Do You Bring a Carseat on Flights?
ByWe recently returned from our trip to Chicago, and it was a tremendous success! Thank you to everyone who provided helpful comments about flying on a plane with a child–they were very helpful! Pudge did wonderfully. On our flight to Chicago, we were lucky to be in a half-empty plane, so he had some room to play in the open seats next to us. The return flight, however, was totally full, but even then, he did a great job just playing while sitting on Mommy and Daddy’s laps. I was particularly worried about his ears hurting him. I often feel serious pain in my ears on airplanes, and this trip was no exception. Thankfully, Pudge didn’t seem bothered by it. For a few minutes, he held his ears, so we knew he felt something, but he didn’t cry and the sensation soon passed.
One commenter on my last post mentioned that, though not legally required, it is safest to buy a child his own seat and strap him into his carseat on the plane. According to FAA guidance, she’s right. But while it might be the safest and most ideal situation, is it practical? We did not bring Pudge’s carseat on the plane this time. On one hand, I’m glad we didn’t. We already had enough bags to manage, so the thought of carrying our son’s huge carseat through the airport, too, sounds beyond daunting. Plus, Pudge did really enjoy getting up and moving around once the plane was in flight (as many of us adults do, too). I have a feeling that he would not have been happy to sit restrained in a carseat for the whole flight.
However, I certainly want him to be as safe as possible. And since he did so well on his first flight, we are eager to take him on more trips. In the future, we’ll have to decide whether to bring his carseat along.
Having a carseat in tow would be helpful at the destination, too. We realized the hard way that it is very difficult to take cabs in cities when you don’t have your own carseat. Our two options were 1) take a cab sans carseat and strap our almost-2-year-old into a seatbelt designed for adults (which is not only unsafe, but also illegal) or 2) call for a carseat-equipped cab to take us around the city. The latter option sounds great, except that after calling 5 cab companies that did not have such specially-equipped cabs, we realized it’s not very viable. We did find one airport shuttle company that had carseats available, but that shuttle obviously only went to the airport, so it wasn’t very useful in taking us around the rest of the city. It was difficult and frustrating, and we ended up venturing only to places that were within walking distance of our hotel (luckily, our hotel was located in the heart of Chicago, so we weren’t too deprived).
What do you do when you travel? Does everyone bring their own carseat(s) along? That seems so impractical, especially if you have more than two kids, and two parents need to haul 3+ kids and 3+ carseats around the airport and at their destination. But if you don’t bring along a carseat, how do you travel in cars once at your destination? Do you just plop your child on your lap in a cab and hope for the best? Or avoid cabs entirely?
Personally, if carseats are the safest way for children to travel, then I think airplanes should have them available for child travelers. Similarly, I think cab companies should have to have a few carseats available upon request. But since the transportation industry is not giving us such help, what do you do about carseats when you travel?
I took Sammy on his first plane ride this past November; my husband was unable to come with us, so it was just going to be me and Sammy going cross-country and managing the luggage and connecting flights. I was going to be borrowing a car at our destination so I needed to have a car seat on hand, which basically made my decision for me. Fortunately, Sammy is a great traveler and I honestly think having the comfort and familiarity of his car seat on the plane made him even easier to deal with; he knows that once he’s strapped into that seat, he’s there until the trip is over, save for a diaper change here or there.
I wore Sammy in a carrier so that my hands would be free for the other things, like my carry-on bag and the diaper bag; I ordered a gogoKidz travelmate, which is basically a dolly for your car seat, which made it so much easier to move around the airport with it (plus it could double as a stroller in a pinch, but I mainly used it as a luggage cart). The flight attendants were great in assisting us on the plane, plus Southwest lets families with young children board ahead of the rest of the flight, which helped a lot, too. I worry about the logistics of doing this with two kids in the future, but hopefully my husband will be traveling with us and I can use him as our pack mule.
We don’t buy an airline seat for our under-2 kids. Sorry to be morbid, but in most plane crashes, everybody dies, seat belt or not.
We do take car seats for those kids who legally need them to ride in a car upon arrival. Yes, it’s a pain. But most airport staff and airline staff understand and are as patient and helpful as possible, given their other responsibilities. Some fellow travelers are also helpful when they see parents with lots of kid equipment.
The good news is that in most families with 3+ kids, at least one of the kids is big enough to help carry an item or two through the airport.
We always rent a car when we fly. Car rental companies rent car seats for exorbitant rates. We bring our own.
By the way, some places have exceptions to the car seat laws for taxis. I wouldn’t chance it unless there was no other way, but to each his own.
We do what Laura does: Strap the baby on the front with my Ergo, and I strap my radian to my back (it has optional carry straps for exactly this). Through the airport the radian goes in the umbrella stroller and the kiddo walks
You could also get a traveling toddler which will attach a carseat to rolling luggage.
Taxi/shuttle/rental car carseats are not safe: you have no idea if they’ve been in a crash/been thrown around/have the harness washed, and checking carseats with the airline isn’t a great idea either, since they tend to throw things around. Even if you think that all plane accidents are fatal with or without carseats (which isn’t true, btw) the safest thing to do is to bring a carseat and use it for the ride.
Ever since Owen turned 2 and we had to buy him his own seat on flights, we bring his Britax Roundabout on the plane. We found a gizmo on Amazon that is basically a strap that you can tether the carseat to a piece of your carryon rolling luggage, so we always carry on one bag to be able to roll him through the airport – he LOVES it and it keeps him contained in the airport and on the plane. To him it’s just another ride and the familiarity of it I think is what helps him to be comfortable. We haven’t yet traveled anywhere other than my parent’s house and they always have an infant seat for us, and then we have Owen’s seat with us. We’re traveling to a wedding in May where I think we’re going to see if the car rental agency we rent from can install an infant seat for us to use for the week, and we’ll have Owen’s seat on the trip. Hopefully that will work.
Great post, Jen!