WWYD- travel & carseat related

GingerSB

We are travelling to hawaii and have a 6 hour stopover in LA. We are planning to rent a car and go to the beach for the afternoon so will carseats en-route. 

My kids are 4 & 6.

Would you a) try to gate-check /carry-on their booster/car seats 

or b) pay the $22 to rent them for the day and check them as you normally wouldwith your luggage.

Normally, carseats are checked with my luggage.  

My 4 yo is normally in a carseat but we'll likely use a booster for the trip since it's easier.  

 

Angela814

I would check them. That's what we did for DD1 last time we flew. DH actually put her booster seat in a large suitcase bag with some other items since we flew Southwest and had up to 2 free checked bags/person.

hikerbeth

For a 4 and 6 year old, I'd pack the boosters in a nice padded bag and check them at ticketing.  They should be free since they are carseats.

I am not really follwing the "rent for $22 a day and check with the luggage" are you saying that you would be uncomfortable checking your own seats?

Hooray2005

What time of day are you flying into LAX?  Are you wanting only a super-brief visit to the beach?

I ask because depending on time of day, because of traffic, it could easily take you an hour or more each way to get to even the closest beach locations.  The car rental companies are also off-site, requiring a shuttle trip to the rental location. 

Honestly, by the time you get off the plane, walk through LAX down to the rental shuttles, take the shuttle (assuming you've booked with one of the major rental car companies that's even allowed to have a shuttle pick you up on airport property), get the car, get carseats installed, then sit in traffic, it's going to be time to turn around and come back to the airport    Plan for long security lines at LAX on the way back into the secured area.

I know you didn't ask for my opinion on your plans... just wanted to give you fair warning that you cannot calculate travel time in LA based on distance - it can take an hour to go five miles depending on traffic

GingerSB

hikerbeth:

For a 4 and 6 year old, I'd pack the boosters in a nice padded bag and check them at ticketing.  They should be free since they are carseats.

I am not really follwing the "rent for $22 a day and check with the luggage" are you saying that you would be uncomfortable checking your own seats?

We have a 6 hour stopover in LA. We are planning to rent a car and go to the beach for the afternoon in LA. Which is why we'd need to either bring the seats on the plane or rent them for the day. (We normally check them with our luggage).

 

Hooray2005:

What time of day are you flying into LAX?  Are you wanting only a super-brief visit to the beach?

I ask because depending on time of day, because of traffic, it could easily take you an hour or more each way to get to even the closest beach locations.  The car rental companies are also off-site, requiring a shuttle trip to the rental location. 

Honestly, by the time you get off the plane, walk through LAX down to the rental shuttles, take the shuttle (assuming you've booked with one of the major rental car companies that's even allowed to have a shuttle pick you up on airport property), get the car, get carseats installed, then sit in traffic, it's going to be time to turn around and come back to the airport    Plan for long security lines at LAX on the way back into the secured area.

I know you didn't ask for my opinion on your plans... just wanted to give you fair warning that you cannot calculate travel time in LA based on distance - it can take an hour to go five miles depending on traffic

 Thanks for the insight.

We are using boosters so installation should be a non-issue, and will rent from one of the 'majors'.  Our stopover is from 10:30-4:30.

We just got back from a trip to Disneyland, and realized how close the beach is to LAX and thought it would be better to spend just a few hours there, than 6 hours in the airport...  

 

 

hikerbeth

Duh, sorry about my lack of reading comprehension.