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D.C. Area Babies
Questions about flying with a "lap child"
We'll be flying to Orlando in June, and will be taking DD as a lap child. This raised a few questions for us:
Should we bring our own car seat, or rent one from the car rental place?
If we bring our own, do we check it like luggage? Do we bring it with us to the gate in case there's an extra seat we can use, and gate check it if there's not?
Sorry if these seem like simple questions; we haven't done this before and aren't sure what to do! Thanks!
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Re: Questions about flying with a "lap child"
How much driving are you going to be doing once in Orlando? If it's a lot, you may want to bring your own car seat. I brought mine when DD was 6 mos, but it was part of the snap and go so we gate checked everything. I was also still concerned about germs at that age and flu since it was December. You'll be able to both gate check or baggage check your car seat...it depends if you want to lug it through the airport or not. There is also a "travel" car seat that serves as a stroller (has wheels and a handle) but it's a bit pricey. I believe I've seen one on Amazon.
I'm flying with DD next month, but since we're only having a rental car for one day, I plan to rent one through the rental car company and see how it goes. I've heard mixed emotions about rental car seats. Apparently you'll need to install yourself.
we flew with DS at 10 months as a lap child, we did bring his car seat to the gate, not even so much in case there was an extra seat, though that was offered to us, but more to make sure it got on teh plane and was taken a bit better care of than the luggage that gets tossed around like crazy. We ordered a bag on amazon that we could carry the seat on our back like a backpack, much like those people you see wearing the guitars in black bags on their back. I have not heard good things about rental car seats but have no first hand experience.
so the car seat and the stroller for that matter do not count as checked pieces of luggage if you bring them to the gate with you, I am not sure if they were to count the car seat if you check it at the counter, that may vary between airlines....
good luck!!
We've always brought our own car seat mainly because I don't want to have to rely on the car rental company. Also, I bring the car seat to the gate and check it there just so I can be sure that it makes it on the plane. My thinking is that if the car seat doesn't make it to the destination or if the car rental company screws something up, then we are sort of stuck. So, that's why I bring ours.
I bought this strap to attach the carseat to my carry-on. I would not recommend trying to have your child sit in it as shown in the photo. However, it works great for pulling the carseat through the airport.
https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Toddler-Seat-Travel-Accessory/dp/B000JHN3AS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300881069&sr=8-1
We always bring our own seat. I just worry about whether a rented seat will be clean and whether there might be something wrong with the seat that the rental car company hasn't noticed. I have friends, though, who have rented seats and have been relieved not to have to deal with bringing their own. (I think Hertz even had the seat ready in the car for them.)
We try to check ahead of time about whether the flight is full. If it's full, we have checked our seat with our luggage. Most airlines allow one baby item to be checked without charge. We haven't had a problem checking the seat, but there is, of course, a risk of lost luggage. The darn thing is just so heavy that we've risked it when we knew we wouldn't be using it on the plane. When there was a chance of an open seat, we brought the seat to the gate. We have a Go-Go Kidz Travelmate to roll the seat around.
One more thought: If you do consider renting a seat, check the rental company's web site to see what kinds of seats they offer. Last time I checked (which was probably six or eight months ago), Hertz offered infant seats that were good up to 20 lbs. and forward-facing seats (not convertible seats). DS couldn't have used either of those. He was over 20 lbs., but we still have him rear-facing. So, if your DD is still rear-facing, bringing your own seat may be your only option.
If you're staying on Disney property, or at any of the other local hotels, and considering using the free shuttle or airport transfers most of them offer...you may not even be able to use a car seat (or can use one provided by them). That's what we did a few weeks ago: skipped the rental car entirely because this time we weren't going to need to go anywhere on our own.
We flew to Orlando when DD was 21 months and brought our car seat because we rented a car...wasn't too much of a hassle to bring it along. We gate-checked it in hopes it would be treated more kiindly than regular baggage. I wouldn't have bothered bringing it on the plane in the hopes DD could've used it in a surprise extra seat - flights to Orlando are often full (thanks to Disney visitors), and she wouldn't have wanted to stay strapped into it anyway. I'd rather use a spare seat between DH and me to let her move around a bit and try to get comfortable. However, if your DD sleeps like a champ in her car seat, it might be worth having it available.
I think you can gate check a stroller or a carseat - the TSA website or your airline's website should have the specifics. You might be able to check the other.
From our personal experience, we flew to California in December and gate checked our stroller and rented a carseat from the rental company. We luckily brought an extra baby blanket so we could get it at the 45 degree angle - DS is still rearfacing. Not sure if your DD is (I didn't look at the ticker!). This worked really well for us - at one our arrivals, they even had the stroller set up for us ready to go! I was impressed.
If you did bring your own carseat, gate checking should be fine. I saw some other carseats at the gatecheck when we flew.
You've gotten a lot of good advice already, I'll just add that I have always checked the car seat with our baggage and not at the gate mainly because lugging the carseat seems like a bit PITA to me and we usually use a big garbage bag to cover the seat. Only one time the car seat in 4 years of regular travel has the carseat not made it to our destination when we did and I discovered that the airlines have free loaners you can use in that case. Was the loaner as nice as the carseat we own? Definitely not, but it was something we could use to get to where we were going initially (my mom's in this case) and then our car seat showed up later that day.
Also another random piece of info--if you do decide to rent a seat through a car rental place and you are a AAA member and you rent the car through the AAA site (though it may be the case even if you don't), the rental of the carseat is complimentary--that way you would save both the hassle of lugging the seat and the expense of renting it.
We just took our LO on her first plane ride a few weeks ago. She is 9 months old, and we did not pay for the seat, but did the lap thing. We borrowed a car seat carrier from a friend, and checked it at the ticketing counter. It, along with the stroller does not count as normal luggage and is free (at least on united). I suggest either doing this, or gate checking. There are pros and cons of gate checking. I agree that you feel that its not banged around, and you know it will make it on the plane with you. However, the con is you need to lug it with you through security. You may get the opportunity to bring it on the plane (if its not sold out), but also remember, getting it through the plane is not easy (as aisles are narrow). I am a little squeamish about germs (i.e. - renting a car seat), and I used to work for a car rental company.
But, it does depend on how much they'll be in the car seat, we used ours a ton on our trip, so it was worth it to have with us...and she did great on the plane. My advice is to try to have them eat / sucking on a paci during take off/ landing to help with the ear popping.
Good Luck