Child seat in hold

[N5girl]

Hi

First time taking a child car seat in the hold.

Am travelling from LGW to MCO.

What should we wrap the seat in? It is virtually brand new and I would like to keep it as clean and dry as possible.

One of our friends mentioned a machine that wraps them at the airport (?!).

Anyone got any experience of this/advice - it is a brave new world for us!.

Thanks.

 

[tlkscott]

I have seen youtube videos showing carseats being thrown. I personally would just buy a seat and use the seat on the plane so that it was not thrown around. The video I saw showed them throwing seats onto the ground from the plan. Seats are not to be treated that way. Not trying to tell you what to do. Just wanted to make sure that you had thought of everything.

 

[N5girl]

Can we use our own car seat on the plane? Virgin told us that they supply the seat that goes in the plane seat and we have to put our seat in the hold.

I don't think the other half would agree to me putting our precious cargo into a cheap car seat. Also if I was going to do this I would have just hired one from the car rental company.

 

[scoobydooby]

The previous poster is right. Car seats will be thrown around getting in and out of the hold quite potentially rendering their original safety credentials useless. I know it's a pain but I'd find another way.

 

[N5girl]

This puts me in a difficult situation:

1. Put our seat in hold - it potentially gets damaged
2. We hire a 'cheap' car seat from the car company that may also potentially been damaged too (there a lot of bad reports online about car rental company car seats)

Sounds like a no-win situation.

 

[Brave5]

We use to put ours in a x-large bag with our towels for padding. If you fiddle it enough you can get two seats in one bag! This was before the 1 bag pp airline rule. But you could still do it and pad it with clothing and it should still be under the weight limit.

 

[Elise79]

Virgin will not let you take your seat on board.

We have flown with a car seat for DD 10 times now and what we have done is bought car seat bag and they travelled in that.

We have taken everything from her infant carrier to her Britax First Class Plus (group 0+ & 1 seat so heavy and bulky) and now just her high back booster. Nothing has shown signs of damage and I have had the covers off to wash plus the bag is still in good condition.

I would much rather fly and take her seat she knows and I know rather than paying to hire one and not knowing how it fits.

 

[irisheyes123]

You can put it in a bag and wrap it in towels ect or I have seen people get clear bags off the airline. I took my twins infant seats in January and they had no damage at all. Going again Tuesday and bringing my own seats as I'd prefer
mine to a carseat that I don't know the history of. I know plenty of people who travel with car seats never once heard of damage I know it happens just like luggage can get damaged. I just give my a check over before installing them in the rental car.

 

[Laurafoster]

We have always taken a car seat with us and it hasn't ever been damaged. However on our last trip whilst we were waiting for our seat to come off I did see someone else's come out damaged.

I've also had friends who seat was damaged (it was in a car seat bag but looked like it had been dropped) and they then had a nightmare trying to get home as they were driving and now had an unsafe seat.

Personally we always take our own but its our spare seat that's used by grandparents etc.

 

[Elise79]

Personally we always take our own but its our spare seat that's used by grandparents etc.

Should of said we always taken our 2nd seat too - and have one in the car at the airport so should it be lost/damaged we can still get home. Outbound I would hire one until be could buy one if that issue arose.

 

[catherine]

We're also taking a 2nd seat with us and getting ME from MCO to OKW. That way I figure if the seat is damaged on the way out we can purchase a new one once we get to OKW. On the way back we're just taking the hire car to MCO and then getting picked up from MAN. If for some reason the seat is damaged on the way back one of us will just come back on the train with the baby.

ETA forgot to say that we've purchased a travel bag especially for car seats, so hopefully that will add some protection!

 

[mackay_j]

Long time ago- but ours never made it to MCO in fact it took a whole week after we got home to get it back to the uk - Had gone via L.A. Our hire car company didn't have any left. In the end Virgin gave us money to go and buy one - we had landed late due to delays and them DH had to go to buy one before coming back to airport to pick us up - Along day, thus I would pre hire one even f you do not intend to use. You can opt to leave it once you arrive.

 

[N5girl]

Thanks for all the advice.

We have decided to go with taking our own in a bag. I stupidly didn't realise that we can just put it in a bag and pad it with some bubble wrap. For some reason I thought that it had to be just the car seat that we are checking in.

Alamo have said that they will have seats available for our arrival date next week in case the seat goes on holiday too.

If they don't have any for some reason, then I will send the other half onto the hotel in a cab/town car/bus/horse and cart and go to Walmart to buy one.

Next time I think I will just leave the little prince at home with the car seat and the grandparents....

 

[catherine]

Thanks for all the advice.

We have decided to go with taking our own in a bag. I stupidly didn't realise that we can just put it in a bag and pad it with some bubble wrap. For some reason I thought that it had to be just the car seat that we are checking in.

Alamo have said that they will have seats available for our arrival date next week in case the seat goes on holiday too.

If they don't have any for some reason, then I will send the other half onto the hotel in a cab/town car/bus/horse and cart and go to Walmart to buy one.

Next time I think I will just leave the little prince at home with the car seat and the grandparents....

If your worried about it getting there safely. Can you not book to pick your car up from the care care center and get ME from the airport to your resort (that's if your staying on site)

 

[girlb4amirror]

Also, do they allow you to gate check car seats internationally? When we fly, we always put them in a bag, carry them through the airport, and then gate check them. We don't want to risk them getting lost or damaged.

 

[Laurafoster]

I dont believe thats an option on an international flight.

 

[catherine]

Also, do they allow you to gate check car seats internationally? When we fly, we always put them in a bag, carry them through the airport, and then gate check them. We don't want to risk them getting lost or damaged.

I don't know whether it depends on the airline or not, but Virgin said that we can pay for the car seat as an extra piece of luggage, check it in and hand it in at the gate!

 

[Laurafoster]

I don't know whether it depends on the airline or not, but Virgin said that we can pay for the car seat as an extra piece of luggage, check it in and hand it in at the gate!

Interesting, We flew Virgin in May last year and was told we couldnt carry it through to the gate. Might have been because they classed it as "oversized baggage" though. (It was in a big car seat bag).

Would be worth calling the airline to check.

 

[catherine]

Interesting, We flew Virgin in May last year and was told we couldnt carry it through to the gate. Might have been because they classed it as "oversized baggage" though. (It was in a big car seat bag).

Would be worth calling the airline to check.

Now you've got me worried! I specifically asked about checking in the car seat because we always do check in at DTD and would need the car seat to get back to the airport. I was told that there would be no problem checking it in at DTD and handing it in at the gate at MCO. I think that I'd better phone them again and double check! Thanks for the heads up, as ours is going to be in a car seat bag also!

 

[luke]

Now you've got me worried! I specifically asked about checking in the car seat because we always do check in at DTD and would need the car seat to get back to the airport. I was told that there would be no problem checking it in at DTD and handing it in at the gate at MCO. I think that I'd better phone them again and double check! Thanks for the heads up, as ours is going to be in a car seat bag also!

We checked in at DTD in April and did just that, handed it in at MCO (it's not at the gate, it's at the oversized luggage bit).

Ours was thoroughly wrapped in bubble wrap and in a car seat bag and made both journeys unscathed (although the car seat bag wasn't quite so lucky and was a bit bashed up and ripped)