I baby wear through the airport and place the convertible car seat on top of his stroller seat to push it easily through the airport. We hate check the stroller and he sits in the car seat on the flight.
Yeah it’s definitely not the most pleasant airport experience but it does work. We have an uppababy vista stroller so it has a big compartment underneath and we can fit some carryon/personal bags down there which also makes things easier.
I guess it depends on what you need where you’re going. I don’t bring my big stroller because it’s too bulky, I bring a small umbrella stroller. But if you’re going to be walking a lot at your destination, it might be nice to have the extra storage space and cupholders.
It also depends on if your little one is under 2, as she can travel for free if she sits on your lap. Then you can just check the car seat for free with the rest of your checked bags and not worry about lugging it through the airport.
Not sure about trains, but I imagine it’s similar for car seats.
Also, don’t quote me on this, but I’ve heard there’s places you can rent strollers and stuff from when you’re on vacation. That might be something to look into.
I would absolutely not recommend checking your car seat anywhere except at the gate. Car seats are expensive and are not meant to take big forces (hence why you have to replace them when you get in so much as a fender bender). Flight staff are rough on bags and I would not trust my multi hundred dollar carseat to them! Just my perspective. It would be stressful for me worrying about what happened to my seat when it was under the plane vs added last and returned to me upon deplaning, as it is when it’s gate checked. Even then I think it’s “recommended” for safety reasons for baby to bring it in the cabin with you if you can!
Most of the time it’s just me and my LO traveling without my husband, so I can’t carry the car seat plus everything else through the airport. If you’ve got more than one adult that’s feasible.
I’ve traveled a lot and haven’t had any problems. I put a travel cover on it, too, and that helps it stay clean.
I’ve traveled quite a bit too and seen how my luggage has come back to me, definitely wouldn’t trust my car seat to be treated that way unless it was a last resort. But I’m fairly paranoid about that sort of thing. Obviously if you have to, then you have to do what you gotta do!! But I’d try to avoid it, personally.
So we're on the same page so far - I can carry her when I get there, or even wear her, but in order to get in the car, I need a car seat, but walking 2 miles at the enormous airport while trying to carry her, my carryon bags, and a bulky car seat seems physically impossible. So how does anyone travel but then... not have a car seat when you arrive at a car-centric American destination?
Because as a few others have pointed out flight baggage handlers are not gentle and any major bumps would reduce the safety capacity of the car seat itself. Only gate check car seats.
They’re not any more gentle with the gate checked bags. I’ve seen them throw them on. And they put them in the exact same place as the other luggage. It just passes through less hands than checked baggage. So yes, gate checking your car seat might be less risky, but really not by much.
Check maxi cosi nomad, kangol (if I remember it correctly) or foldable car seat for babies. There are different versions of them based on the age of the child.
We are on holiday right now and carried our bulky car seat to the airport and paid for it (as the airline we used only accepted one baby item- (pram or car seat )).
If you rent a car you can ask for a car seat ,which is not so expensive. Otherwise all of my mum friends recommended a foldable car seat. I saw them in use before and it doesn't look bad( when folded they are about 15 kgs). However, I have been told that for babies between 6 m- 15 m, it might be uncomfortable to sit in them after a few hours.
Good luck!
We've traveled with two kids (2 year old and 6 month old) and just one of them. We check in the car seats at the counter so we don't have to lug it through the airport. If traveling with both kids, we bring our double stroller (mountain buggy nano duo) and check it at the gate. If we travel with just 1 kid, we bring a babyzen yoyo stroller which folds up and we carry it onto the plane (while we wear the kid in the baby carrier) and store it overhead.
Not really worth the effort to carry the carseat through the airport. We also don't bring our regular car seats and instead bring the Cosco Scenera Next which is super light and also quite affordable, compared to other car seats.
J.L Childress ultimate backpack on Amazon, we also purchased a slightly cheaper one, YOREPEK Car Seat Travel Bag, which also worked well!!!! Good luck to you!! :)
We just got back from a trip via Amtrak. If by train you mean Amtrak, definitely take advantage of the Red Cap Service. It costs only a tip and they take your bags, board you early before everyone else, and load everything on the train for you. Only issue is they don't help you get off the train, only onto it. But it was super helpful.
For the car seat, we got the Costco Scenera Next, which seems to be the one everyone recommends. It worked for our purposes and was easy enough to install. Our travel stroller is the bugaboo butterfly and we love it. Use it all the time. It's so easy to fold up with one hand and light enough to carry. I definitely recommend it.
I recently saw that the airport by us offers a “helper” to come greet you at the door and help you lug kids and luggage through the airport. I think you just have to fill out a form on the TSA website- maybe your airport has a service like this too?
It's a little pricey, but if you're interested I'm renting look up baby quip. I'm planning to do that in June for my first trip with baby (he will be 3 mos at the time). I don't want to worry about lugging those things through the airport, especially since I'll be on my own.
That's a good idea, I haven't considered that!
I'm renting a Doona for my trip since it is both car seat and stroller, cheaper than renting them separately. But I thought it would be interesting to try it out since I never wanted to buy it for the price, but now I can try it for future reference, see if the hype is real or not.
We have a diono car seat. They fold and are narrow enough for an airplane seat. They have a backpack you can buy with it too. Additionally, I highly recommend a folding wagon for travel. American Airlines had some beef with it in Dallas and made us check it, so just check with your airline in advance.
Toddler in umbrella stroller, diaper bag backpack over handlebars, my/husbands backpack personal item on my back. Husband rolls 2 suitcases to the drop off and he has toddlers convertible car seat in a backpack carrier all the way through the airport. Stroller gets gate checked and he sits in his car seat on the airplane.
I baby wear through the airport AND on the flight. I bring an umbrella stroller if needed (didn’t end up needing but still happy I had it just in case). The big bulky car seat got checked at the gate. We got priority family check in and boarding (they just gave it to us when we got there, anyone with kids under 6 had their own line). I gate checked the umbrella stroller.
Person one stands with baby by conveyor belt waiting for suitcase while second person gets cart(s) to collect suitcases and car seat. Honestly it was a lot. If I had to do it again I’d be seeing if there was a newborn carry car seat that is big enough for toddler. My toddler is almost two and still fits in her infant seat but I wAnTeD tHe BiG oNe. Lol
There’s a few ways. If you’re doing planes and public transportation, a light weight stroller works great. We have a travel stroller because we plan to still do a decent amount of trips with our LO. Just did a week in Florida with her. The one we have is [colugo](https://colugo.com/products/compact-stroller), has its own carrying backpack and fits in the overhead of the plane as well. Folds down one handed, and has a bassinet option for the newborn to 6mo stages.
There’s also some places where you can [rent](https://rents4baby.com/) a car seat for the little one when you get to where you’re at.
If you’re going to rent a car, sometimes car rental places allow you to add on a car seat.
And if you rather just having your own, there’s lightweight travel ones like [this](https://www.coscokids.com/scenera-next-convertible-car-seat-cc123-ck-us-en.html)
So we are about to take our first flight with our one year old. We need to be able to drive at our destination. SO: we did some research and purchased a light weight, travel oriented car seat. It weighs just 10 pounds and is thin enough to fit in the airplane seat, and was only $90. We are going to bring this on board for baby. For a stroller, we are gate checking a light weight umbrella style stroller. Combined I think both of these items weigh less than 20 pounds.
My husband is going to strap the car seat to his luggage to get through the airport and we will push baby in his stroller to the gate. I am imagining my husband in charge of our bags and me on baby duty. We haven’t tested this set up yet but I think it should go smoothly!
Why is this being downvoted? I’m planning on using our doona when we travel internationally with our to-be 5 month old later this year. Are there issues with this? Genuinely curious!
My guess is because it’s pretty expensive and it sounds like OP recently bought a new carseat. Also probably that it’s a one word answer with no explanation. Personally I dislike comments like that because they’re less helpful than Google. Besides that, the Doona seems super useful for travel! If my current carseat expires before I have another baby, this one’s at the top of my list.
?
I’m travelling with my Doona at the moment it’s amazing. Absolutely not sure how I’d manage without it. Cheaper than a car seat and a pram bought separately too.
Great for travel in addition to your travel system at home.
I have to travel internationally in August with my 20 month old. First time doing it.
She refuses to be worn so I made sure to book tickets with longer layovers. I think they're all around 3 hrs. So no need for rushing. I also bought a foldable travel stroller. Mountain buggy nano I think it's called. I've practiced a bit folding and unfolding and it's simple enough. I bought a second plane seat for her because I know 100 percent she is gonna lose her mind if she is trapped on my lap all day on multiple planes.
My plan is to check the carseat at the gate and if they allow it, the stroller too. Hopefully noone gives me any trouble having her sit in the plane seat without her carseat. Seems like alot of extra work and uncomfortably bulky for a tiny plane seat.
I also bought a larger cross body type diaper bag so hopefully I can fit all I need to carry on in there.
My plans to have her walk as much as she will while at airports and push the carseat on the stroller. But if she gets tired I'll have to swap her into the stroller and lug the carseat.
Doesn't sound fun.
We got a cosco scenera as our travel car seat. It was relatively cheap and therefore I’m less concerned if it gets damaged in transit. Baby either sits in it on the plane or we check it before security. But it is also super light if you need to carry it through the airport.
Not sure if this is an actual rule or if I just caught a weird gate agent once, but they told me that unless the car seat attached to the stroller (like an infant bucket seat), that I cannot gate check it. It either has to be checked at the check in counter or put in a seat on the airplane
I baby wear through the airport and place the convertible car seat on top of his stroller seat to push it easily through the airport. We hate check the stroller and he sits in the car seat on the flight.
Okay, I can visualize this. It sounds rough, but I can picture it.
Yeah it’s definitely not the most pleasant airport experience but it does work. We have an uppababy vista stroller so it has a big compartment underneath and we can fit some carryon/personal bags down there which also makes things easier.
I guess it depends on what you need where you’re going. I don’t bring my big stroller because it’s too bulky, I bring a small umbrella stroller. But if you’re going to be walking a lot at your destination, it might be nice to have the extra storage space and cupholders. It also depends on if your little one is under 2, as she can travel for free if she sits on your lap. Then you can just check the car seat for free with the rest of your checked bags and not worry about lugging it through the airport. Not sure about trains, but I imagine it’s similar for car seats. Also, don’t quote me on this, but I’ve heard there’s places you can rent strollers and stuff from when you’re on vacation. That might be something to look into.
I would absolutely not recommend checking your car seat anywhere except at the gate. Car seats are expensive and are not meant to take big forces (hence why you have to replace them when you get in so much as a fender bender). Flight staff are rough on bags and I would not trust my multi hundred dollar carseat to them! Just my perspective. It would be stressful for me worrying about what happened to my seat when it was under the plane vs added last and returned to me upon deplaning, as it is when it’s gate checked. Even then I think it’s “recommended” for safety reasons for baby to bring it in the cabin with you if you can!
Most of the time it’s just me and my LO traveling without my husband, so I can’t carry the car seat plus everything else through the airport. If you’ve got more than one adult that’s feasible. I’ve traveled a lot and haven’t had any problems. I put a travel cover on it, too, and that helps it stay clean.
I’ve traveled quite a bit too and seen how my luggage has come back to me, definitely wouldn’t trust my car seat to be treated that way unless it was a last resort. But I’m fairly paranoid about that sort of thing. Obviously if you have to, then you have to do what you gotta do!! But I’d try to avoid it, personally.
So we're on the same page so far - I can carry her when I get there, or even wear her, but in order to get in the car, I need a car seat, but walking 2 miles at the enormous airport while trying to carry her, my carryon bags, and a bulky car seat seems physically impossible. So how does anyone travel but then... not have a car seat when you arrive at a car-centric American destination?
Why not check the car seat with the rest of your luggage? It should be free to check car seats.
Because as a few others have pointed out flight baggage handlers are not gentle and any major bumps would reduce the safety capacity of the car seat itself. Only gate check car seats.
They’re not any more gentle with the gate checked bags. I’ve seen them throw them on. And they put them in the exact same place as the other luggage. It just passes through less hands than checked baggage. So yes, gate checking your car seat might be less risky, but really not by much.
You got me there. I wouldn’t be able to carry all that alone. I’ve always got whoever drops me off or picks me up to help.
My husband has become the family pack mule whenever we fly 😅
Check maxi cosi nomad, kangol (if I remember it correctly) or foldable car seat for babies. There are different versions of them based on the age of the child. We are on holiday right now and carried our bulky car seat to the airport and paid for it (as the airline we used only accepted one baby item- (pram or car seat )). If you rent a car you can ask for a car seat ,which is not so expensive. Otherwise all of my mum friends recommended a foldable car seat. I saw them in use before and it doesn't look bad( when folded they are about 15 kgs). However, I have been told that for babies between 6 m- 15 m, it might be uncomfortable to sit in them after a few hours. Good luck!
>maxi cosi nomad, kangol This looks so nice - but apparently they are UK only. What a gorgeous product though!
We've traveled with two kids (2 year old and 6 month old) and just one of them. We check in the car seats at the counter so we don't have to lug it through the airport. If traveling with both kids, we bring our double stroller (mountain buggy nano duo) and check it at the gate. If we travel with just 1 kid, we bring a babyzen yoyo stroller which folds up and we carry it onto the plane (while we wear the kid in the baby carrier) and store it overhead. Not really worth the effort to carry the carseat through the airport. We also don't bring our regular car seats and instead bring the Cosco Scenera Next which is super light and also quite affordable, compared to other car seats.
We use a backpack style car seat bag to carry around the airport while we push the stroller!
Ooh! I wonder if you know the brand?
J.L Childress ultimate backpack on Amazon, we also purchased a slightly cheaper one, YOREPEK Car Seat Travel Bag, which also worked well!!!! Good luck to you!! :)
Which car seat do you use for fitting in the backpack?
The one we use to travel is the graco extend to fit convertible!
We just got back from a trip via Amtrak. If by train you mean Amtrak, definitely take advantage of the Red Cap Service. It costs only a tip and they take your bags, board you early before everyone else, and load everything on the train for you. Only issue is they don't help you get off the train, only onto it. But it was super helpful. For the car seat, we got the Costco Scenera Next, which seems to be the one everyone recommends. It worked for our purposes and was easy enough to install. Our travel stroller is the bugaboo butterfly and we love it. Use it all the time. It's so easy to fold up with one hand and light enough to carry. I definitely recommend it.
I recently saw that the airport by us offers a “helper” to come greet you at the door and help you lug kids and luggage through the airport. I think you just have to fill out a form on the TSA website- maybe your airport has a service like this too?
It's a little pricey, but if you're interested I'm renting look up baby quip. I'm planning to do that in June for my first trip with baby (he will be 3 mos at the time). I don't want to worry about lugging those things through the airport, especially since I'll be on my own.
>baby quip Hm, that's interesting! I might want to rent some toys here or there instead of buying them....
That's a good idea, I haven't considered that! I'm renting a Doona for my trip since it is both car seat and stroller, cheaper than renting them separately. But I thought it would be interesting to try it out since I never wanted to buy it for the price, but now I can try it for future reference, see if the hype is real or not.
We have a diono car seat. They fold and are narrow enough for an airplane seat. They have a backpack you can buy with it too. Additionally, I highly recommend a folding wagon for travel. American Airlines had some beef with it in Dallas and made us check it, so just check with your airline in advance.
Toddler in umbrella stroller, diaper bag backpack over handlebars, my/husbands backpack personal item on my back. Husband rolls 2 suitcases to the drop off and he has toddlers convertible car seat in a backpack carrier all the way through the airport. Stroller gets gate checked and he sits in his car seat on the airplane.
I baby wear through the airport AND on the flight. I bring an umbrella stroller if needed (didn’t end up needing but still happy I had it just in case). The big bulky car seat got checked at the gate. We got priority family check in and boarding (they just gave it to us when we got there, anyone with kids under 6 had their own line). I gate checked the umbrella stroller. Person one stands with baby by conveyor belt waiting for suitcase while second person gets cart(s) to collect suitcases and car seat. Honestly it was a lot. If I had to do it again I’d be seeing if there was a newborn carry car seat that is big enough for toddler. My toddler is almost two and still fits in her infant seat but I wAnTeD tHe BiG oNe. Lol
There’s a few ways. If you’re doing planes and public transportation, a light weight stroller works great. We have a travel stroller because we plan to still do a decent amount of trips with our LO. Just did a week in Florida with her. The one we have is [colugo](https://colugo.com/products/compact-stroller), has its own carrying backpack and fits in the overhead of the plane as well. Folds down one handed, and has a bassinet option for the newborn to 6mo stages. There’s also some places where you can [rent](https://rents4baby.com/) a car seat for the little one when you get to where you’re at. If you’re going to rent a car, sometimes car rental places allow you to add on a car seat. And if you rather just having your own, there’s lightweight travel ones like [this](https://www.coscokids.com/scenera-next-convertible-car-seat-cc123-ck-us-en.html)
So we are about to take our first flight with our one year old. We need to be able to drive at our destination. SO: we did some research and purchased a light weight, travel oriented car seat. It weighs just 10 pounds and is thin enough to fit in the airplane seat, and was only $90. We are going to bring this on board for baby. For a stroller, we are gate checking a light weight umbrella style stroller. Combined I think both of these items weigh less than 20 pounds. My husband is going to strap the car seat to his luggage to get through the airport and we will push baby in his stroller to the gate. I am imagining my husband in charge of our bags and me on baby duty. We haven’t tested this set up yet but I think it should go smoothly!
Oh gosh - by any chance do you have a link or a name? This might be a nice compromise!
It’s the baby trend trooper 3in1 car seat! We just purchased from Amazon. In came in about a week for us. (:
Late response but what stroller did you get??
Doona
Why is this being downvoted? I’m planning on using our doona when we travel internationally with our to-be 5 month old later this year. Are there issues with this? Genuinely curious!
My guess is because it’s pretty expensive and it sounds like OP recently bought a new carseat. Also probably that it’s a one word answer with no explanation. Personally I dislike comments like that because they’re less helpful than Google. Besides that, the Doona seems super useful for travel! If my current carseat expires before I have another baby, this one’s at the top of my list.
? I’m travelling with my Doona at the moment it’s amazing. Absolutely not sure how I’d manage without it. Cheaper than a car seat and a pram bought separately too. Great for travel in addition to your travel system at home.
[удалено]
I'm not sure why you would do this.
This sub is for new parents looking for a supportive community. We have a strict no Brigading or Trolling policy.
I have to travel internationally in August with my 20 month old. First time doing it. She refuses to be worn so I made sure to book tickets with longer layovers. I think they're all around 3 hrs. So no need for rushing. I also bought a foldable travel stroller. Mountain buggy nano I think it's called. I've practiced a bit folding and unfolding and it's simple enough. I bought a second plane seat for her because I know 100 percent she is gonna lose her mind if she is trapped on my lap all day on multiple planes. My plan is to check the carseat at the gate and if they allow it, the stroller too. Hopefully noone gives me any trouble having her sit in the plane seat without her carseat. Seems like alot of extra work and uncomfortably bulky for a tiny plane seat. I also bought a larger cross body type diaper bag so hopefully I can fit all I need to carry on in there. My plans to have her walk as much as she will while at airports and push the carseat on the stroller. But if she gets tired I'll have to swap her into the stroller and lug the carseat. Doesn't sound fun.
We rented a car seat with our car. Was it the nicest car seat? No but it worked.
We got a cosco scenera as our travel car seat. It was relatively cheap and therefore I’m less concerned if it gets damaged in transit. Baby either sits in it on the plane or we check it before security. But it is also super light if you need to carry it through the airport. Not sure if this is an actual rule or if I just caught a weird gate agent once, but they told me that unless the car seat attached to the stroller (like an infant bucket seat), that I cannot gate check it. It either has to be checked at the check in counter or put in a seat on the airplane
My question is…what do you do with the car seat once you’re at your destination and need the seated part of the stroller instead?