How to Fly With a Baby Car Seat
If y'all've flown with a infant, toddler, or young child, chances are that you've thought way too much well-nigh auto seats. Car seats are one of the biggest sources of confusion, misinformation, and frustration for parents flying with kids. There are all sorts of logistics involved to bringing (or non bringing) a car seat forth for air travel. Do you check your car seat or does that introduce too much potential for loss or harm? Practice you bring a car seat on board the plane or is carrying it around too much of a hassle? Do you take a chance it with a rental car company'due south automobile seat?
Needless to say, there are a lot of factors to consider and decisions to make. Afterward hundreds of flights with kids, my family unit has washed and seen only well-nigh everything when information technology comes to automobile seats on planes.
Seven years ago, I endeavored to come up upward with a comprehensive list that covered every question I'd ever heard, read, or experienced when it came to car seats and air travel. The result was this guide, which has now been updated multiple times in subsequent years as I've experienced fifty-fifty more than and new products and solutions have come up onto the market.
As yous might imagine, the guide got pretty darn long, and then I divided it into three parts based upon the different logistical stages of an plane trip – at the airport, on the airplane, and once you arrive at your destination. Here is everything you lot ever wanted to know about flight with kids and car seats on planes.
- Part 1: Auto Seats at the Airport (y'all are hither)
- Function 2: Auto Seats on the Plane
- Function three: Automobile Seats at Your Destination
(Note: this advice applies only to domestic air travel within the United States unless otherwise specifically noted).
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Car Seats on Airplanes Office 1: Car Seats At the Airport
1. Is there a charge for checking a car seat on an airplane?
No. Every U.S. airline allows you to bank check a automobile seat free of accuse when traveling with a child. You lot can check your car seat at the airport baggage counter or wait and check it at your gate.
If yous programme to gate bank check a car seat, remember to bank check with the gate agent when yous make it at the gate. The agent will requite you a checked bag tag to put on the car seat (or any pocketbook yous plan to put it in). Drop your motorcar seat at the boarding ramp exit door right at the entrance to the plane. Gate checked seats will usually be returned at the jetbridge when you deplane.
If yous check a auto seat at the ticket counter, it will usually be returned at baggage merits. Often car seats are not loaded onto the usual conveyer chugalug with suitcases to protect them from damage. Expect for the oversized luggage area at baggage claim to think a motorcar seat.
2. Are there risks if I cheque a machine seat?
Potentially. If you fly oft, you've probably had a checked suitcase damaged at some betoken. The same can happen to car seats. While some types of damage would be visible, not all damage necessarily is. Equally parents, nevertheless, we all make up one's mind what risks are acceptable to us, and many parents cull to check motorcar seats every twenty-four hours. I've checked a motorcar seat multiple times myself. But it'southward your phone call.
That said, the only way to ensure that your car seat doesn't sustain any harm during air travel is to buy a seat for your child and bring and utilize the car seat on board the plane. Sometimes trade-offs like budget or simple logistics, however, make that option too hard.
If yous do plan to check your car seat, I highly recommend that parents purchase a cheaper motorcar seat for travel in case it does go damaged. Nosotros accept used the Cosco Scenera NEXT and its predecessors with great success with both of our children. Check out my full Cosco Scenera NEXT review. We loved that information technology is even more meaty and lightweight and allows for longer rear-facing utilize. Consider a protective bag to protect confronting grime and some damage.
3. Volition the airline provide a protective handbag for my car seat if I check it?
Sometimes. Some airlines will wrap your car seat in a behemothic clear plastic bag if you cull to bank check your car seat when yous bank check your baggage, but that selection isn't available at all airports or from all airlines. It doesn't prevent real structural harm, only it will protect your seat from grease and crud.
I'd recommend bringing your own purse only in example. Our family has had adept luck with the inexpensive reddish "Gate Check" bags. You might besides consider a padded handbag for a little more than protection (like the backpack style padded J.50. Childress Ultimate Car Seat Travel Bag) or one that has wheels if yous demand to transport a car seat more than easily.
iv. Car seats are and then bulky. Are there products to help me ship a motorcar seat during my air travels more hands?
Yes! Lots of them, in fact.
If you have an infant, I'd recommend taking your infant seat and a simple stroller frame (like the Infant Trend Snap Due north Go). Stroll your baby through the airport to your gate. Then gate check the stroller portion as well equally the car seat portion if you lot don't take a seat for your infant on the airplane. If you lot've booked a seat or are given a costless empty one at cheque-in, then take the infant seat aboard and use it.
If you have older children, there take been a lot of products available over the years to make your convertible car seat more portable in airports. The most well-known, the Get Go Babyz is difficult to discover anymore and has a number of models unavailable, and then check out these more current brands and products:
Britax Car Seat Travel Cart: This simply device turns your automobile seat into the equivalent of a rolling suitcase. Strap your car seat onto the cart and then your child into the machine seat for easy wheeling through airports.
Car Seat Travel Belt: If you don't need to put your child into the motorcar seat but rather just demand to lug a bulky seat more easily, this belt is the all-time choice. Use it to secure an empty car seat to your rolling baggage every bit an zipper.
5. Are there reasons to wait to gate bank check my child's motorcar seat?
Maybe.
Outset, gate checked bags are handled a little bit less, and then if the chance of impairment actually concerns yous, your chances may be a little bit amend if yous gate check your automobile seat. No guarantees, however.
Second, if yous are traveling with an infant, a saucepan automobile seat and stroller frame combination makes for a great travel organization (see #four). Use the combination as your stroller for send through the airport and gate bank check both.
Finally, if yous are traveling with a lap child, you lot may desire to await and have the seat with you in case you notice yourself on a flight with empty seats. A gate agent may be willing to let yous to have an empty seat for your lap kid and bring your car seat aboard to use.
If you are flying Southwest Airlines with a kid, your chances of snagging an extra seat are the highest because of its open seating policy. If there is a single empty seat on the plane, information technology's probably yours to claim! Just brand sure you check with the gate amanuensis for approval to bring your seat on board and use it the extra seat.
More Car Seats on Airplanes Questions Answered
And so now that you know what to practice on the first office of your journeying with a motorcar seat through the airdrome, what'due south next? Check out the second and third parts of this guide at the links below.
- Part 1: Machine Seats at the Airport (you are here)
- Part ii: Car Seats on the Plane
- Office three: Car Seats at Your Destination
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Source: https://tripswithtykes.com/car-seats-on-airplanes-part-1/
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