The Family Flight Budget

Price a flight with a baby or toddler from your own quotes: the child's own seat first, every fee on the fare, the car seat at the other end, the cheaper airport door to door, one all-in number, and a set-aside that pays for it before you fly

Fly Parents' First-Year Cost Calculator adds up a baby's first year in seven lines, from diapers and clothing to childcare and healthcare, and has no line for a trip. Its own page tells you to add headroom for the family trips you're planning, and gives you no way to work that number out. A fare on a booking page is one line of a trip with a baby: the child's seat or lap charge, bags and seats together both ways, the stroller and car seat, the drive and the parking, and the stay all sit on top of it. The Family Flight Budget prices the whole trip from your own quotes, with the child's own seat as the first line: the FAA strongly urges an approved child restraint in it, and its words are quoted in the plan. In the worked example (all figures are examples) two parents and a ten-month-old fly a nonstop round trip for a week: $2,454.00 all in with the child's own seat, $2,123.60 with a lap child, so the seat's real cost is $330.40, and its $286.40 fare comes to $49.81 an hour in the air. A cheaper airport an hour away saves $69.10 door to door with three seats and only $22.60 with two. Six months of $350.58 and a last month of $350.52 have the trip paid for before the family leaves. Every figure is computed by code and every price is an example to replace with your own; no airline, airport or product is named, and the plan gives no health, sleep, feeding or medicine advice. Inside: seven steps, four printable working pages (a fare and seat sheet, a fee sheet, a door-to-door sheet, a trip card and set-aside ledger), reference tables and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked on the totals from your First-Year Cost Calculator.

Look inside

Two full pages from the plan, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• Step 1: the same flights quoted twice, with the child's own seat and as a lap child, every traveler's fare and the lap charge
• Step 2: the child's own seat as the first line, what it adds and its cost per hour in the air, with the FAA's words on child restraints
• Step 3: the fee layer: checked bags, seats together on each seat bought, stroller and car seat, per direction
• Step 4: the car seat at the other end: flown in the child's seat, checked, or rented by the day
• Step 5: the cheaper airport counted door to door: the fare saving on the seats you buy, minus the extra drive and parking
• Step 6: the trip as one all-in number, per traveler and per night
• Step 7: a set-aside rounded up to the cent from the month you book, and the trip added to the First-Year Cost Calculator
• Four working pages: a fare and seat sheet, a fee sheet, a door-to-door sheet, and a trip card with its set-aside ledger
• Reference tables for the seat's cost per hour in the air and a car seat rented by the day, and a quickstart that closes the score loop
• A personalised sheet: your first-year figures, what a trip adds to your year and your month, and the set-aside that pays for it

The plan picks up where the free First-Year Cost Calculatorleaves off. The calculator adds up a baby's first year in seven lines and has none for a trip. The plan prices a flight with a baby or toddler from your own quotes: every seat, with the child's own seat as the first line (the FAA strongly urges an approved child restraint in it, and its words are quoted in the plan), the bag, seat and gear fees both ways, the car seat at the other end, the cheaper airport counted door to door, one all-in number, and a monthly set-aside that has the trip paid for before you leave, which then goes back into the calculator as the missing line. It is money and planning only: no health, sleep, feeding or medicine advice, no airline or product named, and every figure in it is an example for you to replace.