has anyone loaded a car seat as baggage and had it damaged?

[jobobs]

Hi
We are travelling to WDW in 6 days encounting and I'm planning to load my DDs car seat as baggage on the plane, but I am concerned that it will be thrown about and get damaged when being loaded or unloaded by the baggage handlers or during the journey. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this???
Thanks

 

[Markhh2]

We have packed our daughter's care seat numerous times - both a Grace booster seat and the Britax Roundabout - and never had issues's with them being damaged. The only issue you may want to consider is the chance of it getting lost or delayed as luggage does when flying. To alleviate this you may want to gate check the car seat so we see it put on the plane and then retrieve at the gate upon deplaning. We never had an issue with the car seat not making it, but if you are worried I'd gate check it. Have fun - Dane

 

[timandlesley]

We traveled this summer and checked my daughters carrier/carseat. It wasn't damaged, but her favorite pull down bee toy was attached and it came back missing. It was my fault, I never should have left it on there, but if you have any toys attached I would take them off.
Lesley

 

[alloyd1170]

I got a durable car seat bag at Babies R Us (belive its by Eddie Bauer). I used it for one trip so far (4 flights) and the Graco Booster seat came through without a scratch. The bag is big enough to toss in a few jackets, pack of diapers, a stuffed animal and wipes (and more). Apparently it doesnt count against your # of bags restriction as well.

alison

 

[NotUrsula]

UK bag handling machinery has ripped into my carseat satchel on two different occasions. Once on a flight Dublin>Stansted, and once Belfast City>Leeds. I would never check a seat without one, or at very least a very thick plastic bin bag.

I haven't had it happen whilst travelling inside the US, but then, in the US we never checked the seat, as DS always sat in it on the plane. Since he has outgrown the full seat, we now carry on a seat-only booster and store it in the overhead bin.

It's best to gate-check a carseat wherever possible. You can always pretend that you expect to use it aboard the aircraft (and you could, if you're flying a US-based carrier), then surrender it to the gate agent when he tells you it isn't permitted. Getting a sturdy satchel to check it in is always a good idea, in my opinion.
You should be able to get one from Toys R' Us, or perhaps Mothercare? (twoleftfeet.co.uk is another possibility, I've purchased from them in the past, though not a carseat satchel)

 

[NotUrsula]

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[Pea-n-Me]

Never checked a car seat but an umbrella stroller was ruined (thankfully on the return flight home). The wheel must have been dragged on the ground because it was flat when we got it back!

 

[Angelflake]

I was so glad to see this, we are leaving in 3 weeks with a 2 month old baby, and had thought about what stroller to bring, an umbrella stroller, or the regular one. Thought the umbrella type would be easier to get onto Disney buses, etc, but maybe we should forgo that idea! Does anyone know, are the Disney strollers suitable for a young infant?

 

[Jen117]

Both times we sent a car seat through as baggage, we tapped heavy plastic around it. It protected it well. Without the plastic, I am sure it would have been damaged since there were some heavy rub marks on it. Just pring an extra roll of packing tape with you and tape the plastic back up before you leave. Or you can buy one of those bags. We weren't able to find a bag like that 4 years ago when we made our first trip with the seat.

 

[SueM in MN]

Originally posted by Angelflake
I was so glad to see this, we are leaving in 3 weeks with a 2 month old baby, and had thought about what stroller to bring, an umbrella stroller, or the regular one. Thought the umbrella type would be easier to get onto Disney buses, etc, but maybe we should forgo that idea! Does anyone know, are the Disney strollers suitable for a young infant?

The Disney strollers are suitable for babies that young.
If you scroll to the middle of this page from allearsnet.com , you'll find links to pictures of the strollers for each park. The one thing that is not up to date on the pictures is that the "jogging" type strollers for rent at WDW have small swivel wheels for the front, not the one big wheel that the pciture shows. They were changed about ?3 ? years ago and WDW actually says they don't allow the big wheeled jogging strollers in the parks (some people have reported their jogging stroller was collected at the entrance and held at stroller rental and they were given a park stroller to use for the day).