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November 2011 Moms
Natty13umppo
member
Clicky: WWYD re: car seat + air travel to grandparents
Natty13umppo
member
So we are flying to my parents for the holidays. I'm debating what to do about the car seat. Here are my options/thoughts:
(1) Take our car seat with us. (Duh.) We've traveled with DD with the infant seat but we've just moved her over to the convertible seat and haven't traveled with that. IMO, it would be a pain to uninstall/install/drag thru the airport. But maybe it's not that bad? (Any comments on air travel with convertible seat would be appreciated! FWIW, DD will be a lap child, but before we have always gate checked her infant seat b/c if there's room, we bring it on. But lugging the convertible thru the airport? Ugh. Do you still do it? Check it at the counter? Put it in a bag?)
(2) Squish her in her infant seat for this trip. I think she'll still "fit" (it's 30lbs/30" and she is wee), but she'll have been out of it for almost 2 months by then and might fuss. (But it's not like she'll be in it a lot....we mostly need to get her from the airport to my parents house and back.)
(3) Have my parents rent a car seat. I don't know how much it costs. I know I should trust it, but it makes me a little squeemish. But the plus side would be we don't have to lug ours around and my parents could get it installed before we show up (and not have to mess with it at the airport).
(4) Buy a cheap car seat online and have it delivered to my parents house. Pros: we won't have to bring one when we visit....ever! Cons: It's $100-$150 that doesn't *have* to be spent. And honestly, I don't know how much we'll visit. Maybe once or twice a year? But then again, this will be our first time out there since DD has been born. Hmmmmmm...
So.....since I am very indecisive on this....WWYD? Thanks! 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Clicky: WWYD re: car seat + air travel to grandparents
If she's flying as a lap child, I'd take the convertible seat and check it rather than dragging it through the airport. We have a smaller/cheaper seat that we use just for travel (the Cosco Scenara). If you do decide to drag the car seat along through the airport, we have a GoGo Babyz and it's kind of awesome.
https://www.gogobabyz.com/product-i14550-c26-g6-b0-p0-Travelmate_.aspx
~Working Mom~Breastfeeding Mom~Cloth Diapering Mom~BLW Mom~
Blog - No Longer on the DL ~ The Man Cave
Shawn and Larissa
LO #1 - Took 2 years and 2 IVFs ~ DX - severe MFI mild PCOS homozygous MTHFR (a1298c)
LO #2 - TTC 7 months, surprise spontaneous BFP!
Oh sweet. So maybe I can get a car seat cheaper than I thought! And the idea of a cheaper one to take with us anytime we travel is a nice thought. (I was mostly annoyed by the idea of having to take it out/put it back in *our* car....if we leave our car seat be and get a travel one, that solves that problem AND works for any travel! Hurrah!)
And the gogobabyz?? That even eliminates my need to take a stroller!!! (heh heh heh....just kidding. Not to mention that then I would be back to the PITA problem of constantly installing/uninstalling the car seat...)
You're better off taking the car seat with you and checking it. It doesn't cost anything to check a car seat either. DH and I went on vacation a couple months ago and we decided to rent a car seat so we didn't have to lug hers with us. We probably could have done without it b/c the rental car company could not install it for us, and it took a while to figure out how to get it into the car. If we had brought ours, we would have been able to install it quickly since we're familiar with it. The only thing that was nice was knowing there would be a seat there waiting for us vs. maybe having ours get lots.
Do you have any friends or family back home who can lend you a car seat? My parents have grandkids back home so I don't have bring a seat when I go back home.