Baggage allowance - Car seat and Pushchair

[jmagla]

Hi All,
We are travelling from Manchester to Orlando on Wednesday morning via Virgin. We intend to take a pushchair and car seat for our youngest aged 4 years. I am trying to ascertain whether these would count as an item of luggage if checked in to the hold. I have just rung Virgin and got through to their call centre (India?) but am not convinced by the response I recieved, which was that doing so would use all his entitlement i.e. 2 bags at up to 23 kg.

If right this would be rather dissapointing, however I am sure that others have said that neither the seat or pushchair counts. I would be grateful if ayone could clarify this for me, as it may require a change of tact.

Thanks in advance for any help.

P.S. We booked on line and havent received any baggage labels, are they provided at the airport or do we have to sort our own out in advance?

Thanks Michael

 

[AliceGardner]

Hi

I am pretty sure that a buggy/car seat does count as one piece of checked luggage (you are allowed one in addition to the one piece of infant luggage, but your youngest is not an infant - so has the adult two piece allowance instead).

How many in your party? There is never any problem "pooling" luggage - i.e. if you are a family of 4 (and all over 2 years old), then you have a family allowance of 8 x 23kg. So the buggy, the car seat and 6 x 23kg - is that manageable for the 4 of you?

If you book online, then you don't get tickets or luggage tags (you get an e-ticket receipt through email and that is it). Print the e-ticket receipt and take it with you (you don't need to show it, but it is always good for reference/proof). I buy fairly robust luggage tags (since card/string ones can be ripped off you luggage and leave it with no ID) and put them on the luggage before we go. You can normally pick up Virgin Tags at the airport, but they aren't very robust and it can be a pain trying to fill them out whilst you are in the queue - if you have already put your own tags on, you don't need to bother with them.

Alice

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Well, the Virgin web site staes for Infants:

"Infants not entitled to a seat are entitled to one piece of checked baggage weighing no more than 10 kg and with dimensions of 9 x 14 x 22 ins. They are also entitled to one piece of hand luggage weighing no more than 6kg. This is over and above the buggy or bassinet or car seat, which are carried free of charge."

Reading that it shopuld not be any different for children.

Plus as they have a seat the are entitled to:

"Two pieces of luggage per passenger, each weighing up to 23kg (51lbs). When added together, the three dimensions of any piece of luggage must not exceed 158cm (62in)."

So that should be more than enough!

 

[AliceGardner]

I don't know, I would assume that the addition of a "buggy or bassinet or car seat" is because the infant's checked baggage allowance is so small. Also not the use of "or" rather than "and" (so a buggy OR a car seat are carried free of charge for an infant).

Personally I would try and keep the baggage under the total allowance for the family (i.e. number of passengers x 2 x 23kg), but -like most of these things - it probably depends on the agent checking you in to the response ou get... Think that Virgin's website is poor on clarity on this issue...

Alice

Well, the Virgin web site staes for Infants:

"Infants not entitled to a seat are entitled to one piece of checked baggage weighing no more than 10 kg and with dimensions of 9 x 14 x 22 ins. They are also entitled to one piece of hand luggage weighing no more than 6kg. This is over and above the buggy or bassinet or car seat, which are carried free of charge."

Reading that it shopuld not be any different for children.

Plus as they have a seat the are entitled to:

"Two pieces of luggage per passenger, each weighing up to 23kg (51lbs). When added together, the three dimensions of any piece of luggage must not exceed 158cm (62in)."

So that should be more than enough!

 

[Lady Radington]

If you are taking a car seat, are you renting a car? If so could you cut down on what you travel with by checking whether the rental company could provide a car seat for you? I don't know whether they provide such services, however.

 

[Groovee]

We've travelled a lot with a buggy and it's always been free for a child but we're planning on buying a buggy for Muzz over there (as we no longer have one for him) and we were going to take a booster seat to get us to Walmart with him as it's 10mins away from Sanford but if you're flying virgin then it will be Orlando you fly into. And I've not researched it. But I do know my friend flew all the way there with their own car seat and discovered that the car had inbuilt car seats.

Have fun on your trip and get Alexander to tell Mickey that Murray can't wait to see him in 30 days time.

 

[Babyboo]

I have always taken a puschair for both our children over the age of 4 and have never even considered that it should be included as part of the luggage.

The few times I have had to pay excess baggage (I am always over the weight limiton charter flights ) they have not included the pushchair in the calculations.

When checking in we let them know we have a pushchair and usually they tell us to check it in at the gate.

Not sure about Car Seats though as this will be the first time we have taken a booster seat, but my guess would be that if you check it in with your luggage they may count it towards the allowance

 

[Groovee]

If you are taking a car seat, are you renting a car? If so could you cut down on what you travel with by checking whether the rental company could provide a car seat for you? I don't know whether they provide such services, however.

Having checked with our rental company it's $80 for the rental and after a bad experience with car rental seats before I'd rather take my own. Last time dd was 15 months and we bought a seat for her and took it on the plane with us.

 

[Lady Radington]

Yeah i suppose you never know what its going to be like, or how reliable it'll be until you get there and are stuck with it.

 

[latinqt]

The pushchair (stroller) and car seat should not be part of the luggage allowance. Good luck

 

[jmagla]

Thank you all very much for your replies. I guess we will have to wait and see what they say at the airport, although it would seem rather unfair if his full allowance of 2 x 23kg was used because of the push chair and car seat.

We have always obtained a car seat from the hire company in the past but at $8 ($120!!) a day for 15 days it is a rip off (imo). Genearlly we have found that the seats are not good, particularly if the child is bigger than a baby.

Only one day to go!

Thanks Michael

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Thank you all very much for your replies. I guess we will have to wait and see what they say at the airport, although it would seem rather unfair if his full allowance of 2 x 23kg was used because of the push chair and car seat.

We have always obtained a car seat from the hire company in the past but at $8 ($120!!) a day for 15 days it is a rip off (imo). Genearlly we have found that the seats are not good, particularly if the child is bigger than a baby.

Only one day to go!

Thanks Michael

Normally it is not part of the allowance, but it will depend I suppose, how old your child is.
All I can say is that up to now, our car seat has never been part of the allowance, our son is now five.
We don't take a pushchair now so cannot answer that part, but I would image it is not part of the allowance, no more than a wheel chair is.