Tips for flying with a booster seat....

[DizBelle]

My sister will be flying (alone) with her 5 year old (which is foreign territory for me). We are renting a car so we need to bring the booster seat (renting one is wicked expensive). What tips do you have for checking the booster seat? If it makes a difference, it is one of those backless booster seats.

Delta won't charge to check the booster seat correct?

Does it need to be wrapped, secured, in it's own bag or can we just hand it over as it is?

 

[sam_gordon]

I personally would NOT check it with luggage. I'd be concerned it will get lost or delayed. If anything, I would gate check it.

 

[dzorn]

I would use it as one of my carry ons.

Denise in MI

 

[DizBelle]

If the booster seat checks for free and a bag does not, why check the bag and not the seat?

 

[arthuruscg]

when we flew with our 9m old, we used the car seat as a cary on. and for the flight that we couldn't use it, we check the car seat at the gate.

 

[sisaaliyah]

We have red gate check bags we use. One for the stroller, and one for the booster seat. I believe I ordered them online from Walmart.

 

[tlenzendorf]

We just gate checked it. They put a tag on it and took it down. Free of charge and it was ready when we got off the plane with all the strollers. You can also do this with a body board

 

[DizBelle]

I don't think gate checking is an option for her. With the other carry-ons plus a 5 year old, she doesn't need something else she needs to lug to the gate.

What do you need to do with it if you are going to check it? Does it need to be wrapped or contained?

 

[DopeyDame]

I would definitely put it in a bag of some sort if she has to check it at the counter. Even just a duffle bag should be fine. The reason people are suggesting not to check it at the counter, though, is because luggage can be handled pretty roughly, and you'd hate for the seat to be damaged in some way. Gate checking it minimized the amount of handling it gets.

 

[dzorn]

I don't think gate checking is an option for her. With the other carry-ons plus a 5 year old, she doesn't need something else she needs to lug to the gate.

What do you need to do with it if you are going to check it? Does it need to be wrapped or contained?

My DD have been pulling their own small carry on since that age. I would get them a small pullable duffle and pack with booster and the toys for the flight. You take a chance of it being damaged if you check it.

Denise in MI

 

[Pembo]

We take our dd's backless booster seat in a large duffle. It just fits and we put in beach towels or something else light in the bag. We typically check it when we fly Southwest...however this trip on Continental it will be a carryon.

 

[Cricket2]

They make you sign a waiver for boosters too because they know they break all the time. We had decent luck with our full size one for 3 trips straight but I brought it on one of those times. I'm so glad we have changed to the backless kind. I can just stick it in the luggage now.

We got a Eddie Bauer carseat/booster bag but it was sort of pricy for what it was. Thing could have handled gulf war conditions though. Close to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Eddie-Bauer-Car-Seat-Travel/dp/B00005YXVW

 

[disneymam]

We have taken backless booster seats for our three kids (ages 6, 7, and 7) on four different flights. We put them in a comforter bag. I save the bags that our comforters come in....they work great. Some of our bags fit one booster and one of the bigger bags holds two boosters. We check them in with our luggage and never have a problem this way. HTH

 

[n2mm]

We ALWAYS check them. We have a car seat bag and put them in it. We have done this with no problem more than 30 times over the last few years and it's never been a problem. We have a full booster and a backless booster for 2 kids. We manage to get them both inthe same bag. Why would anyone want to lug around one more thing. As for getting lost with checking luggage, I guess the odds are the same for our clothes too, so it's a chance we take. If they got lost I would just drive to the nearest Walmart and buy 2 cheap ones to use.

 

[Singledad]

another thing that has not been mentioned is, at 5 years old it is legal in FL to go without a booster. I know personally I like that booster seat, but if push comes to shove, she isn't required to take it.

Also, a lot of car rental places will also rent you a car seat, last time I checked. Some vehicles even have car seats built in now a days.

just an alternative

Personally, what I did last year was pack the carseat INSIDE my checked luggage... I pack clothing around it to help protect it. this worked great because it saved the room for stuff I bought there( can't spell sovuiners today.) on return trip. (I checked the seat on its own on the way home.)

 

[sam_gordon]

Why would anyone want to lug around one more thing. As for getting lost with checking luggage, I guess the odds are the same for our clothes too, so it's a chance we take. If they got lost I would just drive to the nearest Walmart and buy 2 cheap ones to use.

Let's see...

Lost luggage (with clothes) option A:
Collect everyone, get the rental car, stop at a store on the way to hotel.

Lost luggage (with clothes) option B:
Collect everyone, get rental car, go to hotel (because you have extra clothes in carryon 'just in case') wait for airline to deliver bag.

Lost luggage (with carseat):
Collect everyone, get rental car, leave spouse & kids at airport, find nearest Walmart, go to store, get car seat, return to airport, collect everyone again, head to hotel.

Nope, sorry, to me, I'd be doing luggage option 'b', so not NEARLY the same. Yes, it's another thing to lug through the airport, but if you've got so much, then check something else. Just my opinion.

 

[n2mm]

Let's see...

Lost luggage (with clothes) option A:
Collect everyone, get the rental car, stop at a store on the way to hotel.

Lost luggage (with clothes) option B:
Collect everyone, get rental car, go to hotel (because you have extra clothes in carryon 'just in case') wait for airline to deliver bag.

Lost luggage (with carseat):
Collect everyone, get rental car, leave spouse & kids at airport, find nearest Walmart, go to store, get car seat, return to airport, collect everyone again, head to hotel.

Nope, sorry, to me, I'd be doing luggage option 'b', so not NEARLY the same. Yes, it's another thing to lug through the airport, but if you've got so much, then check something else. Just my opinion.

I guess we are not worriers like most. We do the Disney thing every 12 weeks, always flying non-stop carriers. Our clothes always seem to be there and we never pack anything for a carryon other than important papers....I guess we live dangerously. We have checked our carseats more times than most people. And we would be a B too because we would just strap the kids in the regular seatbelt and stop at Walmart, Target, or Big lots to pick up new ones if it came down to it.

 

[cemeb4dk]

so you can not bring it on the plane and use it as you would a car seat. We have driven our last 3 trips so flying again is new. I know when our daughter was younger we actually brought her car seat onto the plane and used it on her seat. I just assumed we could do that with the backless booster.

 

[n2mm]

so you can not bring it on the plane and use it as you would a car seat. We have driven our last 3 trips so flying again is new. I know when our daughter was younger we actually brought her car seat onto the plane and used it on her seat. I just assumed we could do that with the backless booster.

No you can't use a backless booster on the plane. The only type of booster you could use would be the type that are like carseats and have their own straps. Remember planes only have lap belts. If you take it on the plane it will either be gatechecked on may be stored in the overhead.

 

[brymolmom]

Let's see...

Lost luggage (with clothes) option A:
Collect everyone, get the rental car, stop at a store on the way to hotel.

Lost luggage (with clothes) option B:
Collect everyone, get rental car, go to hotel (because you have extra clothes in carryon 'just in case') wait for airline to deliver bag.

Lost luggage (with carseat):
Collect everyone, get rental car, leave spouse & kids at airport, find nearest Walmart, go to store, get car seat, return to airport, collect everyone again, head to hotel.

Nope, sorry, to me, I'd be doing luggage option 'b', so not NEARLY the same. Yes, it's another thing to lug through the airport, but if you've got so much, then check something else. Just my opinion.

For the worriers among us - we always check our booster too and it DID get lost/delayed on our last trip. At first I was annoyed because we had an hour drive home and envisioned dh driving to a store first - thus extending our return time. Luckily our airline (and imagine all airlines) had LOANER BOOSTERS to loan out to us. Keep in mind I know a lot of people wouldn't use/take loaner car seats, but a booster is different - all a booster does is give the child extra height to fit the regular belt better, so essentially if it was safe a thick phone book could manage the same thing. So it doesn't matter too much if there's a crack in it, etc like it does a 5 point carseat - as long as the child gets the necessary height. The loaner we got from Southwest was practically brand new - likely in better shape than our own. All I had to do was fill out a form, then they had FedEx bring our own booster once it was found - and also sent a pickup slip for FedEx that I had to put on the loaner seat and leave outside my door for them to pick it up and return it to the airport.

So not nearly as bad as the worst case scenario.

In case it helps others decide. WE, too, put ours just in regular luggage and check it.