Car seat while traveling

hokiebride05 · November 2012

We are flying for the first time with our 3 year old and will be renting a car. Had you rented a car seat from a rental agency like Avis, hertz etc or brought or own and then carried it through the airport? Makes me nervous to rent one don't know condition, etc. Any advice is appreciated!

jlw2505 · November 2012

We rented once and never agagin - the seats were horrible. I bring their car seats (now in boosters) and check them with the luggage. We have special car seat bags that we use and you can typically stuff some extra stuff in them as well - we have stuck our winter coats at times rather than keeping them with us which is so nice. I have never had an issue. We rarely used the car seats on the plane, it was a royal pain. DD#1 was fine and sat in hers but DD 2 hated it and would cry the whole time. She does way better just in the regular seat with the seat belt. If you are concerned, they do sell 5 point harness seatbelt things that can be used on the plane.

Angela814 · November 2012

I would not feel comfortable renting a carseat. We've always just brought ours along. You can gate check too if you're worried about damage.

rsd12 · November 2012

Last time we flew, we brought 3 car seats. A little bit of a pita, but well worth it for the safety of our boys.

2Gma · November 2012

Bring your own.

The first time we traveled with DD she was 11 months and the car rental agency tried giving us a booster instead of the proper sized seat. Luckily we were flying to see friends and she was able to round up the correct seat for us. Since then we have always brought our own. Car seats are free to bring on the plane although a hassle its worth it knowing you have the proper seat and its clean.

KathrynMD · November 2012

We have checked our carseat and then used it in a rental.

We're going on a cruise in February and we'll have a few short cab or bus rides, but I don't want to have to store a giant car sear in my cabin, so I'm going to buy a booster to use as needed.

Jen&Len · November 2012

When we flew in Sept,, we brought the seats with us and used them on the plane. We brought two carry on luggages and bungee corded a seat to each luggage. We asked to board the plane first even for the airline that don't have a families with children first policy. Everyone let us get on first.

It helped that we brought carriers for each kid and we wore them when they got tired of walking.

Princess_Lily · November 2012

We used a CARES harness in flight. You'll find a carseat is a pretty bulky item in the airplane, but IMHO a child at this age needs a little extra security especially for takeoff, landings and turbulance.

We luggage checked our carseat, and prayed it didn't get damaged. We wrapped it in a large clear garbage bag, so the luggage people could see what it was. Get familiar with installing & uninstalling your carseat - with practice you can do this in under 5min.

We also took a folding stroller, which was gate checked. Shockingly, the only difficulty we had was the stroller! The airport upon arrival didn't bring the stroller to gate check pickup where they should have...buttheads. So my mom had to go all the way through the airport to the ticket counter - PITA!

IMHO we could've nixed the stroller...it wasn't used during our trip. And in all honesty, we could've actually gone to the Walmart and picked up a cheapie one for $45.00 if we really needed to. IMHO traveling with stroller wasn't worth the hassle.

Plan your air travel around the best time for you child...for example, DS is best in the mornings, so our flight was at 7a. Coming home, I only could get a 4:30p flight...man was our little boy grumpy and irritable.

Make sure you pack new toys, coloring books/puzzles, phone with apps., cookies, chocolate milk... anything that will help sooth your LO during the rough moments.

Bring your humor, and just do the best you can.

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Car seat while traveling

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