Air travel w/infant car seat

JJ&BB1146 · September 2010

All of the car seat bags I see online are for bigger, convertible-type car seats. We'll be traveling with an infant car seat and I'm not sure what to do. I was planning on wearing DD in a carrier, but we'll have to have the car seat for use in the rental car once we're there. I feel like it's really heavy to just carry through the airport. What can/should we do with her car seat for the flight?

MrsJayOK · September 2010

We flew with DD when she was a couple months old. Even though I wore DD the majority of the time, we brought the entire travel system with us. It was nice to have the stroller to carry our bags when she wasn't in it. We just checked it all at the gate, they had it waiting for us when we got off of the plane. It actually was much easier than I would have thought.

kellenickle · September 2010

We used a big carseat bag even with DD's little seat. The nice thing is that the carseat doesn't count as real luggage (we didn't have to pay to check it). Since it was so big, we had lots of space to stuff extra things so that we didn't have to check so many bags (that we did have to pay for).

angeladwil · September 2010

kellenickle:
We used a big carseat bag even with DD's little seat. The nice thing is that the carseat doesn't count as real luggage (we didn't have to pay to check it). Since it was so big, we had lots of space to stuff extra things so that we didn't have to check so many bags (that we did have to pay for).

This! I've traveled with LO a couple of times now and it's been great that you can check all baby related things for free. There will be plenty of room left in the car seat bag to hold extra things. Have a good trip!

Mainer-in-Texas · September 2010

kellenickle:
We used a big carseat bag even with DD's little seat.

Same here.

mlf625 · September 2010

I'd check it, and I'd skip the pricey bag and just double wrap it in a few lawn trash bags. Doesn't look the classiest, but has always worked for us!

JJ&BB1146 · September 2010

I've seen the car seat bags and read about trash bags. But my question is how do you get it to the gate??? Just carry it? That just seems like a pain literally (b/c it's so heavy) and figuratively.

kellenickle · September 2010

We dd not gate check it... We checked it like all our other luggage.

mrs.wildman · September 2010

I wasn't planning on gate checking my car seat, then someone posted here that they checked it with their regular luggage and it didn't make it to their destination so they were in a jam. I heeded that advice and gate checked.

I still use a carseat adapter with my stroller, so pushed it through the airport and gate checked both. I have a bag for my stroller, but used trash bags for my carseat. I definitely recommend using bags as anything gate checked tends to get nasty dirty and holes. The first time I travelled with my stroller bag, the bag came out covered in grease stains and had 3 or 4 holes in it. I would have been majorly p.o.'d if I hadn't used that bag and my stroller was ruined.

Keep in mind, too, that if you gate check your stuff you'll need to send it all through the x-ray machine. Mine fit through without any issues, but make sure to give yourself extra time to get through security and have a lot of patience cause it's frustrating and stressful (especially if there's a long line behind you like there was for me).

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Air travel w/infant car seat

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