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Checking carseats during flight



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amother


 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 5:22 am
I know it is not the best idea to check carseats, in terms of how they are treated. eg: thrown around, piled under heavy items, etc.

But realistically has anyone ever traveled with several carseats and brought them onto the plane with them. The one time I tried, my kids were so uncomfortable in them, we took them off the seats and had two big bulky carseats that we had to drag around with us. Thank G-d we had thebulkhead so we just had them on the floor during the flight. For takeoff and landing we had to put the kids in them, as we had nowhere else to put the seats.

Is it feasible to bring at least 2 carseats on board with us (one belonging to a lap baby)?
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 5:44 am
There's seriously no point shlepping the carseat on board for a lap baby. It's just one more thing to juggle, and it's likely the airline won't allow it anyway. I always ask for a bicycle bag so at least if a screw falls out it's in the bag and I've got it (more important for a stroller, but still).
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amother


 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 5:51 am
I understand there is no point, but from a safety pov, is it compromising the safety of the seat by checking it.
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nyer1




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 6:21 am
They are supposedly handled w more care if u check them at the gate
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hop613




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 7:08 am
I think they make padded bags for carseats like they do for strollers that you can use to check it. Or just put it in a stroller bag.

Why were your kids uncomfortable in the carseats, it should be the same as the car. Or were they just antsy?
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 8:31 am
It's not the same as the car. There's more room in front of the seat in the car; there's NO legroom for a child in a carseat on a plane. We also had a particularly inconsiderate fellow traveller who put his seat so far back that he was literally lying on my son's legs; the fact that my son complained about it made him more irate. Forget about the fact that if you seat has "wings" (armrests?) the tray also doesn't fold flat because the wings come too far up.

It shouldn't compromise the safety of the seat. (We did have one compromised, but that's because it got caught in something, not because of the way it was handled.) And yes, you can gate check the seats with your stroller so it's one of the last things on and one of the first off which should also minimize the risk.
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 8:43 am
To the OP, how old are the children in question? I traveled with a 2 year old in a car seat and it was the worst experience for me and the child. We never did that again.
Also, if a child will be a lap child on the plane, where would you put the car seat? In terms of safety, I was told that a belted lap child is just as safe as a car seat.
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MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 8:55 am
I just flew with a one year old in a car seat and it was amazing. However, I would only do it for a long haul flight, and not with a child over 2.5 or so who can sit nicely in a regular seat. The airlines are often very accommodating to those traveling with small children, and they moved our seats around without us even asking so that we could take the car seat on board even though we hadn't purchased a seat (this has happened with several airlines). My daughter had plenty of room for her legs, but she's still pretty small. She slept well in the seat, whereas in my experience its often hard to keep a lap infant sleeping comfortably in your arms for a long stretch. Plus, I had my lap and my arms to myself whenever she was sleeping or playing in the car seat! No more achy sore arms.
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 9:09 am
Glad you had a good experience. Our experience was considerably less than stellar. (He was 20 months at the time.)
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lst




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 9:57 am
we also had a terrible experience when the kids had carseats on the plane. it was definitely much squishier and a lot more uncomfortable than in a car. when we can work it out with transportation to and from the airport on both ends, we don't bring carseats at all,but if we have to, we gate check them with the strollers.
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papaya213




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 2:37 pm
I know this has nothing to do with your question- but we are flying this week with two lap kids (ahhhhh)
and we have two separate stroller that we will be checking in at the gate- am I also able to check in our car seat at the gate in addition to the strollers?? I was trying to figure out what to do with our car seat!
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kb




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 3:07 pm
If you ask nicely, they may check the car seat in when you check in your luggage - they did that for us once. And then we gate checked our stroller when we got to the plane. That way you don't have to shlep your car seat around both airports.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 3:19 pm
papaya213 wrote:
I know this has nothing to do with your question- but we are flying this week with two lap kids (ahhhhh)
and we have two separate stroller that we will be checking in at the gate- am I also able to check in our car seat at the gate in addition to the strollers?? I was trying to figure out what to do with our car seat!


Please don't take this the wrong way,and I have only the best intentions. If you have two lap kids, wouldn't you need two carseats?
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MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 08 2013, 11:19 pm
papaya213 wrote:
I know this has nothing to do with your question- but we are flying this week with two lap kids (ahhhhh)
and we have two separate stroller that we will be checking in at the gate- am I also able to check in our car seat at the gate in addition to the strollers?? I was trying to figure out what to do with our car seat!


Children in the us can have a stroller and a car seat checked without charge.
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persephonefalls




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 09 2013, 12:47 am
kb wrote:
If you ask nicely, they may check the car seat in when you check in your luggage - they did that for us once. And then we gate checked our stroller when we got to the plane. That way you don't have to shlep your car seat around both airports.


Yes--you can "gate check" your strollers and carseats for free when you check in your baggage if you prefer not to bring them to the gate. When we traveled recently, with a baby and a toddler, we held on to our strollers for easy airport maneuvering, as well as the Snugride (which clicked into our snap n' go) but checked our toddler's carseat with the luggage so we wouldn't have to shlep it through the airport.

We got our strollers and snugride back on the jetway right as we exited the plane, and our toddler's carseat came out with the checked luggage.
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