flying with car seat

we are headed to florida and i have a bag on wheels for our carseat (dd is flying as a lap baby)

would you gate check it with the stroller or baggage check it?
are there any reasons to do one over the other?

im leaning towards gate checking it bc not only do i think itll get banged around a bit less, but i think there is less chance of losing it. but DH thinks im crazy and thinks we should just check it when we get to the airport.

Message edited 8/5/2013 9:24:40 AM.

Re: flying with car seat

i say baggage check...one less thing to carry through security etc

flying with car seat

Why not rent a car seat when down there or if you use a car service request a cat seat. I did this and I was happy because I had so many other things with me

flying with car seat

We have the luggage wheel thing for the car seat for travel purposes so we would use that until we got to the gate and then gate check the car seat. This what we will do when we go to Florida to visit my parents over the winter.

Re: flying with car seat

Re: flying with car seat

Re: flying with car seat

Re: flying with car seat

i bought a car seat bag w/ wheels and gate checked it

flying with car seat

I've rented carseats and they were damaged, dirty, straps not secured correctly.

I'd bring my own and gate check it.

flying with car seat

I gate check infant seats because I use the snap and go

but I bag check car seats if they do not have a seat - car seats are free baggage

Re: flying with car seat

We checked it at the gate with the stroller. I guess I didn't want it to be thrown in with all the other luggage.

flying with car seat

I check with baggage. I hate carrying more than I need to through airport.

Re: flying with car seat

Gate check. You don't know how roughly it would be compromised when handled by the baggage handlers. Most car seat techs say if its baggage checked, you should replace the seat.

Re: flying with car seat

Baggage check. Its free and you don't have to worry about it.

Most car rental companies charge you $10-15 per day. Its insane. Everyone I know that travels with kids (including myself) checks it in.

Message edited 8/5/2013 4:28:01 PM.

flying with car seat

We gate checked our car seat. But it clicked into the stroller so it wasn't anything extra to carry around. DS slept in the car seat while at the airport. I bought bags to keep the stroller and car seat clean while traveling. I wanted to avoid them getting lost; and the extra banging they'd go through getting thrown around with the regular luggage

flying with car seat

Honestly, you should be using your seat on the flight. I've been meaning to write up a post about this, but a good friend of mine was on the LGA SWA flight that touched down, umm, "roughly" a few weeks ago when she was coming back from TN. If he (under 2) had been a lap child he would have likely been severely injured (she was pretty banged up) but because he was secured in his carseat he had a blast sliding down the slide and had zero injuries.

Gate checking or baggage checking is awful for the seats. The handlers are not "extra careful" just because it's a car seat or because it's in a bright bag. They don't care. I've seen the damage caused when seats have returned from both baggage checking and gate checking. A mom just recently posted a pic of her destroyed $300 Diono Radian on a FB group I'm in which they managed to crack a giant chunk off of after an uninformed flight attendant forced them to gate check it because the seat was "too big" (Despite the FAA sticker)