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Mouseygail
member
another travel ? - car seats?
Mouseygail
member
Sorry, I know these questions get asked so frequently, but I can't ever seem to find the posts when I need them. and every time I've tried to google car seats and planes today, I get horror stories about how children should be in car seats on planes and how I'm risking my child's life by having him on my lap and I think I might have a panic attack...augh!!
so..given that I can't get him a seat on our flight now, what do you do about car seats while flying if they don't have a seat? do you check them? don't they get beat up? Can I gate check it? ugh ugh ugh.
traveling with a small child involves so many new logistics!! 
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Re: another travel ? - car seats?
We are flying tomorrow from Ft. Lauderdale to Boston..we got him a seat this time cause he is just to squirmmy and wouldn't sit in my lap if I tried..So we went with the seat. I don't quite know how that's going to work either but I will update you tomorrow..
When we flew before when Jake was little..we just gate checked both the carseat and stroller and there was NO FEE on JET BLUE...I also got some travel bags at BRU to protect the stroller and carseat they worked great..I am just hoping that they fit the convertible seat as well. I should probably go and check that out though..
My gf has this travel buddy thing where you can wheel the baby and the car seat kind of like luggage. It was 80$ and I just didn't think it was worth it. But I might be eating my words tomorrow..??!!
We check our Britax in a padded car seat bag with our luggage, and we gate check the stroller. There is no way in heck that I would lug our big car seat through the airport with a child and a stroller and carry on's- it's just too much stuff and with connecting flights OMG, what a pain! Definalty not for me! We don't get DD a seat- she won't sit in it- it's a waste of money, and until she's 2 and I have to buy a seat I'm not buying one.
I have heard that if there is a seat available they will give it to you if you have your car seat at the gate, but this is rare now days- most flights are packed and when you check in at the counter ( when you check your luggage) they can usually tell you if there is any chance there will be an extra seat, so ask then. You can risk it and bring the car seat and if there is no seat when you get to the gate, you can gate check the car seat. Car seats are free to check no matter if they are counter checked or gate checked, so no worries with having to pay.
In terms of the car seat getting beaten up and ruined- we use a good padded car seat bag- it is what it is- we have to travel and we have to bring the car seat- so what happens happens- we protect it the best we can.
We have 2 harnesses that we can use when we fly- if there is an extra seat (this has happened once) we use our CARES harness, it's FAA approved (for everything- take off, landing- cruising) and DD sits (or kinda sits) in her seat strapped in- it attaches to the seat belt. We also have A Sit Seat (this is FAA approved only when at cruising altitude- not take off and landing) it attaches to any seatbelt or to the adults seat belt who is holding her to give the adult their hands free. DD ususally falls asleep on flights- so it's nice to have your hands free while she is snoozing on our laps.
Don't panic. Flying is SO MUCH safer then driving. Once you start doing it with kids, it's easy. I was a nervous wreck flying the first time, now it's like second nature.
You will be fine flying! I promise. No worries!
So here is what we do: We bought a lightweight car seat for travel - a Cosco Scenara - based on tons of recommendations I found on the message boards at car-seat.org. Our Britax is simply too heavy to carry around.
When Will was little and we had the infant car seat, they would let us gate check it and get it back at the gate when we arrived (along with our snap and go). Now that we have a convertible, while they do let us gate check it, they don't let us retrieve it at the gate upon arrival. Because it's not used for transporting Will around the airport, they no longer feel it is appropriate for us to have it the moment when we arrive - so it's at the baggage claim. I was annoyed the first time they explained it to me, but it makes sense. (That said, if you had one of those things that you snap a convertible into and use as a kind of stroller in the airport, they might let you retrieve that at the gate.)
Since the Scenara is so light (and cheap!!), I don't have an issue carrying it to the plane in the hopes that they might have an extra seat for us to use it. I do that sometimes. If they don't, we gate check it. We have one of the backpack padded bags to check carseats in, but sometimes I just check it in the plastic sleeve it was in when I bought it. The plastic is a little abused, but nothing too bad and the seat always comes back in good shape. I guess I worry about it less since it's not our primary carseat so I wouldn't be totally without if something happened to it.
Hope that helps. I researched this a ton when we started traveling a lot with Will!
Just another experience - for all the flights we've taken a stroller on (I think probably 16 or so), all the gate-checked baggage was claimed at the gate (strollers, suitcases, etc.).
Because we're fancy like that.
My experience has been the same. We also travel with the Cosco Scenara. It is so lightweight. We didn't invest in an extra travel case, though -- just used the plastic cover that it came with. That lasted for quite a few trips, but recently the plastic handle ripped off. I think we'll be getting another carrying case for the next trip (which might be Pgh in October!!).