How do you travel with a car seat on the plane?

[Yin Yang]

I am leaving for Florida in 2 weeks. Just me and my DS. I need to take the car seat with me, but I have no idea "how"! I have only one plane ticket - I did not buy ticket for my son so I can't take it on board with me (I would not do that anyway). Do I just check it in with my baggages? How does it work?
I did fly once before but it was to Europe and I did not take the car seat wityh me, so I don't know.

Any advise would be appreciated!

[Bernie]

You can just check it as baggage, that is the easiest. Just find a bag to put it in to keep it from getting damaged (they make specific bags just for this, so check at whereever you would find carseats/babystuff in your area). Have a fun trip!

[Melda]

Well what i did was took my stroller dusted it off ... lol and sat the seat in the stroller and buckled the tether strap to the axle of the stroller took the latch and found a spot it fit tightened it down put one kiddo (my DS who had just turned 3) in there and put dd in the sling and off we went ... all my carry on was stowed away in the underneath and it was a pain at security but it would have been much worse to lug that and 2 kids all over the airport ... oh and when i got to the gate i did a gate check of the stroller took the carseat out and went my marry lil way onto the plane ...

opps nevermind i just reread you only have one seat ... just check it in when you check in ... no biggie ... they will put it in a bag and tag it with your name and info on it ...

[~ATenthMuse~]

You can check it or you can take it with you as you board the plane...if it's not that full and there are some empty seats, they'll let you use it. If not they'll stow it for you.

[~Megan~]

You can have it as an extra piece of baggage.

Depending on the plane you are on and the age of your baby I would recommend an extra seat just for the elbow room.

dd is 2.5 and we have flown out on 9 trips to see my mom. I know that when I have an extra seat things are much nicer.

You can of course tell the person checking you if there is room that you prefer a row that has at least on empty seat so you can get a bit more room.
It is difficult to nurse and be able to reach the things you need in a diaper bag when you have only one seat of space.
That's my experience anyway.

[Yin Yang]

Originally Posted by amarasmom

You can have it as an extra piece of baggage.

Depending on the plane you are on and the age of your baby I would recommend an extra seat just for the elbow room.

It's an hour and half flight. It's not worth extra $230 to have more elbow room :LOL

[Elphaba]

....

[chersolly]

If you do check it with the rest of your luggage, request that they wrap it in plastic.

p.s. Don't forget to bring proof of age. If they ask for it and you forgot to bring it along and you can't prove that your DC is under two, they will require you to purchase a ticket for your DC.

[Irishmommy]

Moving this to Parenting Issues...

[cinnamonamon]

like pp's have said, gate checking is best (if you can carry it that far, lol). Otherwise most airports will let you have it as an extra checked bag. Some raise a fuss, though (Flint, Michigan for one...grrrr). Tampa doesn't mind at all, though. I'd call the airport & ask -- it varies by airport NOT airline, apparantly.

See ya soon!

[TiredX2]

I would really discourage checking it as baggage--- a car seat can have damange and not "look" damamged until it needs to work in an accident.

If you're not buying a ticket just gate check and if there are extra seats they *may* let you use one.

Have fun!

[jeca]

They have carseat covers that you can buy if you check it as baggage.

[Zach'smom]

Please buy an airplane seat for your child! It drives me crazy that people don't think that their childs safety is worth the cost of an airplane seat. Kids under 2 need to be secured in an approved seat just like every other person on that plane. Every coffee pot, every piece of luggage has to be secured and so should your precious child. It doesn't matter if the plane ride is 45 minutes or 15 hours. This is a basic safety issue. Please check out the "Does my 13 month old need a seat for a 15 hr flight" thread in the toddler forum. It is on page 2. I'm sorry but I couldn't figure out how to do the link.