Child Restraints on VA

[Lord_Lenny]

So I've done a bit of searching about this, but couldn't find anything specific or recent that addressed it.

Lady Lenny and I have been planning to attend my cousins wedding in Brisbane in May, that was meant to be no kids, but she has ended up inviting all 3 of us, which is great!! But it does mean that we now will have a 2.5year old flying with us. We've done a few flights as a lap infant no problems so I'm no worried about the flying experience at all, but I am a bit confused about child restraints.

From what I can see Virgin do accept certain car seats and restraint devices on board, but in your experiences are they mandatory?? I can't find any information to say so but it's also not clear if they are just suggested.

We don't want to hire a car or anything like that at the other end, the hotel the wedding is at is close to Fortitude Valley station so we're happy to train and walk it.

Has anyone flown recently with VA with a toddler?? If so did you have any restraints with you for the flight??

I've found a place that will hire an approved harness we can use (or we could just buy it anyway, we have enough lead time for shipping etc. and it's not too expensive) but just thought if the hivemind had an experience it would be useful!!

Thanks!!

 

[wendlle]

They are not mandatory.
We used a CARES flight harness before because we wanted to with our first child. But I've taken plenty of VA flights with our second child with no restraint at all and just had them sit in their own seat with the normal lap belt.
Same ages as yours.

 

[ADFlyMore]

Not mandatory, last year the family flew 7/8 sectors domestically. At the time our kids were 3 - 3 1/2 and 1 - 1 1/2. Little one was on our lap (infant seat belt looped into ours) but our older daughter sat in her own chair and just used the normal seat belt.