Flying with car seat WITHOUT infant?

kollerbear · Oct 21, 2016

Hi-- I'm a first time mom who will be traveling with my 9 month old daughter to Orlando in January. I'll be flying with my husband on the way down, as we're planning to visit my family in the Orlando area (staying DVC) and will thus need to rent a car and need a car seat. However, he's leaving after the weekend is over to return to work, while I stay on to do a parks vacation with my folks. I'll be flying home alone with my daughter. My folks will have their own car with a car seat (driving from Chicago) so once they're there I don't need the car seat at all anymore.

I don't think I can manage the car seat with my daughter alone, so I'd love it if my DH could fly home with it. I'm curious what you guys would recommend. We're obviously willing to pay but I've heard that gate checking car seats is safer (in the sense that potential, unseen damage being done to your car seat by the handlers is much less likely at the gate). What would you guys do? Is he even ABLE to gate check a car seat if not flying with the infant? If not, would you look into renting from a baby rental company instead? Would you trust checking it as a bag? (Obviously I don't mind paying a fee, I just want the safest option for the car seat and my daughter.)

Thanks for any ideas and feedback! Still getting used to traveling with a kid. (This will be her 4th trip by airplane so she's doing really well. We never flew until we were teenagers-- it's amazing how different her life is than ours!)

Betty Rohrer · Oct 21, 2016

just to add to your worries I have seen even gate checked seats fall to ground loading on the plane. if it were me and could do I would just buy a seat to pick up at Walmart or somewhere there and leave it there. I would use the bus from airport for at least you and baby. if you could pick up car at WDW one of you could stay a resort with baby while other goes and picks up seat at store. any seat not with you in plane I would treat as been dropped on the ground from a height

kollerbear · Oct 22, 2016

Welp, yes that is something else to worry about! I checked out the car seat safety blog and I'm now 100% sure at least we won't check it as luggage. However, the blog's author did say that the car seat manufacturers (I guess there is an association?) have released a statement that the force a car seat may be subjected to during checking is not commensurate with the force it would be subjected to during a car crash, and it's within the safe range to continue using the car seat after a physical inspection that the parts are working and it isn't visually damaged. (Obviously you can't see the foam parts, but that's what they're referring to as being unlikely to be damaged by the stresses of baggage handling.) It makes me pretty uncomfortable, but if the blog's author is willing to concede that the manufacturers have a unique handle on what their products can handle then I'm willing to trust that to some extent, just to function in the world. (And the gate checking we've already done once isn't going to make us get rid of our car seat!) However, I agree it's way less than ideal. I'm going to look into whether buying a cheap car seat or renting one from a specialized company would be cheaper. (I hate the environmental waste of buying and would be way more likely to buy one if we could donate it after. Most trips it'd be impossible but in this one my folks could take it home with them and donate locally.) Has anyone rented from a specialized company and can recommend them?

jo-jo · Oct 22, 2016

Could you borrow the car seat from your parent's car? I'm assuming no other child is using it at this time.

kollerbear · Oct 22, 2016

jo-jo said:
Could you borrow the car seat from your parent's car? I'm assuming no other child is using it at this time.

Thanks-- unfortunately they won't be in the area until after we need it. This whole leg of the trip was actually scheduled so my mom could dodge her inlaws--but that's for the community board.

wiscogirl · Oct 22, 2016

Does your kiddo already sit in a convertible carseat? Or is she in an infant bucket? If she's in a convertible, what about getting one of those roller thingies for it and just rolling her (or the empty seat if you pla to wear or carry her) through the airport when it's just the two of you? If bucket, bring her travel system?

GADisneyDad14 · Oct 22, 2016

FWIW, we rented a car over the summer and Avis has child seats as an add-on charge, which we used for our 2 year old. I'm not sure about rear-facing baby seats but I'm assuming they have those too?

They give you a fresh/cleaned seat and you install it yourself. This was somewhat difficult with a new seat/car, but it got the job done.

Have a great trip!

jo-jo · Oct 22, 2016

kollerbear said:
Thanks-- unfortunately they won't be in the area until after we need it. This whole leg of the trip was actually scheduled so my mom could dodge her inlaws--but that's for the community board.

oops, I thought they lived in Orlando.

kollerbear · Oct 22, 2016

jo-jo said:
oops, I thought they lived in Orlando.

On rereading I completely get why you thought that! Its my extended family in the area. But in that line of thinking, maybe they have an old (but not expired) car seat hanging around...

scrapquitler · Oct 22, 2016

kollerbear said:
Hi-- I'm a first time mom who will be traveling with my 9 month old daughter to Orlando in January. I'll be flying with my husband on the way down, as we're planning to visit my family in the Orlando area (staying DVC) and will thus need to rent a car and need a car seat. However, he's leaving after the weekend is over to return to work, while I stay on to do a parks vacation with my folks. I'll be flying home alone with my daughter. My folks will have their own car with a car seat (driving from Chicago) so once they're there I don't need the car seat at all anymore.

I don't think I can manage the car seat with my daughter alone, so I'd love it if my DH could fly home with it. I'm curious what you guys would recommend. We're obviously willing to pay but I've heard that gate checking car seats is safer (in the sense that potential, unseen damage being done to your car seat by the handlers is much less likely at the gate). What would you guys do? Is he even ABLE to gate check a car seat if not flying with the infant? If not, would you look into renting from a baby rental company instead? Would you trust checking it as a bag? (Obviously I don't mind paying a fee, I just want the safest option for the car seat and my daughter.)

Thanks for any ideas and feedback! Still getting used to traveling with a kid. (This will be her 4th trip by airplane so she's doing really well. We never flew until we were teenagers-- it's amazing how different her life is than ours!)

Order a car seat from Amazon or Babies R Us prior to your trip and have it delivered to your relatives home. When they pick you up at the airport, they can already have the car seat installed in their car. Once you leave, they can sell it or donate it or whatever.

kollerbear · Oct 23, 2016

scrapquitler said:
Order a car seat from Amazon or Babies R Us prior to your trip and have it delivered to your relatives home. When they pick you up at the airport, they can already have the car seat installed in their car. Once you leave, they can sell it or donate it or whatever.

Unfortunately we're getting in late on a Friday and visiting family using a rental car. My cousins have 3 kids each so it's a little too much to ask for them to pick us up. We're going to be visiting them by driving from SSR on Sat and Sun. I could take DME though and DH could rent a car. Could I get it delivered it to the hotel though? I like the simplicity of the ordering idea. Can anyone recommend a cheap car seat for an average size 9mo that's easy to learn/install?

wilkeliza · Oct 23, 2016

kollerbear said:
Unfortunately we're getting in late on a Friday and visiting family using a rental car. My cousins have 3 kids each so it's a little too much to ask for them to pick us up. We're going to be visiting them by driving from SSR on Sat and Sun. I could take DME though and DH could rent a car. Could I get it delivered it to the hotel though? I like the simplicity of the ordering idea. Can anyone recommend a cheap car seat for an average size 9mo that's easy to learn/install?

You can definitely get it delivered to the resort. If you have amazon Prime best to plan for it to get there a day or two before you. You taking magical express and hubby renting car is a good idea.

crazylady · Oct 23, 2016

wiscogirl said:
Does your kiddo already sit in a convertible carseat? Or is she in an infant bucket? If she's in a convertible, what about getting one of those roller thingies

Great idea. If she has flown 4 times already in 9 months maybe you should invest in this type of system so you dont need to worry about future trips and you can keep your main car seat safe.

kollerbear · Oct 23, 2016

crazylady said:
Great idea. If she has flown 4 times already in 9 months maybe you should invest in this type of system so you dont need to worry about future trips and you can keep your main car seat safe.

Thanks I missed this! She does have a convertible. We did get a great backpack but didn't get the roller since we fly with her lap and would therefore ALSO need a bag for it in addition. The intensity with which she hates car seats (screaming breakdown at least 80% of the time) makes putting her in it in the airplane or airport a bad idea. Unfortunately. I'd love to have my lap free and my baby sleeping.

DopeyDame · Oct 24, 2016

Your husband shouldn't have any problems gate checking the carseat with or without a baby. I've done it twice and no one raised an eyebrow. I just asked at the podium for a gatecheck tag. Once she wanted to see the carseat, but never seemed to care about seeing an accompanying baby

kollerbear · Oct 24, 2016

DopeyDame said:
Your husband shouldn't have any problems gate checking the carseat with or without a baby. I've done it twice and no one raised an eyebrow. I just asked at the podium for a gatecheck tag. Once she wanted to see the carseat, but never seemed to care about seeing an accompanying baby

Thank you!! This is exactly what I was hoping someone would know the answer to!

tracaline · Oct 25, 2016

is it possible for your parents to leave their car seat at home, and you keep yours- use it in their car? (this is assuming you have another one at home to use, until you see them again).

picatinny · Nov 2, 2016

Assuming your parents live near you (Chicago), couldn't they drive it home?

apdismom · Nov 14, 2016

rent a carseat when you rent a car. hertz, avis any of the rental companies rent carseats as well. that's what we always do for our kids

so much easier than lugging around a carseat!

Flying with car seat WITHOUT infant?

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