Car seat on airplane

MrsGoodkat

In my time on TB I've seen a lot of people who use car seats on the plane but IRL everyone's telling us not to bother, it's a pain in the butt and that we should just gate check it, etc. DS is 2 so he has his own seat and he is not one to just sit happily on our laps for the duration of a flight. I think if he was in the car seat he'd be less likely to think he could get up and run whenever he wanted. Is it really a pain to bring the car seat on the plane and belt it in? 

gimmietimmies

Depends on the car seat I guess. Is yours FCC approved? I'd do it, but I'd be more inclinded to use a CARES harness if it were a particularly wide seat. We did it with a Radian, so I don't think that's a fair comparison.

missmuffin87

I used the infant carseat on the plane back when DD was a newborn, but it was just coincidence that there was an available seat on the flight. You could always bring the carseat and if it ends up being too much of a hassle to install it, you can check carseats for free at the gate

JET29

We brought our Britax Roundabout on. There is no way my 1.5 year old would have stayed contained without it. It wasn't too much of a hassle to bring it on the plane, the only problem we had was that the car seat made it so that he could easily kick the seat in front of him. Luckily he fell asleep soon after take off so that didn't last long. 

shopgirl78

I have flown a lot.  With my first two, I skipped carseats.  Too much for me to carry.  I usually fly alone with all 3.  With my DS2, I use CARES because with 3 (and flying alone), I don't necessarily have the time to coax and keep him in his seat.   It does really well with it.  

penguingrrl

I've always been told that it's really dangerous to the seat to check it. There is footage of carseats being thrown and dropped and having heavy luggage fall on it because baggage handlers aren't very careful. Any of this can cause the same type of micro cracks that being in a minor carseat can and requires you to replace the seat, so carseat techs consider checked carseats (including gate checked) the same as a seat that's been in an accident. So if I were to fly (we haven't been somewhere requiring  a flight in years) I would bring seats on to protect them. In fact, I just replaced an otherwise good, non expired infant bucket because it was checked on a plane before I was aware of how dangerous that is.

MintBerryCrunch

I've not flown with DD yet, but if we do it any time soon, she will be in her car seat. I don't care if its a PITA to get through the airport or install on the plane. She will happily sit still forever in her carseat...a regular chair not so much. I prefer to do the extra work in the beginning to ensure a peaceful flight! Plus I would worry about the seat getting damaged if we checked it.

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Lotsofloveandkids

Never done it. Would be a hassle for us.

MrsGoodkat

GhostMonkey:

We have every intention of bringing DS's Evenflo Tribute on the plane with us. The CARES harness does not have a crotch strap, so they can just wiggle out the bottom and the person behind your child loses their tray, or you have to adjust every time they want to open/close it. For $65 you can buy a cheap ass car seat that meets FAA regulations.

That's the car seat we'll be bringing (it's my mom's that she keeps at her house). I'm sure it'll be a hassle but my kid does not sit still and I feel like the car seat may be the only chance we have at getting him to stay in the seat.

Thanks everyone for your input.