Plane Travel With Children - Sitting In The Bulkhead Row

Traveling by airplane with children under two doesn’t have to be difficult.  The child flies free, which is always a plus, and something about the air pressure seems to make most babies fall asleep.  If you are still nursing your child, that works wonders during takeoff and landing.  If not, holding your child and giving them a bottle will probably suffice.

In my experience, airlines will sometimes try to put children under two and their parents in the bulkhead row - the first row of the coach section.  We were actually put here against our will on an international flight one time.  I can’t speak for everyone, but for my family, it was the worst possible row to be placed in.  It was the furthest from the flight attendants and from the bathroom and it had no storage space under the seat in front of you because there was no seat in front of you.

All of our daughters diapers/water bottle/toys/etc. had to be stored in the overhead bins, and we couldn’t access them until the seat belt light was turned off.  On this particular flight, we were 2 1/2 hours into the flight before the light was turned off!  Also, the lavatory was at the rear of the plane, so if we needed to take our child there, we had to deal with the food carts in the aisle.

The tray tables and televisions came out of the armrest, and there was no way to have our daughter in our lap with the tray table in place.  Fortunately, there were two adults and we were able to switch off eating and holding.  I’m not sure how we would have been able to eat otherwise.  The only positive was that she could sit on the floor between us for part of the flight and play with some toys.

Different families have different traveling needs, and perhaps some would prefer the bulkhead row.  For my family and me, we prefer the rear of the plane where it’s often more quiet, near a restroom, and better suited to our child’s needs.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 3:41 am and is filed under Airplanes With a Toddler, Featured, Plane Travel With a Baby, Sitting In the Bulkhead Row, Traveling With a Baby, travel with a baby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.