My eldest son turns 22 this month. I flew many times with him by purchasing a seat and using his car seat strapped into that seat. For years, it seems, I flew with one of the kids in a purchased seat w/ carseat.

But for my best Mom-Magician trick to gain extra cabin space, I would frequently request a configuration of seat reservations that deliberately left one seat empty between our others. We rarely had anyone put into that seat. If someone was assigned the seat, he or she inevitably asked the flight attendant to move him or her to any available seat elsewhere on the plane.

If I had small kids I would not even consider flying Alitalia and allowing them to charge me for my own lap space. That's obscenely mercenary. Delta is guilty by association.

Hello everyone,

I found this discussion interesting and would like to hear more from other parents on this.

Last year we traveled with Lufthansa with a baby on our lap. We were in bulkhead and were given a floor child bed. However during turbulance we had to keep the baby on the lap.

This year our child will be 2.5 and we will be traveling with Air France. I have contacted them about using a car seat for the child as he is under 18 kg. I have received an official answer that this is not possible and that the child has to be attached with a regular seat belt. Under 2 years the car seat has to be used if a baby does have a sit.
I went to other companies and it seems that in Europe this is a normal procedure. Also I have discovered that even if the baby had a car seat most of the companies ask to take the baby under 2 years on the lap during turbulance, takeoff and landing. So what is the use of the car seat? Only for babies too small for the regular sit.
I read that British Airways provides their own car seats Britax designed only for babies under 2 and only in bulkhead.

I read also that the airlines are not allowing because some of the car seats are too big and this is against safety regulations. Some accept only at the window, so people can get out fast if needed. Also, some of the car seats people use are old or can't be secured correctly into the plane seat, and this would be worst than not having a seat. The plane seats dimensions vary a lot from one company to another and from one plane model to another, so it might be hard to define a seat size that would fit any of them.

In general all this subject seem to be controversial and as long as there are no forcing regulations from government agencies, I guess each company will do whatever they decide. I guess for the plane they would need to define a size.
Also some consider the plane as a public transportation like a bus or a metro or a tram or a school bus where children are not secured. While others consider it as a car, this is where a car seat would be used. May be there is a need for a special airplane seat, that could be provided on request by the company or rented.

This thread is from 2003!!!

Well as a Mom of six,from the US and living in Europe we travel to the US and around Europe frequently.I ALWAYS purchase a seat for my babies under 2.That is I PAY for the seat,which secures my chids sitting safely in the car seat for the duration of the flight.
Anytime I have not purchased a seat I never brought along my car seat expecting an empty seat that I did not purchase for my baby.Did you ever hear you get what you pay for?You assumed there would be a vacant seat,therefore brought the car seat along,right?
If you had ,(as I do) pay for the seat Delta would have been %100 liable for the refund in this case.Alitalia has it's policy for whatever their reasons.
I understand you don't like their policy,however you were in no way entiltled to a seat.Being a a parent who pays for an infant seat it should not be an option.It should be the law that you have to pay a child fare for all infants and they must be in a car seat,end of story. Don't EXPECT to get what you have not paid for.

First I have no interest in supporting any airline. However, I have travelled to Europe many times thu Delta and it is well known that they use partner airlines most of the time. The tickets you received would have indictade that Alitalia was the airline.

Alos, their websites have all of the rules. It is impossible for an agent on the phoine to tell them to you. Even though you were paying for a baby they assume that you know or will learn the rules yourself. Even Aeemreicn airlines do not discuss various rules assuming that the user will obtain that inbfo themselves.

As for using an unoccupied seat. To allow peole to do so simply because there are empty seats would imply that anyone could walk on the plane without paying and use a seat because it is empty. That would be ludicrous.

It is unfortunate that there was a problem, but we, as Americans should always be aware that our laws and rulse do not follow us around the globe.

Being an informed traveller is imprtant but it is your responsibilty to be informed.

This is a four-year-old thread!

If you read the original post and the op's clarification points, you will see that a seat <i>was</i> purchased for the child, although at a reduced rate. The issue was solely that of not being allowed to use the safety seat. Hopefully, by 2007 Alitalia has brought its rules into compliance with the best practices of the rest of the world's airlines.

I was never clear on whether or not that reduced price guaranteed a seat or not for the child.

How they OP could repeatedly say this wasn't a price-paid issue is interesting.