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During a debate on this my wife suggested I consulted the wise oracle of STW.
Has anyone taken a kids care seat on a long haul flight , it's for a circa 18mth old child with own seat. We can but not sure how practical it is so any real experience of doing this much appreciated, option 2 is we have a CARES harness as well which extends the seatbelt into a harness on the seat itself. We can see benefits of both but if the car seat isn't working then we don't know what we would do with it ! Flying nz to Canada and then onto uk.
No direct experience but from what I see the car seats/buggys etc. just get tagged and dropped down oversize (normally while I'm late dropping the bike in there), never seen anyone take one on the plane. I'd call the airline and ask if it's allowed as they may object for any number of reasons.
Yep car seat goes in with the luggage.
Or was she meaning for Jnr to sit in on the plane?
Dont envy you flying with 18 month old on a long haul.
cloudnine - Member
Dont envy [s]you[/s] everyone else, flying with 18 month old on a long haul.
FIFY....
Yeah it says you can take the actual car seat on the plane hence the debate. I've never seen that either and thanks for the sympathy. I suppose we could be in business and that would royally piss everyone off !
We are breaking the journey in Vancouver for a couple of weeks with some riding , oh yes we have 3 big bags, 2 bikes, a buggy, a car seat and tolerance!
Edited because I didn't read it all properly.
Yep, at most airlines you can take the seat on with you provided it (a) faces in the same direction as the passenger seat and (b) can be strapped into place without the seat belt buckle lying directly over any part of the frame.
Give them a call, they'll be used to this question since there are some restrictions based on seat location etc. But in general, even if it isn't approved you can keep your kid on your lap for take-off and landing and just use it in the cruise.
Yep we know you can do it, facing either way as well according to the info. What we can't find is anyone that has ever actually done it !
A couple of yrs ago when took the kids to the states, the youngest was only just 2 and quite small for her age. We had the same dilema of taking the car seat (we took both seats as car hire firm couldn't confirm availability, even if we had paid for them :-/ ) , in the end we decided that it would be easier for us not to use car seat in the cabin. We figured that by using the seat she would have to sit in one position for the whole trip, instead she could sit, lay down, wiggle non stop and had a great flight.
With all that luggage do yourself a favour and get a porter to help, best money i spent all holiday.
PS we did see someone using a British airways child seat on the return trip, it was massive! You wouldn't to squeeze past that to many times for a wee etc.
flip456-Thanks, great nod on the Porter that will be v handy and worth the small investment. Cheers all, will check seat in and wrestle Mrs McWriggle on the plane.
As Funky Dunc says it goes in the cargo holding
and you will be giving the harness that attaches to your seat belt.
Brings back memories
Make sure you ask for a basinette seat.
That's what we did for taking our daughter to NZ at the same age
I'm glad we skipped doing it this year though!
My cousin in the states did it, but I think the flight was a 4 hour internal one and the kid was younger - a year maybe.
If you can get a bassinet thats great - but they are small - I mean really small. Our eldest was about 18 months when we went long haul first time and she was probably a bit too big but had little hair and looked younger. She did fit in but she had to be curled up.
The other thing to bear in mind is that they are not considered strapped when in the bassinet, so I was asked to get a sleeping baby out of the cot at 2am and strap her on my lap - not happy.
She has a seat to herself as we decided that was preferable, have done the bassinet thing and it worked ok, airnz let you leave them in there asleep when the seatbelt sign is on, virgin don't. We've got a CARES harness so will use that and she can sleep where she wants. Last time I had some pinch faced old cow tell me when I got on that she hoped my baby didn't cry and if she did I needed to keep her quiet. I just laughed at her. Next morning after 8 hours of uninterrupted silence she was all friendly and I made sure she understood that making my wife and I feel uncomfortable wasn't acceptable. I hate people like that, if you want silence buy a business ticket you stupid old cow. Anyhow, it's all good, no car seat, happy toddler, parents that will do what they can but ultimately she's a toddler and knows no different. And breathe.
Hi,
We did this flying with a holiday company we used to work for a few years ago when ours was only 7 months old. It was great, although the car seat took up the third seat so was more expensive than if she was just with us on lap. Car seat fitted fine but for take off and landing we had to sit the little one on our lap with the proper extension belt. Other than that, it made a huge difference as she sat very contented for the whole flight. It was only a 4 hour flight though. We couldnt do it through the normal booking channel though and we got a friend from the airline to book it through their system knowledge.
Id recommend it
Kids on planes = Phenergans Elixir trust me. Not sure you can get this in NZ but we used to dose ours up good and proper before flights.
Remember going to the Canary Islands before we knew about this stuff and it was 4 1/2 hours of torture....each way.
no idea about the seat though.
cheap disposable booster seat, also useful when you get there in the car.
Mine have done transatlantic hops many times however, and we have tended to stash the seat in the hold luggage. kids are about the only people who can get comfortable in coach class seats in my experience...
We've used 2 car seats on plane and made for a better journey. Used a infant rear facing seat and a booster seat, no issues just had to make sure we paid for the seat not an infant.
At 18 months they may be in a proper group 1 seat and we never travelled with that....
Nzcol, took a 2 year old and forward facing to nz last year. Worked well for us as she slept better, lugging it around wasnt great but meant we had it for the camper van. Did confuse 1 singapore airlines lady but no other questions asked. Only problem was hr feet on the back of the seat infront, if flights are not full it even better.
Long haul with a 2 year old and a 7 year old was always going to be challenging but worth it.
Chris
Our kids just sat in their own seats at that age.