Couple of questions...

[Wills Mom]

Sorry for my inane questions lately! I'm getting anxious with our trip coming up so fast I have several questions if anyone can help me

1. Having been advised by VA to do OLCI I'm wondering if its a good idea. We fly from Dublin at 8.40am to meet a connecting flight in Gatwick at 1pm. I gather that this means we can do OLCI at 1pm the previous day. We are a group if 12 split into 3 bookings (one booking of 5 adults and a lap infant, second booking of 4 adults and a child with the third booking being my sisters OH on his own as he booked separately due to only getting the time off work recently) I'm thinking would it be too complicated to do OLCI for 3 separate bookings? And if we do do OLCI does that mean we can pick any seats on the plane that havent been assigned to someone else by OLCI? I'm clueless to OLCI having never done it before.

2. I asked a VA rep about bringing both a carseat and buggy for free for DS and she advised I can bring one or the other free of charge but I must pay for one of them if I bring both. This doesnt work for me as we would have to pay for two legs if our journey - once to Aer Lingus for our DUB-LGW flight and once to VA for our LGW-MCO flight (and the return) so we've decided to bring the buggy but now dont know what to do about a carseat when we get to the US. We are hiring a car from Budget. Any advice?

3. I have downloaded a Sat Nav app to my Samsung Galaxy S and have the wires to charge it in the car through the cigarette lighter. I'm wondering does anyone know if I can charge it the same way in the US?

4. My sisters OH is a UK citizen living in Ireland. He has a UK passport due to expire in June 2014 which is fine but he told me today that his passport is slightly water damaged and on a recent trip to Thailand he said he had a little trouble in Immigration. He was thinking of getting a new one. Would you advise me to tell him to order a new one? And if so can anyone give me a rough estimate of how long he would be waiting to get the new passport seeing as he is living in Ireland not the UK?

Thanks for putting up with me lol. I promise these silly questions will stop soon

 

[Button]

Hi,

We've travelled with VA and taken a car seat and buggy free of charge.


Probably one of those who you speak with times.

 

[Button]

Sorry meant to say also. First time we went we hired car and got car hire carseat for 1 day and dropped it to local depot. We pre ordered one from good old Walmart. This way we had a nice new clean carseat for less than the cost to hire. We were going to leave there but it came home with us.

 

[Elise79]

I would check with Aer Lingus as well re the charges for car seat and buggy - i think they carry both free. Personally if you only take one I would rather take the car seat - you will trying to fit it in a strange car after a very long day and the last thing you would want is to be struggling with a strange seat too. The staff at the car hire companies are not allowed to help for liability reasons either.

You can pick up a cheap stroller anywhere.

With OLCI you can add extra passengers on other references but I would also make sure that VA have noted you are all travelling together.

 

[tinks_1989]

Sorry meant to say also. First time we went we hired car and got car hire carseat for 1 day and dropped it to local depot. We pre ordered one from good old Walmart. This way we had a nice new clean carseat for less than the cost to hire. We were going to leave there but it came home with us.

This is exactly what I was going to advise to do. It's what we plan to do.

 

[Wills Mom]

Hi,

We've travelled with VA and taken a car seat and buggy free of charge.

Probably one of those who you speak with times.

I plan on ringing Dublin airport today. The VA rep said that I should get an accurate price straight from them. Fingers crossed the rep is wrong!!

 

[Wills Mom]

Sorry meant to say also. First time we went we hired car and got car hire carseat for 1 day and dropped it to local depot. We pre ordered one from good old Walmart. This way we had a nice new clean carseat for less than the cost to hire. We were going to leave there but it came home with us.

That sounds like a great option!Do you recall how much the single day carseat hire was?

 

[orangetiggs]

Im not sure you can do olci with virgin with aninfant with no seat, i know we couldnt do it

 

[Wills Mom]

I would check with Aer Lingus as well re the charges for car seat and buggy - i think they carry both free. Personally if you only take one I would rather take the car seat - you will trying to fit it in a strange car after a very long day and the last thing you would want is to be struggling with a strange seat too. The staff at the car hire companies are not allowed to help for liability reasons either.

You can pick up a cheap stroller anywhere.

With OLCI you can add extra passengers on other references but I would also make sure that VA have noted you are all travelling together.

Thanks I'll ring the airport direct I reckon and see what they say. Maybe the rep was mistaken - hopefully that is the case!

We have a City Mini that we've bought particularly for travelling so I think I'd prefer DS to be comfortable enough to nap in the stroller.

Thanks for the tip re OLCI, I didnt know that. I have told VA that two of our bookings are travelling together but I'm waiting to receive the ref number for the third booking and once I do I can tell them

 

[orangetiggs]

Yes we tried to do it as they told us we could but no such luck. It might have changed now so always give it a go.

 

[Button]

Sorry don't recall price for 1 day hire. The very first time the chap in parking lot actually adjusted booking and gave to us free for 2 weeks as desk had done something really minor. Result!

They have instructions to fit with them and whilst they can't fit they did offer some support on fitting.

 

[orangetiggs]

What we did with buggy and two car seats was lose a suitcase. Infants on laps are allowed a suitcase so we choose to pack our stuff into anither case and then i could take buggy and two cars seats free of charge. So lose a case and you can take both

 

[chmurf]

3. I have downloaded a Sat Nav app to my Samsung Galaxy S and have the wires to charge it in the car through the cigarette lighter. I'm wondering does anyone know if I can charge it the same way in the US?

you *might* be able to.
There are 2 sizes of cigarette lighter plugs, the one used in the US can be slightly smaller in diameter, but many cars are fitted with a plug that's compatible with our european plugs. It will depend on the car you get, it may have one or the other type of plug (or even both)

4. My sisters OH is a UK citizen living in Ireland. He has a UK passport due to expire in June 2014 which is fine but he told me today that his passport is slightly water damaged and on a recent trip to Thailand he said he had a little trouble in Immigration. He was thinking of getting a new one. Would you advise me to tell him to order a new one? And if so can anyone give me a rough estimate of how long he would be waiting to get the new passport seeing as he is living in Ireland not the UK?

I can't advise you on getting a new one or not, but he'd have to redo his ESTA if he gets a new passport. (in case he already did his ESTA)

 

[Azza1987]

I recently applied for my new passport as mine was due to expire in June 2013 and we're out there until Mid May.

I sent mine off with the passport check and send service on a Saturday Morning (Normal renewal service says to allow up to 6 weeks maximum but to expect it within 3 weeks) and I'd gotten mine by the Friday. So glad I didn't pay the extra for Fast track service, I did that in February, so if you are going to do it I'd do it now, as their busy service is April - September.

Im not sure how it works to S.Ireland though, I know you can make an appointment with the passport office in Liverpool and get it the same day, if he can get cheap flights over!

 

[suw33]

Even if you do take your car seat there is no guarantee it will fit safely in the car that you hire.

Hiring one for a day then buying one sounds a good idea - something we'd definitely do if we still needed car seats.

 

[Wills Mom]

Sorry don't recall price for 1 day hire. The very first time the chap in parking lot actually adjusted booking and gave to us free for 2 weeks as desk had done something really minor. Result!

They have instructions to fit with them and whilst they can't fit they did offer some support on fitting.

Thanks I've emailed the company and hopefully should hear something back relatively soon. I read on a different car hire website that they charged $6.99 plus tax per day so that would be great and then buy one from Walmart and its still a cheaper option that renting one or bringing my own. Plus my own one wouldn't be damaged (I have a slight fear that it might get damaged in transit)

 

[Wills Mom]

What we did with buggy and two car seats was lose a suitcase. Infants on laps are allowed a suitcase so we choose to pack our stuff into anither case and then i could take buggy and two cars seats free of charge. So lose a case and you can take both

See I wouldnt mind losing a suitcase on our outbound flight but I am planning on shopping til I drop (mostly for DS just cause I honestly cant help myself lol) so I want to have his baggage allowance on the return trip for all the clothes I plan on buying.

 

[Wills Mom]

you *might* be able to.
There are 2 sizes of cigarette lighter plugs, the one used in the US can be slightly smaller in diameter, but many cars are fitted with a plug that's compatible with our european plugs. It will depend on the car you get, it may have one or the other type of plug (or even both)

I can't advise you on getting a new one or not, but he'd have to redo his ESTA if he gets a new passport. (in case he already did his ESTA)

Thank you I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it does fit. I could mention it to the guys in the garage before we pick our car so we could maybe try a couple of them to see if the plug thing fits!

He hasnt done his ESTA yet so thats something I suppose. I just rang him and told him to decide whether hes ordering a new one anyway, I'm afraid it will take weeks and weeks to arrive and then we'll still have to process the ESTA and what if theres an issue with that....can you tell I'm a 'bit' of a worrier lol!

 

[Wills Mom]

I recently applied for my new passport as mine was due to expire in June 2013 and we're out there until Mid May.

I sent mine off with the passport check and send service on a Saturday Morning (Normal renewal service says to allow up to 6 weeks maximum but to expect it within 3 weeks) and I'd gotten mine by the Friday. So glad I didn't pay the extra for Fast track service, I did that in February, so if you are going to do it I'd do it now, as their busy service is April - September.

Im not sure how it works to S.Ireland though, I know you can make an appointment with the passport office in Liverpool and get it the same day, if he can get cheap flights over!

Thanks for that! I've just told him about the six week maximum thing but pointed out that thats for a UK citizen living in the UK - it could be longer for him! So hes been told to decide what to do sharpish! Thanks for the info there, I'm so clueless when it comes to passports. Had to renew my own one in my married name this year and I pretty much needed step by step instructions lol!

 

[Wills Mom]

Even if you do take your car seat there is no guarantee it will fit safely in the car that you hire.

Hiring one for a day then buying one sounds a good idea - something we'd definitely do if we still needed car seats.

Thats a good point too!! Thanks for that. Yeah I reckon hiring one for a day and buying at Walmart is the way we're going to go!