Question for those who've flown with LO

[Sabine]

I'm going to be flying by myself with ds in early November for a wedding. We'll have a layover in between 2 one-hour-ish flights. I'll need to take a car seat, a stroller, a diaper bag (or big duffle) as a carry-on, and I'll be checking a suitcase as well.

I'm currently not planning on buying a seat for ds, but I'm not 100% on that yet.

I can't decide if I should buy a car seat bag that allows me to carry the car seat on my back and then I'll put ds in the stroller and gate check both the car seat and the stroller. This would allow me to have the car seat with me in case there's an empty seat on the flight, as I've heard that if there are, some airlines will let you use the empty seat to put LO in the car seat.

Or, should I buy one of the contraptions that allow LO to sit in the car seat and roll it through the airport like you do luggage? If I do this, I'll check the stroller with my suitcase and have one less thing to worry about. Has anyone used these though? I worry about it being awkward and also worry about ds getting tripped over or something since he'll be sitting so low to the ground.

Or, should I just check the car seat when I check my suitcase, take the stroller, and not worry about using the car seat on the plane?

Finally, does anyone know if they charge you to check the car seat or stroller at the curb? I know most airlines allow you to gate-check for free, but does that apply to curb-side checking as well?

 

[so cal girl]

Okay, this is my first post on 2.0 (it bugs the crap out of me, so I barely even lurk anymore), but I wanted to address a couple of your questions.

When we went on our trip last month, we bought one of those contraptions that allows you to push the convertible car seat like a stroller. It worked perfectly for us. The only awkward part is that they make you take the car seat off the stroller thing to go through security. That may be hard to do if you are traveling by yourself. If the security person helps you though, that should be no problem. Those things are really easy to use.

We checked our stroller at the curb, and we had to pay for it. We didn't really ask about it, but they never mentioned that they would check it for free. We used United by the way.

My only concern with checking the car seat at the curb would be if it ended up not making it to your destination. Our stroller got put on another plane on our way back, and didn't arrive until the next day. If that happened with a car seat, you'd be in a bit of trouble, as you'd be stuck.

If I were you, I would definitely gate check the car seat, either using the strolling contraption, or the car seat bag.

 

[sbde]

sabine,

i forget how old jacks is - is he out of his infant car seat? if not, it might be easiest to get the car seat adapter for your stroller and just have him in the car seat the entire time. you could gate check both items if there was no empty seat, or just gate check the stroller if there was room for you to take the car seat on board.

if jacks is out of his infant car seat, then ignore what i just wrote it may be easiest to get the car seat roller so you don't have to worry about the stroller throughout your trip/layover.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I would consider getting a seat b/c changing diapers is difficult at best w/o two seats to lay him on. Since you are traveling alone that is just something to consider. In the plane we just flew on (2-aisle-2) there is NO WAY I could have changed her in the bathroom if she hadn't been wearing pull-ups.

curbside is an extra fee to check luggage. Then inside the terminal is an additional fee. Check with your airlines. Gate checking is free but a carseat, baby, bags, purse, stroller is a lot of handle by yourself. Sometimes a security guard will help but that rarely happens. I would check the carseat, take an umbrella stroller and pray your stuff doesn't get lost/delayed.

ETA: check the airport map where your layover is. Many airports have play areas.

 

[Mara]

i haven't traveled with baby yet but one of my friends did recently with her 8mo old, and she wore the baby in a bjorn/carrier instead of taking a carseat or a stroller on the plane with her. she loved it and said it was pretty easy. just something to consider--i would prob try to do this vs taking BOTH carseat and stroller on the plane.

 

[Sabine]

Thanks everyone.

sbde, he's 13 months, so we haven't used the infant seat in a while. I actually do need to check though, we had the snugride 32, so he's actually not at the weight limit for it, but I do think he's past the length limit. We had sent it home with our parents a while ago to store, but if he could still use it, we could avoid bringing the car seat and just use that in the car once we get there.

Tacori, I'm not planning on needing to change him during the flights. Since they're both about 1 hour, I should be fine changing him during the layover. He's not one to be bothered by a dirty diaper, and although it's gross and I don't do this on a daily basis, I'll probably just cover him up with diaper cream, stick him in an overnight, and not worry about it unless he has diarrhea or something (worst case scenario, yikes).

Mara, it was definitely easier when we could put him in the carrier and wear him. He never really liked it, but he tolerated it the last time we flew when he was younger, but at this point we'd need to buy a new one and I don't want to invest in one of the ones for bigger kids just for this since I can't really imagine using it any other time.

I'm really hoping dh will be able to fly back with us. Where we're flying out of, Pensacola, is a tiny airport that is never busy, and it's not a big deal if you take a little extra time to organize everything to go through security and people are really friendly and will help out. When we fly back though, it's a bigger, busy airport, and the extra set of hands would be greatly appreciated. We won't know till last minute if he'll be able to come for the weekend and fly back with us though.

 

[MustangGal]

In June I flew out of San Deigo, and saw a stressed out mom with ~10 month old twins in a double umbrella stroller, pulling a luggage cart with 2 full size car seats and a 4/5 year old walking beside her. I snagged the cart and helped her to the check in line. I can't imagine flying alone with 3 kids!

If you could use the infant seat or even have your parents borrow/rent a car seat when you get there it might make things easier. We took our Cosco Scenera, much lighter to carry around the airport. And I didn't have to change diapers either. Barring poop emergencies, you should be safe on the diaper front.

 

[ChinaCat]

You know, I asked this question in another thread- maybe Janine's thread about travel with a toddler? And got some GREAT ideas for how to manage on my own, TGal especially had a whole list of options. See if you can search for it. I will look for it tonight when I get home if you can't find it.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

You can TOTALLY fly alone! The majority of T's flights have been solo. I am actually FASTER than most people in the security line just b/c I have it done to a science. My volo works great b/c I can close and open it with one and.

Unless he is a tall boy, he should be fine as a lap child. Once T got to be 20 months or so it was just too tight. I felt horrible for the person in front of us. Sometimes I got lucky and there was an open seat but you cannot count on that.

About carriers: just know you can not wear a child during take-off and landing. Also you will have to remove the carrier during security.