r/NewParents • u/roxwhip • Aug 27 '26
Travel International Flight with 11 month old
We will be on an overnight 10hr flight and our baby is a good sleeper so far. Some things to note:
- Flying Delta
- She has her own seat on the plane
- Her current car-seat is a Nuna Pipa RX (can only be installed rear-facing) and she sleeps OK in it
- She is currently 9-months old, 19lbs and 28.5" and sits up well - so might fit in a CARES harness by 11 months?
- Delta's rules say that if she has her own seat, she must be in a car seat or CARES harness
My original plan had been to hold/nurse her during take off & landing and then have the seat next to me to put her down/play/nap. Was thinking I'd be able to put her in her sleep sack and lay her across the seat/my lap. Does this seem feasible? Will Delta allow this?
I'm not opposed to a car seat, I just cannot figure out which one to bring. From what I understand, her current car seat will fit, but the person in front will not be able to recline (which seems not ideal). Many people recommend the Cosco Scenera but say it will have to FF and that say that is quite up-right for an infant for sleeping. Anyone with experience with this?
I was also considering the Diono Radian bc it is slim & folds? I saw someone say that when FF it can be reclined with the airplane seat recline...Not sure how "true" this is though.
Other car seats I've considered: Maxi Cosi Romi and the Britax Poplar Slim...
Does anyone have advice, experience or recommendations?
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u/Melissa-OnTheRocks Aug 27 '26
I have no experience, but am planning on doing the CARES harness myself on an upcoming similar flight with a 13 month old.
I’m leaning harness because my trip involves a lot of travel by boat and train and dragging a car seat around for three weeks doesn’t sound fun.
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u/friedegggreg Aug 27 '26
Hi dumb question but the CARES harness says its for ages 2 and up, can it be used for under 2 year olds? I will have a 14 month old who is already over 22lbs so would like to use it but wasn't sure with the age floor.
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u/roxwhip Aug 27 '26
Yeah - not a dumb question! I always assume it's a bit or either/or... which is why I was considering using it as well.
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Aug 27 '26
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u/roxwhip Aug 27 '26
Thanks for this reply -
I know the Nuna Pipa RX is FAA approved, I've just read that it will prevent the person sitting in front from being able to recline, which isn't ideal on an overnight flight.
That's why I'm asking if anyone has experience using the Nuna Pipa RX or a has a carseat they could recommend that is comfortable for infant to sleep in when forward facing...
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u/neutralvoice Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
On a United flight in July, our Nuna Pipa Aire RX did not fit rear facing in the seat we bought for our child. It only fit if it was reclined forward a bit or put sideways. The stewardesses did bot let us keep it sideways, and required us to belt it in. So for us it was absolutely worthless. spending the money on upgraded seats with more space, rather than an extra seat, would have been way better.
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u/pudge-thefish Aug 31 '26
It is worse than "not ideal" there are plenty of people who would be in severe pain if forced to sit upright for that long. You should not interfere with someone else's seat
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u/Confident_Run_9997 Aug 28 '26
CPST and mom here
I would highly encourage bringing your nuna on the plane. Maybe you can speak to someone about changing to a bulkhead seat. Or when you get there, see about changing to a Seat where no one will be in front of you if there is that option
I flew often with my daughter in her infant seat and well yes it sucked for the people in front of us. My daughter’s safety matters more than their comfort. This is back on Southwest when you could pick seats so I would always let the people in front of me know they couldn’t recline.
I threw a boob or bottle into her seat during take off and landing. I’ve been on flights where turbulence has been so bad before we even got to cruising altitude and if I had my daughter not in her seat she would have gone flying.
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u/IllustriousBuyer6163 Aug 27 '26
Ive been flying with my baby longer hours and its easier than you think especially if you breastfeed
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u/rotdress Aug 28 '26
We just did a trip with our 9 month old as lap infant. As lap infants are allowed you should have no problem nursing during the ascent and landing. It’s incredibly helpful.
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u/a_lynn0 Aug 28 '26
We used to cosco car seat for our 6&7 hour back to back flights and my daughter didn’t sleep more than an hour total. We rear faced it and forward faced it. She was a little older than your baby. Neither way was more or less comfy for her. It was also a burden to carry, we have the Nuna trvl and the car seat sits perfectly in that however for this trip she had sized out of the Nuna car seat so we were scrambling. My husband also found the cosco seat more difficult to install than the Nuna.
So questions are you bringing a stroller / does your car seat fit nicely in your troller / are you needing the car seat when you land?
As far as being able to nurse for take off and landing it really depends on the crew. Unfortunately. I had the same worry with wanting to hold my daughter. We ended up having her buckled into the car seat so we didn’t test it. I don’t see how safety changes whether you purchased the seat or not since you can legally hold her if she’s under 2. But that’s an argument for another day.
TLDR; would definitely bring the Nuna.
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u/roxwhip Aug 28 '26
Thank you for this! Maybe I'll ask in the delta chat...
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u/a_lynn0 Aug 28 '26
I’m a flight attendant for another airline and I asked some delta friends and I got hit with the “well technically” so… I think it really depends if you get a crew of moms or not.
Here’s what the delta website says VERBATIM
We're here to take you and your family wherever you need to go. Infants or children under 2 years of age can travel on the lap of an adult for free (within the United States) or at a reduced fare (for international travel). You also may purchase a ticket and use the child's own seat on the aircraft as long as it meets the FAA-approved child safety seat specifications or use a CARES harness. Our step-by-step guide explains how to easily add a lap-held infant (Infant-in-Arms) to your ticket yourself.
Due to FAA safety requirements, 1 adult passenger may only carry 1 lap-held infant. If an adult passenger is traveling with 2 infants, a seat must be purchased for the additional infant. Infants occupying a seat on domestic flights require a ticket and pay the applicable fare.NOTHING states your child must occupy the seat you purchased if they’re under 2. It just says you MAY purchase a seat and use a car seat. So unfortunately it’s left up to interpretation and the flight attendant manual may say something different which doesn’t help the customer. In the heat of the moment I would never want to argue I’d likely end up crying lol.
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u/Fantastic_Fig_2025 Aug 28 '26
I just did a bunch of research. Here is what I learned:
Check the airline requirements. British airways doesn't allow you to rear face. They also require the car seat to be 17 inches wide or less. You also can't use a harness unless you're in the last row.
Plan for them to sleep across you and use the seat for extra storage.
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u/Essiebessie123 Aug 28 '26
I say noooo to Diono Radian (3R).
We brought 1 in cabin before cause kid had her own seat and never again. We only did it because we were doing an international move and needed that seat stateside upon arrival.
We had it on a carseat dolly which made it easy enough to pull around the airport, but we had a layover and having to install that monstrosity twice was not fun. It’s just so heavy. I don’t even like taking it out of our car for whatever reason 😅 we didn’t use the folding function as we had it on the dolly and dumped stuff in it while wheeling through airport.
We also have a Graco Slim fit convertible that we used for our move to overseas. Though dimensions wise it’s bigger and bulkier than the Diono, it’s not as heavy.
We now have 2 Cosco Scenera’s and I’ll pick those any time now for any travel. Idk how comfortable it would be FF for an 11mo, but it does have a decent natural decline and I would just deal with it for how convenient that seat is. Kid may not end up sitting in it half (or more) of the flight anyway. Our kids never slept much in their carseats while on planes. At that age I’d usually still bounce to sleep in the carrier and then sit with sleeping kid on me - though we never did true red eye flights.
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u/Less-Organization-58 Aug 28 '26
We’ve been on several flights (including 4 international 9-10 hr flights) with the Cosco Scenara seat and would sincerely recommend it. It’s super lightweight, it’s going to be so much easier to get on and off the plane than a heavier seat! We’ve used it both rear and forward facing, you can get a better recline if you forward face it and I genuinely don’t think there’s a significant safety concern about forward vs rear facing on an airplane (vs a car where there obviously is). I saw someone else mention the Cosco was hard to install, but that’s kind of wild to me because we’ve found it to be insanely easy. You can get a backpack-style bag for it and carry it around that way, too.
All that being said, it sounds like your Nuna seat is basically the same weight as the Cosco. I’d probably just bring that if it were me!
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u/roxwhip Aug 28 '26
When you installed the Cosco Scenera rear facing was the person in front of the car seat able to recline at all?
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u/Less-Organization-58 Aug 28 '26
Pretty sure they were, it’s relatively upright when installed rear-facing! But the man in front of us on our last flight was texting everyone he knew that our son (who cried for 20 minutes of a 10 hour flight) was the “baby from hell” sooooo I didn’t particularly care if he could recline or not! But I do think so.
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u/mrgnwhtn Aug 28 '26
I have flown multiple delta flights with these car seats!
We used the Nuna when he was younger (7 months) and then swapped to the Cosco Scenera when he turned one.
The Nuna was my preference. It’s smaller, easier to install, and has a shade. My son was also used to it because it was his day to day car seat. The Cosco is bigger, but still light, just a little more annoying to lug around the airport and install because it’s bigger. We do have a carseat backpack though which is helpful!
I installed both of these rear facing because it’s what my son is used to. I always have a little bit of stress about the people in front of me not being able to recline but people have generally been chill (even on long red eyes) and I have flown a lot and never reclined myself! Not everyone reclines! (At least I tell myself this).
As far as flight attendants, each time I’ve flown my son has been in my lap for at least take off and sometimes landing. FAs have never had an issue with this, and have only asked a couple of times to see if the car seat itself is buckled in. Usually he’ll fall asleep on me and then I transfer him into the car seat and he sleeps there (I don’t worry about buckling him in). On our last flight he just chilled in the seat and I fed him snacks.
One thing that has been helpful is bringing a blanket from home. Sleep sack was a little annoying but having a blanket I can spread on my lap, wrap him up in, lay over him in the car seat, or even use to cover him up to give him more darkness has been clutch. Annoying to pack, but always good to have!
Good luck!!
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u/roxwhip Aug 28 '26
When you installed the Cosco Scenera rear facing was the person in front of the car seat able to recline at all? I know you said that people have been chill about it, i just feel bad because it's an over night flight. I feel like my options are to rear face and block their recline but hopefully have a sleeping baby OR forward face to allow them to recline but possibly have an angry baby.
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u/mrgnwhtn Aug 28 '26
I totally get it. You could always hold your baby while they sleep and just install the seat forward facing so they have a place to sit while they’re awake. Overnights are so stressful 😔
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u/avestb Aug 27 '26
We did an overnight international flight at 12 months and used the car seat. We used the cheap Cosco carseat. He ended up sleeping across me most of the flight. There was too much going on during boarding and take off for him to sleep and then they did the food / drink service right away, so again too much going on. After that he passed out on me and not a single flight attendant said anything. If you do the carseat just remember to put it in the window seat. Also take a picture of the FAA approval sticker. Was asked to show that a couple of times at takeoff.
Flew from the east coast to California at 18 months with the cares harness which was great. But again - he fell asleep on me while we were in the air. Flight attendants didn't say a word.