Car seat on airplane

[bumpy]

Hi, does a car seat need to be in a transport bag? Thanks

[melbourne groover]

You can get them wrapped at the airport in plastic.

[bumpy]

perfect, thanks

[alieh]

I would also ask at the airport when you check in if there are any open seats on the plane and if it would be possible to have an empty seat beside you. Most airlines we have flown have let us bring the car seat on the plane if we know we have an empty seat beside us. Amazing to have somewhere for baby to sleep/hang out other than your lap!

[bumpy]

now that'd be nice, i'll certainly try it

[alieh]

Definitely try it. And worst case, if you bring the car seat to the plane door and they won't let you bring it on they can just check it under the plane with the buggies, etc.

[nikki73]

alieh have you tried this with easyjet by any chance? guess not likely to work?

[bumpy]

or even worse ryan air...

[alieh]

No, haven't tried with either of those, sorry. Only with the long haul flights where the stakes are high - i.e. 8 hours with baby on lap is not fun!

[The Nappy Lady]

You can get car seat travel bags - I got one from Soup Dragon last year.

Molly

[BernieG]

I just travelled with my car seat and checked it in with my luggage with no special wrapping. It came back in good condition and was loaded separately and classed as a fragile item.

[beec]

Has anyone ever tried taking a carseat onto the airplane to seat an infant during the flight? We have a long haul flight coming up in the summer and have bought an extra seat for the baby (with the infant in car seat option). However, we need to buy a new car seat anyway, so would like to make sure that whatever carseat we buy can be used on the flight. We checked with our airline, but they just said as long as its forward facing, no more than a certain weight and fits into the passenger seat then its okay. In terms of brands, we spoke to a Britax specialist and the only one they have is one that relies on the ordinary seatbelt being threaded through some holes in the back of the carseat (so not sure how safe it really is) and does not recline very well so baby might be quite uncomfortable when he falls asleep.

Any other ideas / tips out there???

Many thanks,

Bee

[helena handbasket]

We took the car seat on a long haul flight thinking it was just the most brilliant idea. It was okay, especially for the first half of the flight, but eventually my son had had about enough of the seat (in hindsight not the most comfortable thing to be in for 10 hours) and he really didn't want to be in it anymore. So now we had a car seat taking up our extra paid for seat and a child who then had nowhere to sit. We hadn't thought of that. Wouldn't do it again but it sure seemed like a good idea at the time! We do long haul at least a couple of times a year and rarely end up on flights with any extra seats so you can't really count on that.

One tip: we usually try to book our three seats in a row of four, with the empty one in the middle. That way if they can at all help it they will usually try to find a better seat for the poor soul who gets sold that middle seat. Like I said it doesn't help on a fully booked flight but always worth a shot.

[Pickle]

We fly to NZ and back once or twice a year with our two kids. Singapore Airlines (and others) provide bassinets for infants (SA ones will carry a child up to the age of 2) which mean you get bulkhead seats and the associated space. In the days where we had only one child we did the trip 3 times - 2 of which we had a bassinet, once just a spare seat, and he slept equally as well simply lying on the seat. In fact it was almost better, as if we struck turbulence we could just put a seatbelt on him and not disturb him, whereas babies in bassinets had to be lifted out.

We're currently in NZ and booked a seat for our nearly 21 month old, and she happily slept lying on the seat (I had one child each side of me, I ended up a bit squished due to legs/heads, but they slept!).

From my experience I would say that a carseat would be a total pain for a long haul flight. The extra seat is such a useful thing to have when you're travelling with kids, and having a carseat there will be a nuisance. Also, depending on how far you're travelling, you'd potentially have to deal with it in transit - our trips involve two 12ish hour flights, with 5 hours to kill in Singapore, at which point it's hard enough dealing with kids/hand luggage without having the added bulk of a carseat to carry round.

P x

[helena handbasket]

Yep, extra seats are gold!

If money were no object I'd just buy a row of seats......

[Pickle]

If money were no object I'd buy out the whole of business class and let the kids run riot! ;-)

[beec]

Thanks for your advice! The one about booking a row of 4 seats with the middle one free is particularly cunning!

[helena handbasket]

beec Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thanks for your advice! The one about booking a

> row of 4 seats with the middle one free is

> particularly cunning!

Traveling with little ones is all about survival, baby!

It's a no lose gamble....... either the plane is not full and you get the whole row (delicious when it happens) , or it is full and you offer the "guest" one of the aisle seats and an adult on one side so it doesn't effect the quality of their flight (don't need bad karma on such trips :) ).

I can't claim the idea though, it was actually suggested by a clerk at check in once and we've pre-booked that way ever since.