car seat rental at car rental place?

[loriandmatt]

can you rent a car seat at any/most/all car rental places?

might be flying down and renting a car. DD would not need a car seat for the flight as she (13 months) would be on my lap. We would need one for in the rental car though.

any options? (if not at the car rental place, perhaps someplace else?)

 

[Tara]

I would seriously consider bringing my own. For starters, it is possible that you could make use of an empty seat on the flight and use the car seat there even though you haven't bought a ticket for your child. (Yes, I know flights are more full now than ever, but it's still possible.) If not, you can gate-check the seat. Once you are in your rental car, you are dealing with installing a familiar seat -- no hassles working with a seat you've never used before.

But yes, most major car rental companies also rent child car seats.

 

[loriandmatt]

Tara - thanks for you info on this and my other threads here lately.

as you can tell, i am very new to all of this.

another question for you if you don't mind....if i check the car seat at the gate, does that count as one of our checked bags? (we can each have 2 and 1 carry on) what about the stroller? (just a small umbrella stroller) would we have to check it too and would it count from our checked bag total - or could we carry it on? and if we do, would it count from our carry on total?

sorry - for all the tacked on questions.

thanks for any info.

- lori

 

[Tara]

This might vary by airline, but in my experience, a stroller and car seat does NOT count against your baggage allowance.

If you have your stroller with you (and I highly recommend that!), you can gate check it. At your gate, ask for a gate check tag and place it on your stroller. When you board, simply wheel it down the jetway (the little covered walkway from the gate to the plane door), take the baby out and fold it, leaving it at the end of the jetway. It will be returned to the jetway at your destination -- sometimes this takes a few minutes, but not long as gate check pieces are the first off.

Be prepared to take your daughter out of the stroller and fold it to put it through the x-ray machine at security. I've flown with DS almost 20 times and only once was I allowed to push him through in the stroller, but even then they hand-wanded the stroller.

I assume you are flying out of Philadelphia?

And don't worry about all the extra questions. That's what the DIS is for.

 

[robinb]

This might vary by airline, but in my experience, a stroller and car seat does NOT count against your baggage allowance.

If you gate-check they are not counted, but if you check them through they will be counted. At least, that was my experience. To the OP: I would bring both the stroller and the car seat to the gate with you. Bungie the car seat to a regular luggage cart to haul it through the airport with you .

 

[pic22]

To OP:
I rented a car when I went to Disney in Dec 2004 with DD#1 at the age of 4, I rented a car seat from Avis and even included it in the reservation. It was not in the car, but when I asked for it, it appeared rather quickly, and was clean and easy to install. I am going back in Nov 2005 and will be renting a car seat for DD #@ who will be almost 1. We are not very light packers. If there is a extra seat on the plane, will there be a seat next to it for you to sit next to her? Maybe, but maybe not. Make you own decisions, but for the $8.00 a day or so, it was worth it for me. Have a great trip.

 

[smart cookie]

You can get a free carseat at Hertz ... http://www.travelcouponsonline.com/hertz.html

 

[Stimpy]

Just keep in mind that even if you request a car seat at the time of reservation, it's not guaranteed to be there. As long as you rent from one of the bigger major companies, it shouldn't be a problem. Smaller companies have been known to run out of them.

I worked for 1 of the major ones for years (in NY) and it happened. People got to the airport expecting to have a seat and we were out. Again, since Orlando is more family oriented, it's probably not a big problem, but it could happen.

Also, personally, we always bring our own. The rental ones are thrown around and unless they are fairly new, they can be pretty gross. (Atleast I know the gross stuff on ours is from my own kids LOL)

 

[loriandmatt]

wow - thanks for the info guys. am thinking long and hard about either the hertz free car seat or bringing my own and gate checking it. (thanks for tip about stapping it to a cart.)

- lori

 

[shelly3girls]

We purchased a relatively light weight Graco CarGo to travel. The seat comes with a 5 pt. harness and converts to a booster. We did not have a coupon for a free carseat so we were looking at paying $8/day. In one trip I paid for the seat and used it many more trips. It has worked very well for us!