? Re: travelling with Bugaboo....

Mrs.HisOnly

Have any of you that have the Cameleon (or any large size stroller) tell me how easy it is to travel with? I'm leaving to NY on Thursday and I'd love to be able to take my DS thru the airport in the stroller (we went in Feb. and I carried him and it was a nightmare). I will be borrowing a friend's bugaboo transport bag and my intention is to gate check it in the bag. 

Has anyone done this? Were you given any problems due to the size of the bag?

Ali212

Honestly, I don't find the bugaboo cameleon very easy to travel with on planes, etc.  I usually don't fly with ours -- we have umbrella strollers (the bugaboo bee and a maclaren) that we use for flying just for that reason. 

We have the bugaboo transport bag and I've never actually gate checked it (we always check check it) but I would think that would be a colossal pain (and I'm not sure it would be allowed to be gate checked)....it's a big bag so even just bringing it through security, etc might be a pain since it's a large, stiff bag (even though the wheels on the bottom will certainly help) and then you have to fully take apart the stroller to get it in the bag (including removing the wheels from the stroller base, etc).  While it's not super hard to take apart, I just think that's more of a pain than needed to take on in the airport while you're getting ready to board a plane (not to mention to put it back together when you land and just want to get out of the airport as quickly as possible).  However, I have no direct experience with gate checking our cameleon in a bag.  Every time we've flown with our cameleon (only a few times when my daughters were infants so we needed the bassinet feature), we've checked the whole bag/stroller through when we checked in.

 

One word of warning: My SIL gate checked their bugaboo frog when they flew to Europe and they did NOT use a bag or any kind of transport carrier and their stroller was damaged when they landed.  They couldn't put it together and had a 2.5 month old so had planned to use the bassinet feature for the baby's sleep while traveling and they didn't have a stroller that worked.  The airline ultimately reimbursed them for the damage but not until well after the trip so they had a broken stroller on the trip.  I'm sure people have flown plenty of times while gate checking their bugaboo w/ no damage so it can go either way but just wanted to share one experience.

 

Hope this helps even though I probably don't have great advice for gate checking it but I at least wanted to share my experience since I do have the cameleon and do have the bugaboo transport bag.  GL!

LCB34

I've traveled with my UppaBaby Vista and it was super easy - I was traveling with Kate alone and had no issues.

I gate checked it as I wanted a stroller in the airport.

I'm not sure how the bugaboo travel bag works but, the Vista bag allows the wheels to stay out so you can pull the stroller, in the bad, behind you.  I folded the stroller up and put it in the bad before boarding, put Kate in the Ergo, and then pulled the stroller down the jet way.

I've never had an issues with the size of the bag (and it's big) - we've flown Continental and Southwest with it.

When I got to the plane, I popped the wheels off (super easy on the Vista) and put them in the top of the bag.  Again, no problems.  I had no issues deplaning either.

I've traveled with both the Vista and our umbrella (Zooper Twist) and there is no difference, IMO, in traveling with a lightweight verses a full sized stroller.

firsttogo

No bugaboo experience, but we did gate check two strollers (city micros) in one bag when we flew, and it was not that big of a deal. We flew southwest, and they just took it literally as we stepped on the plane. We pushed them right up to the door of it, and they took the strollers down an escalator right there. 

Ali212

I also forgot one thing.  I know that American Airlines recently added new rules about traveling with strollers.  We fly them often and are flying them overseas next month so I'm pretty up-to-speed with them but not so much with some of the other carriers.  Anyway, their new rule (effective on June 1) is that all strollers that are large, non-collapsible or over 20 lbs must be checked at the ticket counter.  I'm assuming the bugaboo cameleon fits this description since it's large and isn't collapsible in the easy sense (it's multiple pieces, not a one piece collapse).  I'm not sure the weight but it's probably close to 20 lbs.

Anyway, I would just make sure your airline is fine with gate-checking still given some of these changes....usually when one major airline carrier makes a change, the others do as well (American, Delta, United).  I believe United might already have this rule but, again, I'm not so sure. 

PrincessShay80

We travel with our Cameleon all the time- we just gate check it with the bag, never been an issue it does take a few minutes to get it into the bag- you have to pop off the wheels, which is easy, but you may want to practice before you get to the airpot- It's kinda a pain to tote the big bag through the airport, but its doable,  it's so worth it to have it when we get to our destination and I cannot imagine not having my stroller through the airport. It was great to have it in Mexico with all the cobblestone streets. We usually fly Delta and they never have given us an issue with it.

That being said we just bought a Bee to use for our next trip in about two weeks- because it folds as one piece- we needed to buy a second stroller so we decided to get one that traveled a bit easier then the Cameleon, we are not using a bag and will just gate check it when we get to the gate.