Carseat for flight

[deebs]

I read the previous post about what kind of carseat you should bring on the plane, but my question is do I need a carseat? MY DD will be one year and we didn't buy a seat for her, so why should I take the carseat if there is no promise that there will be an available seat for her? We rented a car and were renting a carseat for when we are in Orlando.
I don't want to end up at the airport without a carseat if I need one, so please,please help me with this one.

Thanks!

 

[DeeCeeSW]

Hi,
If you did not purchase a separate seat for your one-year-old then you definitely should not bring a carseat since you will have no reason to use it. Infants under two can sit on their parents' lap. Chances are that the airline will fill up all the empty seats if your flight is expected to be full or overbooked... you usually have a better chance of having an open seat if you book the aisle and window in the row (if the flight is not completely full), which keeps the middle seat open. Not many people want to be "stuck" between a couple holding a baby. I have a 15-month-old and we have taken two plane trips in the past year. We held him in our lap for the first and bought him a seat for the second. He will be 22 months by the time we go to Disney and much harder to please, so we got him his own seat again to make things a litle easier on us. If you do decide to buy your infant a seat, then yes, bring the carseat (you can use the one you have in your car, including the base).

Dawn
New Jersey

 

[raidermatt]

Dawn covered it. You'll only be able to use a car-seat if there is an empty seat to put it in.

 

[ahutton]

If you check with the airline a day or so before your flight and they are able to tell you they anticipate having available room, then I would go ahead and bring your carseat from home. If it turns out there is not room on the plane you can gate check the seat and pick it up when you get off the plane in Orlando. Although we have never rented a seat from the car rental companies I have seen posts that indicate the seats are sometimes in rough condition or have not been available upon arrival even when they were reserved. I feel better just having my own...

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

I too would consider bringing the carseat to the gate with you in case there is an open seat. If not, you can gate check it and it will be there for you upon arrival.

Here are a few advantages of having your own carseat.

1) It is much easier to install your own seat than to try to figure out how to correctly install a different one (remember that 90% of the carseats in the US are installed incorrectly because it is so hard to figure out).

2) You also save the $$$ of renting one from a rental company.

3) You know the history of your own carseat and have no idea how well-treated the rental ones are.

4) You are guaranteed having a carseat - others have arrived only to find no carseats available.

We bought seats for our under two-year old for all of the trips we took - since the ticket was half-price it was never over a $100 for us and WELL WORTH the peace of mind to have her contained and safer during the flight. I know that many of my friends did not realize that infant seats were 1/2 price so I thought I'd pass on the info just in case.

We also found that buying an inexpensive carseat carry bag helped us to tote it along pretty well. You can find them at Babies R Us etc. - ours becomes a backpack which is also very helpful. If you do decide to take your own carseat, I would definitely recommend one of these.

Have a great trip!

 

[kidzmom3]

I just wanted to add my opinion. 2 years ago my 2dd's were aged 2 and 4 and we took the regular car seats from my van. I wanted them to be safe and happy. Well, they were very UNHAPPY. In the car seats they couldn't put the tray table down, at all. (each girl had own seat). So they couldn't eat, color anything. So when we had a layover, I asked them to check the car seats (at the gate) and it went much better. Now we always bring our own (we only need one now YEAH!!), but we always check it at the gate and pick it up at the gate when we get there. Just my experience. thanks

 

[DeeCeeSW]

I did not know that the carseat could be checked in at last minute if it could not be used. I agree with the others that using your own familiar carseat is much more preferable to using the rental car company one. We used one from Alamo and had the hardest time getting it in properly--in fact, we needed to put a towel underneath the infant seat (our son was facing backwards at the time) to level it so it would not move from side to side. It seemed to be more secure, but we made sure that someone was siting in the back with the baby at all times (something we did not do at home since we knew our seat was safe and secure).

Dawn
New Jersey

 

[BevS97]

Well, they were very UNHAPPY. In the car seats they couldn't put the tray table down, at all. (each girl had own seat). So they couldn't eat, color anything.

we had the exact same experience on a very long night flight from Florida to the UK - I thought my dd would sleep better in her carseat so made a point of bringing it on, but she hated it - she could see the other children were not in carseats, and she couldn't get her tray down so no coloring or food, she was so angry with it that she couldn't settle and it took her hours to get to sleep. Of course, once we were on board we couldn't get rid of the seat so she was stuck with it - it was not a pleasant flight.

Bev

 

[deebs]

Thanks for all the input. I have alot to think about.
I am going to look into buying her a seat. Even if we don't bring the carseat on board, at least she'll have her own space.

Thanks again!

 

[R4racing]

On our last trip with my then 15mo old, we had purchased a seat for her, and on at least 2 sections of our trip (4 sections total) the flight attendants came around and verified that we had paid for a seat for her. We flew United with a Fisher Price Safe Embrace convertible seat and we were able to put down the tray for her meal.

I think having a seat is great peace of mind in the event of turbulance. We also used it in our rental car. I would definately take it along, even if you end up gate checking it. Make sure you let the airline people know at check-in that you intend to gate check it, so they can tag it accordingly.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

We took our twins to Orlando for my parents 40th anniversary when they were 18 months old. The safest place for them to be is in a car seat strapped into an airplane seat. Even though they were not happy about it I felt as a parent I needed to consider their safety over what would be convenient and less expensive. We flew UAL and when I mentioned that the seats were for 2 infants I only had to pay 1/2 price for the seats. If you decide to use your own car seat on the plane just make sure it is FAA certified. When we flew back from Orlando last Sept we couldn't take off because a man in the back of the plane was fighting with the attendant because they wouldn't let him use his nonFAA certified infant seat. He insisted that his child had flown numerous times in it and no one ever questioned it before. In the end-he couldn't use it.

 

[drtpaper]

Most people buy the seat and still hold the kid. They don't like being seated the entire flight. There is an alternative. The FAA has approved a lap baby restraint. Not as good as a car seat, but will prevent injuries during turbulence. Goes by name of Baby B'air or something like that. About $20 on Ebay.

As for the heavy car seat. They have a travel car seat at Walmart from COSCO that is only $20 and packs away nicely. Cheaper than the $5 a day from the rental car company.

 

[88raymond]

I rented a car seat with the car once. It was very dirty and old - completely unacceptable. It took them over an hour for them to bring us a better one. At seven bucks a day we could have bought a new one! Here's what we do now. We check in our car seat and put in an oversized trash bag with our info taped on it. The advantage is you will know how to install it and it will stay clean (baggage compartments can be filthy).