For all passengers? I’m at a higher risk of blood clots and need to get up and walk around every few hours. Blood clots are a real risk from plane travel, unlike many of the risks people perceive from flying.
Of course many Americans only fly an hour or two at a time, in which case that would fine.
My last transatlantic flight had so much turbulence the fasten seatbelt sign never went off and we needed permission from the flight attendants to use the bathroom.
There are lots of exercises that can be done seated- 10 Exercises to Help Circulation when Flying | Fitness First.
I was on a flight that hit an air pocket while the Flight Attendant was serving drinks in the aisle, right next to me. The plane dropped sharply and she hit her head on the roof of the cabin, and dropped to the floor, stunned. I started to unbuckle my seat belt to help her, and she groggily said, ‘No, you stay safe.’ So, me and the other pax remained buckled in our seats and offered her our hands to help her sit up, while the other FA came down to help.
After that experience, I always keep my belt on while in my seat.
edited to add: Later that night, I noticed that I had bruises on my hips where the seat belt crossed my lap.
The last time the FAA considered the issue, it found that if it implemented a no lap child rule, more people would drive rather than fly, and since driving is far more dangerous, and flying incidents are quite rare, more children would die or be injured as a result of such a rule.
That may well be true, and is a good excuse, but not sure that the FAA has the legal authority to make decisions on what-ifs for other transportation modes.
Agencies are expected to consider all the possible consequences of their rulemaking, including adverse ones
Yep, people would drive 2 days with an infant from NY to Florida rather than buy a $200 ticket? Gas, hotel rooms, stops to feed the baby?
I don’t think so.
Whether you or I would do so is immaterial. That is what the data showed
@Twoin18 yes, I used those on BA when the kids were tiny.
@bluebayou that is scary.
@momofboiler1 if I’m in my seat, I’m always buckled too.
I think it would be impossible for airlines to mandate remaining in seats the entire time because people have so many health issues that are exacerbated by sitting for too long. DVT, back pain, arthritis, you name it. I’m one of those annoying people that has to walk around the cabin on long flights because of sciatica.
Flying is actually pretty unhealthy. In an ideal world, only people with no health issues whatsoever should get on a plane, which would never happen, of course.
Eons ago, we flew with a lap newborn. It was so tiring we did not travel by air until said lap infant was old enough to safely buckle into her own airplane seat.
Said infant, now a mother of her own infant, had traveled internationally recently. They bought a ticket for the baby, but the airline made them check the car seat because it offered one of those bulkhead hanging bassinets… upon landing, it turned out the carseat did not make it to the destination. Kid said the ride from the airport with a lap baby was horrifying, but they had no other choice.
As I pointed out above, extension seatbelts for infants work well when the seatbelt light is on. They could be mandated by the FAA for the airline to provide just as they are for people who are too large to fit into a regular seatbelt. I guess the issue for airlines is that they might expect some of them to disappear after each flight, but it doesn’t seem like a huge expense.
The likelihood of it mattering is very, very, very small. In flight incidents are rare, and in very few of those would it matter if lap babies were on board in a lap or in their own seat ( eg, 9/11). Plus seatbelt required lights are not on all the time, and even when on, not everyone obeys.
True, about the same likelihood of it mattering for people of size who can’t fit in a regular seatbelt. But airline pilots do put the seatbelt sign on during turbulence and the FAA mandates it during take-off and landing.
That’s why I agree that very costly solutions, such as requiring parents to buy an extra seat, are in no way justified. The Freakonomics study (the earlier one, not the one about fewer children being born) even shows that the cost-benefit equation isn’t favorable for automobile car seats, where occupants are far more likely to experience a crash.
Yes, I would like to see some data that shows how many incidents there have been of injuries to lap babies.
An older article describing infant in-flight injury statistics and possible prevention:
Flight attendants call for regulations:
Looks like banning coffee would be a better call than banning lap infants 
The seatbelt for lap infants that belts the baby/toddler to the OUTSIDE of the parent’s belt looks like it would keep the baby from flying upwards in air turbulence, but the baby would probably still be crushed against the back of the seat in front of them, in a collision on the ground, or in a crash landing.
I did travel with infants in car seats, and I kept them in the car seat as much of the flight as possible, for fear of turbulence sending them flying. I knew that they were safest buckled into that car seat. But I don’t think that I ever bought a seat for a child under 2; I just tried to fly at times when the flights were less likely to be full, and would buy the aisle and window in a 3 seat row for the 2 adults, and hope that they wouldn’t sell the middle seat.
That strategy is increasingly improbable in the US if you live and fly out of major airline locations at least. The airlines have implemented various strategies to usually have full or nearly full flights (including canceling flights in lots of unused capacity and forcing passengers to consolidate onto other planes). I can think of only one flight of at least a couple dozen out of Newark in the last 5 years that wasn’t full or nearly full.
In common with many other professional organizations, flight attendants unions always call for regulations to make their lives easier and/or increase demand for their services. They don’t tend to worry about the impact of any cost increases for passengers that would result, let alone any second order effects of reduced demand for flying.
I really think that’s unfair. I am sure that in the recent Alaska Airlines incident and countless others, flight attendants put themselves at risk to save the lives of passengers.