Answering those airline travel questions, part 1

If you haven't taken your infant on an airplane yet and are wondering what you need to know before you do, you may be interested in my own experiences flying with my ten-month-old son. I've taken him on three separate round-trip flights between Texas and Illinois: the first when he was four-and-a-half months old, the second when he was six-and-a-half months old, and the most recent when he was eight months old. I've flown two different airlines (American and United) and had both non-stop and one-stop flights.

In this first post, I'll focus on my experiences with checking in for flights, getting through security, and boarding the plane.

Q. Do I need to bring my infant's birth certificate to show at the ticketing booth?

A. When my husband and I were preparing to take the first flight with our son, we did a lot of reading on the American Airlines website to try to find the answer to this question. We did not see anything about it, but just to be cautious, we packed our son's birth certificate anyway. When we got to the ticketing booth, the only thing the American agent asked us about our son was his name and age. I then received a ticket stating I was traveling with an infant. No birth certificate or other form of identification for him was required. When we flew United, I had the same experience (except for United did not even ask for my son's name and age).

So, bottom line, if you're flying domestically on either American or United, I would say you don't have to bring your infant's birth certificate. But since my experience is limited to these two airlines and domestic travel, I can't say for sure that you don't need a birth certificate on a different airline or if you're traveling internationally.



Q. If I'm traveling with my infant, can I use a self-service kiosk to check in for our flight?

A. We tried this on our most recent flight on United, and the kiosk was almost done processing our information when I noticed it hadn't asked me anything about traveling with children. I asked one of the agents about it, and she said that if I had an infant traveling with me that I'd need to check into the flight the traditional way to get the special "traveling with infant" ticket. Then I remembered that for our other flights on American, we had checked in the traditional way. So I would recommend standing in line to check in with an actual agent, just in case the airline you're traveling on is like American or United. You wouldn't want to waste any precious time at the self-service kiosk!


Q. Do I have to check my infant seat and/or stroller with my luggage?

A. No, you do not have to. In fact, if you do this when you are checking in for your flight at the ticketing booth, you may have to pay extra. As I recall, both American and United charge a fee if you want to check your infant seat and/or stroller along with your luggage at the ticketing booth.

There is no charge, however, if you take the infant seat and/or stroller with you to your departure gate and check it there. (This may be more comfortable for your infant, too!) The gate agent will give you special tags for any pieces of baby equipment you want to check. When you board the plane, you leave the equipment in the designated spot on the jetway. Once your plane arrives at its destination, you can pick up the equipment again.

Keep in mind that you can only bring your infant seat onto the plane if you've paid for an extra seat for it, or if you get lucky and there is an empty seat next to your own on the plane. I've never actually taken my son's infant seat on board a flight, so I don't know if there are restrictions on how it is to be placed in the plane seat (rear facing or front facing, etc.)


Q. What do I need to know about taking my infant through the airport security line?

A. Once you get to the front of the line, you will have to take your baby out of his/her infant seat or stroller and put these items on the conveyor belt to be scanned. The infant seat has to be flipped upside down to fit through the opening of the conveyor. The stroller obviously has to be folded up on the conveyor. A folded umbrella stroller will have no problem fitting through the opening of the conveyor, but a folded standard-size stroller may only fit through the opening if the bigger back set of wheels are on top. (I have a Graco stroller that's part of a travel system, and this has been my experience.)

You will also have to let the security people know if you have formula or breastmilk in any of your bags due to airport restrictions on liquids. It's perfectly fine to have these; the security people just need to be aware of them. They will take the bottles and wave a special pH strip over them to ensure they do not contain anything hazardous.

- J's Mommy