anyone fly with a britax roundabout???

[Shelly D.]

We're flying with our 22 month old tomorrow morning and purchased a seat so she can sit in her carseat. Last time we flew, we took an Cosco Eddie Bauer seat which worked fine, but she's now using a Britax Roundabout and it's much more comfortable for her to sleep in.

My question is about size on the plane. This carseat is larger, so I was wondering if anyone has flown with this one before and if it fits okay on the plane. We're flying American.

TIA!
Shelly

 

[Laurabearz]

I think it may be too big. I would hunt around on your airlines website or call them to see if it will fit. Also, somewhere on the car seat it may say if it is FAA approved.

HTH

 

[tjmw2727]

Its been a while but IIRC that is a big seat, awesome for the car but may not be the best choice for airline travel, the issue is the width. First off check for the FAA sticker and then go to:

www.seatguru.com

The have all the information about seat width, size and pitch as well as distance between the seats. I remember my 2yo being very uncomfortable on an AA flight as the rows were very close together and the slightest movement caused her to kick the seat in front and she could not use the tray. (Tray no biggie but seat kicking is a no no in our family!) This was with a century breverra CSR.

If your airline has a website or if you can determine the type of aircraft you will be using to to seatguru and enter the information. They will tell you the width of the seat and the pitch as well as distance. If you still have the smaller seat it may be worth using for the trip and just leave the britax in the car.

Have a great trip!
TJ

 

[Missus Toad]

I flew with a Britax Marathon on United with no problems. The only thing I recall is that the person in front of you may not get to recline as much or baby will need to sit with bent knees. Not a big deal when their legs are shorter, but if you've got a baby who doesn't like to sit that way it might be an issue. Also, as others have stated, check the dimensions to be sure of fit.

 

[Gillian]

We used one when my son was ~2 & then 2 1/2. We had to lift the armrest in between our seats, but that actually gave me more room.

The worst part was carrying it through the airport. What I did was buy a duffle bag that was big enough for the carseat OR the stroller. The bag made it easier to carry the seat. At the gate I removed the car seat and put in the folded stroller (a century that is a little bigger than the smallest gracos with recline & tray). We put the gate check tag on the duffle bag.

I felt that was better because it kept the tray & cloth seat cover all together safely.

 

[long4disney]

We flew Southwest Airlines with the Britax Roundabout and had no problems!!!

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

I flew with it with my 8 month old. It is such a comfortable car seat. They only problem I had was carrying it around the airport. I never regretted taking it because my son slept a lot during the 5 hour flight. I had no problems with it fitting in the seat. We flew SWA.

Lori

 

[long4disney]

I forgot to mention that what we usually do, since the britax roundabout is so heavy, is one of us carries our dd and one of us pushes the car seat inside our stroller. Once we get to our gate, we take the car seat out and put our dd back in her stroller until it is time to board. We did try one of those backpack carriers, but my husband thought it was a pain, so this works out much better for us!!!

 

[Shelly D.]

Thank you all for such wonderful info. That's exactly what I was looking for. I'll check American's website to see what they say, but I think we'll go for it. We're doing quite a bit of driving once we get to our destination, so I want her to be as comfortable as possible.

Thanks!

 

[Jenn Lynn]

We have flown 3 times with DD's Britax Roundabout. We did not have any problems fitting it in the airline seats.

We did not take her stroller on those trips so we bought one of those carts with 2 wheels that you can strap a suitcase on. It works really well. I flew with DD by myself once and used it. I put the carryon in the seat, pulled it with one hand and hung on to DD with the other.

 

[barbanm]

I too am flying with a Britax Advantage on the 25th and did not even think about it not fitting into the airline seat?

We are flying NorthWest-- has anyone flown NW with the Britax and if so did it fit?

Please let me know.

Thanks,
Barbara

 

[HappyMommy2]

Hi!

We have a Roundabout and have flown with it forward-facing many, many times on various airlines (including American) and on various types of aircraft large and small. Never once has it not fit just fine (and to me, fitting just fine means the armrest should be able to be down and have the seat still fit). Occasionally a flight attendant has asked to see the FAA sticker, so be sure you know where it is--ours is on the seat's left-hand side near the top.

I did post a thread recently on the Transportation board about an incident we had on American Eagle--we tried to board the plane, a turboprop, with our Roundabout and the flight attendant made us check the carseat. Sorry I don't know how to link to that thread, but the DIS consensus (with the help of a look at the actual FAA regulations) was that the flight attendant was wrong to not let us use the carseat. BTW we'd never had that problem in all our flying and I doubt we'll ever have it again, so it's probably not something you need to worry about.

Have a great trip!

 

[new mom11]

We've flown with a Roundabout on Southwest and didn't have a problem. My 18 mo DS son slept almost the entire 3 hours both ways. (We tried to book the flights around his naptime). At first it was a bit of a pain carrying the seat around the airport, then my DH had the bright idea of hanging it from the stroller handlebars using the tether strap. Wasn't crazy about it at first, 'cause he put this big knot in the strap......It worked out great as long as DS was IN the stroller. Just don't forget to take the seat off before removing your child or it will tip. It wasn't even a fullsize stroller; just a lightweight one (not umbrella) we bought for the trip and actually use it ever since more than our full size travel system. Hope it works for you.

 

[Mr Poohbrain]

FYI - When we went to Disney last week, we took a bungie cord and strapped our carseat (upside down) to our carry-on luggage (with wheels). It worked great!! We attached each end piece to the handle and threaded the cord through the back hole.

BTW - this is a pain in the rear when going through the metal detector (as you have to disasemble everything), but other than that it work out great!

Good luck with your Roundabout. I have one also, but chose to bring our smaller (spare) carseat for the trip for the very same reason that you are having concerns.

Mrs. PB

 

[justhat]

Hello,

Has anyone ever flown with the Roundabout rear facing? does it fit? How well does it fit? I'm sure the other person can't recline, (safety over comfort-sorry) but as long as it fits in the seat.

Thanks

 

[naynay80]

forward facing on an airplane....Sorry.

 

[justhat]

If the child is under a year old or under 20 pounds then the seat should be rear-facing, even on an airplane. We have flown with my daughter (who is now 6 months and 16 pounds) 5 times, but have used her Graco Snugride infant seat, which has no choice but to be rear facing. That fit fine backwards, though the person in front of her can't recline. We're switching her to the Roundabout this month since she's 26 inches so when we fly in December I was wondering how the Roundabout would fit. If necessary, I guess we could use Snugride.

 

[Rowlf]

I just got back from our trip last night - we took our Britax Marathon on USAir and the only problem we had was feeding the belt through the back. There's not much room to manuever back there! It could have fit rear-facing, as well, but I put it forward-facing. Well, that and they put us in the row behind the exit row on the flight back which apparently was against rules, so they stopped the plane mid-taxi to move us...

Here's the tip I learned for carrying a Britax seat through the airport - let the shoulder straps out a lot and put it on you like a backpack. Made it VERY easy to carry through the airport!

 

[beaubeau8853]

We flew a couple years ago on American with the Roundabout no problem. Also, when our son was an infant, we also were able to have him rear facing and it fit just fine. In hindsight it was also better then because he couldn't kick the seat in front of him

 

[JMac29]

Although we have flown with the roundabout front facing on numerous occasions, with many airlines and had no problems. . . I really can't see it fitting facing backwards unless you get the bulkhead seats. Of course these are the coveted seats that everyone with kids want because they have the extra room to move about a bit. But in your case I would make the request for the bulkhead ahead of time and stress the safety issue.

When my DD was still facing backward we always took one of the small infant car seats because it was just so much easier to deal with. The downside to the roundabout is that it is just so heavy and large to cart around the airport.