliers...
Show up early.
Leaving California out of the small airport in Burbank was no big deal. But coming home out of Chicago's Midway was a mess. We got to the airport two hours early and still barely made it to our gate in enough time. With a baby under two years old, you're going to have to check in at the counter, get your boarding passes, get through security, find your gate, wait in line to see the agent to gate check the stroller, find a nearby coffee stand to order some warm milk, change the baby one last time before you board, go to the bathroom yourself, grab food or water for yourself, etc. It's better to be there way too early than risk being way too late and stuck stranded with a baby in an airport.
Ask an employee if there's a special family line for the ticket counter.
We waited at Midway in a line of easily 100 people that didn't move for 10 minutes. Thankfully a Southwest employee saw our baby, tapped me on the back and asked if we were traveling with a "lap child" and when I nodded yes, she sent us to an empty Southwest line on the opposite side! Young families have special needs that take a little longer for check in, so bigger airports often have a special area just for us. It's so much faster! And far less stressful. Though I had previously called Southwest and registered that we would be flying with a lap baby, we still had to show a copy of her birth certificate to the ticketing agent to prove she was under two years old and then they printed her "Boarding Verification Document" which allowed her to get through security and onto the plane. So you can print boarding passes for yourself at home but if you've got a lap baby, then you can't skip that long line at the ticket counter... unless there's a special family line!
Check EVERYTHING but a diaper bag and a stroller.
No matter what airline you're traveling these days, you can bet that 99% of the flights are completely booked. So don't even bother lugging around that car seat in hopes of your free lap-sitting baby getting an open seat. Though Southwest has open seating that makes it a bit easier to try and get an open spot in your row, you can bet that in the off chance there happens to be one open seat available on that plane, there will be a handful of other families with lap-sitters hoping to get that spot too. So just plan on carrying the baby and don't bother hauling everything else. For our first flight we took the car seat clicked into the stroller with the diaper bag on my back and then my husband rolled my suitcase with the baby's small suitcase attached and his bag on his back. We were told we could easily check it all at the gate, but there is nothing easy about it. You have to break down the stroller and get it into the protective bag, get the car seat into the protective bag, and then wait in line for the gate agent to process it all and print the tags. Then it all goes under the belly of the plane and you don't see it again until your final destination, where you have to pick it all up again and reassemble on a tiny gangplank with huffy deplaning passengers rightfully annoyed that you're blocking the way. Don't forget you're also wrestling a wiggly baby this whole time! Since you have to go to the ticket counter to verify the baby's age anyway, just go ahead and just check the car seat and your luggage while you're there. With Southwest, each parent can check two bags for free plus the car seat (and stroller if you wish) can be checked for free as well since they don't count toward your number of bags. Make the airline do all the hauling and heavy lifting! I recommend just gate checking the stroller and carrying on a diaper bag that's a backpack so your arms are free for wrestling the baby.
Have a well packed diaper bag.
You may think your trip will be a total of 6 hours, but there could be any number of delays that set you back - traffic, weather, maintenance, whatever. Pack like you're going to be gone an entire day. Bring extra food and water and more diapers than you think you'll need. Here's my list on 25+ things you should pack for your Little's flight.
Invest in protective travel bags for the car seat and stroller.
Whether you're checking all the way through or leaving at the gate, your stuff is going in the belly of the plane where it is likely to get damaged but will definitely get dirty. We dropped our infant bucket car seat and Baby's small suitcase into this travel bag and other than being ripped a bit on the first flight, it survived three additional flights like a champ. I'd much rather the travel bag get ripped than the car seat get damaged! Likewise we invested in the Britax stroller travel bag to protect the stroller and it held up like a champ. It's tight, but just insert it wheels-first and you'll be fine. You have to detach the clips that hold the car seat but those are held on by the attached strap and drop easily into the bag without risk of falling out and getting lost. Both bags easily folded up and laid flat at the bottom of the stroller basket so they were easy to pack and carry. (NOTE: every product I have linked on this blog are items I have researched, bought and used myself. I am a brand new mommy blogger, so I do not have any sponsorship or endorsements related to these links. These are simply the items I found helpful.)
Look for a family line at security.
Most "regular" airports are so streamlined there isn't a need for a family line to get you through the TSA security checkpoint, but the bigger hubs often have a line for strollers and wheelchairs that is far shorter. That group of people is slower, but the line is shorter so you'll likely get through much faster than the big line. If you can qualify for TSA Pre-Check, do it! One person with Pre-Check can take their whole family through that line.
Carry the baby through the metal detector.
Take off your shoes, take out your quart size bag of liquids, do all the usual stuff you do in security. But when it's time to get yourself through, they'll want you to walk holding your child (not in a baby carrier) through a metal detector. The baby doesn't have to go through the full body scanner.
Gate check the stroller.
We chose to take our full size Britax stroller because the infant Britax bucket car seat clips into it, which was fantastic for hauling Baby and her car seat all over downtown Chicago and taking Uber and taxi rides around town. I also loved having the full size stroller in the airport (as opposed to a smaller umbrella stroller) because we had the storage basket at the bottom to drop the diaper bag and up top we had the handle organizer to keep our phones, cold drinks, boarding passes, etc. When Baby passed out we reclined her back to the flat position which helped her sleep much longer than if she had been forced to sit upright in an umbrella stroller with her head kinked to the side against the bar. Plus it was great to have the full canopy once we got outside to the blazing sun for our adventures the rest of the weekend. Of course you can't take a stroller on the plane, full size or umbrella, so when you get to your gate check with the agent and have it tagged as a gate check item. Then just pack it up in your travel bag right before you board and drop it at the end of the gang plank right before you step on the plane. When you get off the plane it will be waiting for you (or will be coming soon) in that same spot. The gate checked items are the last to get loaded into the belly of the plane so they're the first to come off. It doesn't take long for the strollers to arrive. Be mindful of other passengers deplaning and be sure to stay to the side out of the flow of foot traffic while you wait.
Make sure the stroller is tagged "Claim at Gate" ONLY and not "Transfer" if you want to have it for your layover.
So for our flight there, the gate agent checked our stroller and it didn't arrive for the layover. We were told it would be at our final destination. So on the way back home we checked everything (including the stroller) at the ticket counter and just traveled with the diaper bag and the baby in our arms since we figured we couldn't get access to the stroller again anyway... except our arms were dead by the middle of the day and we desperately wanted our stroller! Once we got off the first flight, the Baby wanted to walk, which was great to tire her out but it also slowed us way down. For our layover in Vegas we had to walk from the end of Terminal B and get on the tram to Terminal C where we had to walk to the far other end. I loved that we all got to count those steps, but there wasn't enough time to let Baby do all that walking on her own, so we carried her most of the way. After a three hour flight of passing her back and forth between our laps, our arms were definitely getting sore but we had no option but to keep wrestling her on that long walk during the Vegas layover. It doesn't have to be all or nothing! I figured out that on the way there the agent gate-checked the stroller as a "transfer" AND "claim at gate" which and forced it to go through to our final destination where then waited for it on the gangplank. Well just tell him/her that you don't want the pink "transfer" tag which puts it directly on your next flight, but rather that you'd like a yellow "claim at gate" tag so you can have it for the layover.
Have good walking shoes for the whole family.
If your baby is walking, make sure they're in good shoes. There is going to be a lot of falling down, don't have their shoes be part of the reason why that's happening. Make sure you're in good walking shoes too, you're going to put some miles on your feet while carrying the extra weight of the baby and also hauling the car seat and stroller farther than you probably have before. Your feet and arms are going to get tired!
Pack plenty of distractions.
I have another whole post about what to pack for Baby's first flight, but basically don't forget extra water, food, a bottle, diapers and a million baby wipes and you'll get by just fine. Healthy snacks and cheap toys from the dollar store wrapped in tissue paper like a present are a fabulous distraction for a baby.
What else would you add to this list? Find me on Facebook and let me know!
www.Facebook.com/ListsForLittles
I'll be the first to say I'm not an expert, but I researched what to do for months before these flights from Los Angeles to Chicago and back and I was still caught off guard a few times. So here are the tips and tricks I learned along the way that I wanted to pass along to the parents of other tiny first time fliers...
Show up early.
Leaving California out of the small airport in Burbank was no big deal. But coming home out of Chicago's Midway was a mess. We got to the airport two hours early and still barely made it to our gate in enough time. With a baby under two years old, you're going to have to check in at the counter, get your boarding passes, get through security, find your gate, wait in line to see the agent to gate check the stroller, find a nearby coffee stand to order some warm milk, change the baby one last time before you board, go to the bathroom yourself, grab food or water for yourself, etc. It's better to be there way too early than risk being way too late and stuck stranded with a baby in an airport.
Ask an employee if there's a special family line for the ticket counter.
We waited at Midway in a line of easily 100 people that didn't move for 10 minutes. Thankfully a Southwest employee saw our baby, tapped me on the back and asked if we were traveling with a "lap child" and when I nodded yes, she sent us to an empty Southwest line on the opposite side! Young families have special needs that take a little longer for check in, so bigger airports often have a special area just for us. It's so much faster! And far less stressful. Though I had previously called Southwest and registered that we would be flying with a lap baby, we still had to show a copy of her birth certificate to the ticketing agent to prove she was under two years old and then they printed her "Boarding Verification Document" which allowed her to get through security and onto the plane. So you can print boarding passes for yourself at home but if you've got a lap baby, then you can't skip that long line at the ticket counter... unless there's a special family line!
Check EVERYTHING but a diaper bag and a stroller.
No matter what airline you're traveling these days, you can bet that 99% of the flights are completely booked. So don't even bother lugging around that car seat in hopes of your free lap-sitting baby getting an open seat. Though Southwest has open seating that makes it a bit easier to try and get an open spot in your row, you can bet that in the off chance there happens to be one open seat available on that plane, there will be a handful of other families with lap-sitters hoping to get that spot too. So just plan on carrying the baby and don't bother hauling everything else. For our first flight we took the car seat clicked into the stroller with the diaper bag on my back and then my husband rolled my suitcase with the baby's small suitcase attached and his bag on his back. We were told we could easily check it all at the gate, but there is nothing easy about it. You have to break down the stroller and get it into the protective bag, get the car seat into the protective bag, and then wait in line for the gate agent to process it all and print the tags. Then it all goes under the belly of the plane and you don't see it again until your final destination, where you have to pick it all up again and reassemble on a tiny gangplank with huffy deplaning passengers rightfully annoyed that you're blocking the way. Don't forget you're also wrestling a wiggly baby this whole time! Since you have to go to the ticket counter to verify the baby's age anyway, just go ahead and just check the car seat and your luggage while you're there. With Southwest, each parent can check two bags for free plus the car seat (and stroller if you wish) can be checked for free as well since they don't count toward your number of bags. Make the airline do all the hauling and heavy lifting! I recommend just gate checking the stroller and carrying on a diaper bag that's a backpack so your arms are free for wrestling the baby.
Have a well packed diaper bag.
You may think your trip will be a total of 6 hours, but there could be any number of delays that set you back - traffic, weather, maintenance, whatever. Pack like you're going to be gone an entire day. Bring extra food and water and more diapers than you think you'll need. Here's my list on 25+ things you should pack for your Little's flight.
Invest in protective travel bags for the car seat and stroller.
Whether you're checking all the way through or leaving at the gate, your stuff is going in the belly of the plane where it is likely to get damaged but will definitely get dirty. We dropped our infant bucket car seat and Baby's small suitcase into this travel bag and other than being ripped a bit on the first flight, it survived three additional flights like a champ. I'd much rather the travel bag get ripped than the car seat get damaged! Likewise we invested in the Britax stroller travel bag to protect the stroller and it held up like a champ. It's tight, but just insert it wheels-first and you'll be fine. You have to detach the clips that hold the car seat but those are held on by the attached strap and drop easily into the bag without risk of falling out and getting lost. Both bags easily folded up and laid flat at the bottom of the stroller basket so they were easy to pack and carry. (NOTE: every product I have linked on this blog are items I have researched, bought and used myself. I am a brand new mommy blogger, so I do not have any sponsorship or endorsements related to these links. These are simply the items I found helpful.)
Look for a family line at security.
Most "regular" airports are so streamlined there isn't a need for a family line to get you through the TSA security checkpoint, but the bigger hubs often have a line for strollers and wheelchairs that is far shorter. That group of people is slower, but the line is shorter so you'll likely get through much faster than the big line. If you can qualify for TSA Pre-Check, do it! One person with Pre-Check can take their whole family through that line.
Carry the baby through the metal detector.
Take off your shoes, take out your quart size bag of liquids, do all the usual stuff you do in security. But when it's time to get yourself through, they'll want you to walk holding your child (not in a baby carrier) through a metal detector. The baby doesn't have to go through the full body scanner.
Gate check the stroller.
We chose to take our full size Britax stroller because the infant Britax bucket car seat clips into it, which was fantastic for hauling Baby and her car seat all over downtown Chicago and taking Uber and taxi rides around town. I also loved having the full size stroller in the airport (as opposed to a smaller umbrella stroller) because we had the storage basket at the bottom to drop the diaper bag and up top we had the handle organizer to keep our phones, cold drinks, boarding passes, etc. When Baby passed out we reclined her back to the flat position which helped her sleep much longer than if she had been forced to sit upright in an umbrella stroller with her head kinked to the side against the bar. Plus it was great to have the full canopy once we got outside to the blazing sun for our adventures the rest of the weekend. Of course you can't take a stroller on the plane, full size or umbrella, so when you get to your gate check with the agent and have it tagged as a gate check item. Then just pack it up in your travel bag right before you board and drop it at the end of the gang plank right before you step on the plane. When you get off the plane it will be waiting for you (or will be coming soon) in that same spot. The gate checked items are the last to get loaded into the belly of the plane so they're the first to come off. It doesn't take long for the strollers to arrive. Be mindful of other passengers deplaning and be sure to stay to the side out of the flow of foot traffic while you wait.
Make sure the stroller is tagged "Claim at Gate" ONLY and not "Transfer" if you want to have it for your layover.
So for our flight there, the gate agent checked our stroller and it didn't arrive for the layover. We were told it would be at our final destination. So on the way back home we checked everything (including the stroller) at the ticket counter and just traveled with the diaper bag and the baby in our arms since we figured we couldn't get access to the stroller again anyway... except our arms were dead by the middle of the day and we desperately wanted our stroller! Once we got off the first flight, the Baby wanted to walk, which was great to tire her out but it also slowed us way down. For our layover in Vegas we had to walk from the end of Terminal B and get on the tram to Terminal C where we had to walk to the far other end. I loved that we all got to count those steps, but there wasn't enough time to let Baby do all that walking on her own, so we carried her most of the way. After a three hour flight of passing her back and forth between our laps, our arms were definitely getting sore but we had no option but to keep wrestling her on that long walk during the Vegas layover. It doesn't have to be all or nothing! I figured out that on the way there the agent gate-checked the stroller as a "transfer" AND "claim at gate" which and forced it to go through to our final destination where then waited for it on the gangplank. Well just tell him/her that you don't want the pink "transfer" tag which puts it directly on your next flight, but rather that you'd like a yellow "claim at gate" tag so you can have it for the layover.
Have good walking shoes for the whole family.
If your baby is walking, make sure they're in good shoes. There is going to be a lot of falling down, don't have their shoes be part of the reason why that's happening. Make sure you're in good walking shoes too, you're going to put some miles on your feet while carrying the extra weight of the baby and also hauling the car seat and stroller farther than you probably have before. Your feet and arms are going to get tired!
Pack plenty of distractions.
I have another whole post about what to pack for Baby's first flight, but basically don't forget extra water, food, a bottle, diapers and a million baby wipes and you'll get by just fine. Healthy snacks and cheap toys from the dollar store wrapped in tissue paper like a present are a fabulous distraction for a baby.
What else would you add to this list? Find me on Facebook and let me know!
www.Facebook.com/ListsForLittles
I've never had to take Evelyn out of a baby carrier except in Europe! that's crazy they made you take her out!
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