Practical tips for pumping on a plane!

Since I was scheduled to be on planes for long periods of time, I was fully ready to have to pump on the plane. But apparently I wasn't properly prepared because the battery pack for my pump part was lacking fresh batteries.  Oops.  But even though I didn't end up getting to pump on the plane, I still have some practical tips for you!

1.  Learn from my oversight and make sure you have fresh batteries for your pump.  And bring some back-up extra batteries.  Also, test to make sure that your pump works effectively when powered by batteries.

2.  When you get to the gate, talk to the gate agent.  Don't make any demands, and look a little pathetic (but not too needy!) and ask if there are any available seats with an empty seat next to it.  Explain (perhaps bashfully) that you'll need to pump milk on the plane for your darling child whom you had to leave at home, and that some extra privacy would be very much appreciated.  Don't get antagonistic if they say "no", but be very appreciative if they say "yes".  When I asked the gate agent, they were very nice about it and willing to reseat me to accommodate my need for a little extra privacy.

3.  Mentally prepare yourself.  Pumping on a plane is a crappy, yet necessary, part of traveling motherhood.  Just think about your beautiful child - you have to do this in order to keep your milk supply up and/or relieve your engorged breasts.  And when it's over, maybe you'll have a little "take-out" container of milk for your kid!

4.  Bring a nursing cover.  If you're pumping in your seat, the nursing cover will give you a little extra privacy.  I'm not here to engage in any debates about how expressing milk is a natural part of life and that women should be free to do so unashamed and without a cover.

5.  To avoid weirding out your neighbor, you might want to kindly explain that you'll be pumping discretely during the flight.  After all, you don't want him/her to think that the contraption with all the funny wires that you're hooking up to your body is some kind of weapon.

6.  Where to pump?  Depending on how close your seat-neighbor is, it might be most convenient to pump in your own seat.  Or, I've heard that others pump in the airplane bathroom, despite the ickiness factor.  If you decide to pump in the bathroom, just be considerate of others who are the plane who might need to use the bathroom.  Try to time your trip to pump when bathrooms are in least demand - during beverage/meal service, when a movie is playing, when the pilot first turns off the seatbelt sign, etc.  You can also ask the flight attendants if there's a convenient (and perhaps a little more private) place for you to pump, perhaps in the very back of the plane.

7.  I've found that the Medela wipes are the best bet for sanitizing pump parts on the plane.  The bathrooms are icky and the water isn't potable, so washing pump parts in the bathroom is not ideal.  My one gripe about the Medela wipes is that it's hard to get the wipes all the way to the bottom of the Medela bottle but a little creativity can help solve that issue (such as using a long pencil or pen or something to make sure that you get the wipe all the way down to the bottom of the bottle).  It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best solution that I know of.

8.  When you're done pumping, you can try to ask the flight attendant if there is any fridge/freezer space to store your milk.  Don't count on it though.  They didn't have any space to store my milk on the flights I was on.  So bring a little cooler with an ice pack if you can, especially if you'll be traveling for a long time.  Breastmilk can sit out at room temperature for 6 hours, so if you're on a very short flight, it'll be fine.

Any other practical tips?