Need some advise!  I am taking my son on a short flight from PA to NC in November.  I have conjured in my head the packing arrangements and have them pretty much down pat.  HOWEVER, as for the flight itself, besides feeding him a bottle while takeoff and landing  what are some tricks of the trade for a safe, happy ride for Gabriel?  He is 6 months so he's not old enough to bribe with presents, etc....

They are never to young to bribe with presents. LOL!  I would bring a small new toy or two to keep him entertained.  Nothing fancy or expensive, just something that is new to him.  Do you read to him?  That might keep him interested in sitting on your lap if you are holding a book that he can look at and reading it to him. 

You'd be surprised at how much stuff there will be for him to look at while you are on the plane. I bet he does great.

Have fun!  :0) 

I flew with Rivers @ 6 months old, the flight was about 2 hours.  While I had toys, he was not really interested in them - too busy checking eveything out.  My advice is to be prepared for him to be up & down on your lap looking at the people and taking the concept in. 

Make it a fun adventure, be respectful of your space - if others see you trying to keep him happy & in your area they will probably be more understanding.  I told the passenger next to me that it was his first time flying right away and aplogized ahead of time if my arm bumped his or somthing - this opened up the dialog before something could happen & his frustration made it difficult to have a dialog.

I flew again with Rivers @ 18 months, my mom brought puppets and he found those very entertaining.  They were also easy to play with in confined space.

Good luck!

tell the flight staff its his first time, they usually give out little certificates for the first time

I flew the red eye out so Jen would be sleeping most of the trip that really helped & the other time she just was back & forth checking everthing out and she wasn't intrested in her toys just my mp3 player. But they also showed movies for us & she watched that too.

I flew a lot with my girls from the time they were 2 months old through now and I found that under the age of 1 if I could get them to sleep with a bottle or nursing they slept like ROCKS for the entire duration of the flight. I think it was the vibration and engine noise. I always dreaded flying with them and each time I was pleasantly surprised. Several of the trips were cross country trips, with multiple plane changes and even so, they always fell asleep as soon as the plane got moving and STAYED asleep in my arms until I woke them.

Good luck! You'll do great, most people are so helpful and friendly!