Flying Easyjet with a Baby or Toddler: Our Experiences
Easyjet is one of the budget European airlines and unsurprisingly, budget airlines come with more restrictions and rules to follow. How is it to fly Easyjet with a baby or toddler?
We flew with kids on almost every European airline. I won’t deny that we were hesitant to travel with our kids on budget airlines, but on a few occasions, we had no other option than to pick Easyjet with a baby and toddler in tow. We tried routes in and between France, Spain, Italy, and Sweden.
Here’s everything to know about flying with a baby on Easyjet, including the most important: personal experience when it comes to luggage and seating restrictions.
Easyjet with Infant
Easyjet accepts newborns as young as 14 days old and there are no exceptions given to infants younger than this, even with a doctor’s note.
When traveling with babies under 2 years old you have a choice between booking them as a lap infant or buying a seat for them.
Note that there are no bassinets offered on Easyjet flights as most flights are relatively short.
If you choose to purchase a seat for your infant, you must bring an approved infant car seat or CARES harness that has to be used for take-off and landing.
As with most airlines, you are only allowed to have one lap baby per adult ticket with another sitting in own seat safely secure. However, you can fly Easyjet with two infants per adult in total, so your twins or 2 under 2 will be fine with just you.
Infant Food on Easyjet
As Easyjet is a budget airline that only flies short distances, food is not included in your ticket for any age. There are meals and snacks available to purchase onboard for adults, but Easyjet doesn’t provide any baby food or meals so you will need to bring your own.
You are allowed to bring baby food, milk, and sterilized water (must be in a baby bottle) in your carry-on bag as long as it all fits inside a clear 20 cm x 20 cm bag. The 100ml limit on liquids doesn’t apply to baby food or water, but you might be asked to taste it while going through security to prove what it is.
For toddlers and children, there’s always some snack available for purchase.
Easyjet Lap Infant
It costs £25 per infant in arms on Easyjet flights and you need to book this in advance to ensure your whole family is accounted for.
When making your booking online you will be asked how many children and infants are traveling with you on the flight. If you add just one infant here it is assumed that they will be seated on your lap unless you contact customer service to buy them their own seat.
Baby Facilities on Easyjet
There are baby changing tables at the front and back of all Easyjet planes for you to use, just ask the flight attendant where they are.
The changing tables are small, and so are the bathrooms. However, it’s manageable for small babies. The crew almost made sure we were fine when changing the little one.
Note that Easyjet doesn’t have any additional supplies such as nappies or wipes so make sure you bring more than enough to last the whole flight.
Easyjet Car Seat Policy
Kids of all ages are allowed to use approved travel car seats onboard Easyjet flights as long as you have paid for their individual seats. However, you cannot place car seats in emergency exit rows or other restricted seats.
You are also only allowed to have 1 infant per group of 3 seats (in a row).
Accepted Car Seats on Easyjet
Easyjet only allows you to use forward-facing car seats on board that can be safely secured to the seat.
If your child can sit up unassisted, you can also choose to use CARES if your child weighs between 10 and 20 kg (22 and 44 lbs) and is under 100 cm (40 inches) tall.
Baggage Allowance for Babies and Kids on Easyjet
If you have booked a seat for your child or infant, they are entitled to the same luggage allowance as adults for both cabin and checked baggage.
The Easyjet baby policy also allows you to bring an additional diaper bag smaller than 45 x 36 x 20 cm with baby essentials on top of your regular cabin bag when traveling with an infant (ticketed or not). The bag must be placed under the seat in front of you during the flight.
Lap babies are not entitled to their own checked baggage however you can check up to 2 baby-related items per child or infant you are flying with for free.
Additional free checked items (2 per child):
- travel cot
- pushchair
- car seat
- collapsible or non-collapsible pram
- booster seat
- baby back carrier
These can be checked in at the regular baggage drop or at the gate, at least according to Easyjet. In reality, it truly depends on the airport staff and we encountered numerous issues when checking our items.
At Nantes Airport, we tried checking our car seats at the counter and we were told that it wasn’t possible and sent to gate check it. At the gate we were told that they’re not allowed to gate check any items, so we need to take it on board (ironically, because booster seats aren’t approved for in-flight use). Thankfully, both car seats fit in the overhead bin, but if we had a bigger stroller or bigger car seat, I’m not sure what would they do with it.
A similar situation occurred at Geneva Airport when staff insisted that we could not take our perfectly collapsable Babyzen Yoyo stroller on board or even to the gate. They made us check the stroller at the check-in counter.
That said, you cannot truly rely on Easyjet luggage policy based on our experience.
Easyjet Stroller Policy
You are technically allowed to gate check a stroller free of charge in addition to your regular luggage allowance if you are traveling with a baby.
Ironically, Easyjet stroller policy in reality seems to be as fluctuating as their luggage policy. Officially, to bring a stroller into the cabin you need to purchase a large cabin bag. In our case, one time we could bring it on top of the large cabin bag, while another time we were refused to despite purchasing it.
Either way, the stroller has to fit within the dimensions of 56 x 45 x 25 cm including any wheels or handles.
Gate Checking Baby Items
As previously explained, for each infant or child ticket you purchased you are allowed to bring up to 2 family items free of charge in addition to your regular checked luggage allowance.
The additional items you choose to bring can either be dropped off at check-in or gate checked before boarding for your convenience but you’ll need to go to baggage claim to retrieve them at your destination.
Entertainment for Kids on Easyjet
The first thing to know about flying with children on Easyjet is that they do not have entertainment systems in the back of each seat.
While there are kid-friendly TV shows and games on their inflight entertainment program, you will need to bring your own devices such as a smartphone or iPad that can be connected to wifi to access it.
In addition to their inflight entertainment, Easyjet sometimes offers a “Flybrary” which provides children’s books for use on board.
Even though both of these entertainment options are offered, I wouldn’t advise relying on this alone to entertain your children so it’s best to bring along some of your own toys.
