Bloody Easyjet and their impossible challenge

[mindthegap79]

We're flying on Easyjet in a few weeks with dd who will be nearly 18 months. We've flown with her when she was tiny and had her on our laps, all fine.

She's now very tall and wriggly, so my inlaws very kindly offered to pay for her to have her own seat. Very lovely of them.

We were told to book her on as a 2 year old and then ring them so they could put a note on the booking to say she's under 2. All fine, and after a mere 55 joyous minutes on hold I got through to an actual person on the phone this morning.

Now for Easyjet and their impossible challenge... The woman told me that because dd will be under 2, she needs to be in an upright, forward facing car seat if she's to be allowed to use the extra seat we've booked. She can be on our laps for take off and landing, but if we want to use the seat, car seat is essential. That's fine - we were planning to buy a lightweight one to take with us to use in the hire car - cheaper than renting a seat.

However, she said that the seat must be able to be secured by a lap belt (obviously) and mustn't exceed 42cm width.

Today dd and I went to five, FIVE shops that sell car seats, to find such a seat. I also have been trawling the Internet for the past hour.

The seat does not exist. It doesn't. I can't find a single seat on the market which is suitable for a toddler, 42cm wide or less, and securable with a lap belt. The man in John Lewis actually laughed. The woman in Babies R Us said she loved a challenge, but she was defeated.

Does anyone know if such a seat exists, and if so will you please tell me what it is? Or should I just ask easyjet to refund the third seat? Argh. Thanks.

[SisterOfTheVicar]

Why not just have her on your lap like other people with toddlers do? She can't be THAT tall, surely??

[MamaWren]

There's a seatbelt thing you can get for children on planes called CARES. That should solve it for you. Try kidsflysafe.com

[mindthegap79]

I am so tempted. Dd could help. It would most likely be held together by stickers and raisins, which is what she likes to store in her usual car seat

[vvviola]

There is a special sort of harness available specifically for planes to use in place of car seats (it's more commonly used in the US I think and is FAA approved there). Maybe something like that might work?

I think I looked into them when I was thinking about flying long haul with DD1 when she had just turned 2. (Left her with my parents in the end - we were travelling for a funeral and decided it was better to leave her with my parents)

I'll see if I can find a link

[gymboywalton]

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006Q618Y4/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B006Q618Y4&linkCode=as2&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21


41cm wide

[Totality22]

Having taken a 19m old on my lap I know how horrible it is but you seem to have exhausted all other avenues?

[RagstheInvincible]

Found this from a few years back.. Not sure if they're still made:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/general_advice_tips/1278642-Car-seats-less-than-42cm-wide

[vvviola]

MamaWren is faster and less waffly than I am CARES is the one.

[WorldsBiggestGrotbag]

No idea about the car seat but I understand why you want a seat. My toddler is very very wriggly and tall and flying to Spain with her at 18 months on my knee was hell. I was 7 months pregnant and barely had any knee for her to sit on!

[DoJo]

Would one of these work? kidsflysafe.com/

[drivingmisspotty]

Maybe you could make one! E.g. could you sew a harness on a trunki car seat or even just another high backed booster? It wouldn't actually function as a car seat of course so you wouldn't want to use it in a car but you may be comfortable with that on a plane?

[Shakshuka]

That's so silly! We just flew easyjet and happened to have a spare seat in which we happily plonked our one year old. No one said a word!

[mindthegap79]

Thanks for the replies! The CARES harness looks good, I'll ring them to check it's ok but it looks ideal. I did see the Graco one but unfortunately she's too small for it. Whatever seat we get will have to be used in the hire car too so it needs to be the right size, weight etc.

It's not that I mind having her on my lap, it's just that she is so very wriggly and she is taller than most 2 year olds we know. Dh is a very big bloke, so his lap space on tiny crammed in easyjet seats is limited, and I'm pregnant so I'd rather not be chambered all over by an energy monster for a whole flight, lovely and delightful as she is

[mindthegap79]

*Clambered, not chambered. I think being chambered over would be worse!

[drivingmisspotty]

Ah everyone else was faster than me, with better ideas too

[eurochick]

I recently faced a similar issue with our one year old. In my view, the car seat defeats the object of the extra seat somewhat, as we wanted the extra seat for additional play space. We were happy to have her on our laps for take off and landing. In the end we gave up and just had her on our laps and hoped for a spare seat (which we didn't get). It wriggly, but fine.

[kittyvet]

Complete nonsense- had exactly same problem. There is no seat on the market! Not for Easyjet or Ryanair. Pretty sure it says on their website you can use CARES as that's what I have decided to do once my DD is 1 yr old, lap until then :(

[Pantspants]

We used easy jet earlier this year with our 14 month old as he was then. He's big and wriggly so we got him his own seat. We hired the cares harness from eBay. Much cheaper than buying one. Having his own seat was a total lifesaver

[mindthegap79]

I didn't know you could hire from eBay! That's brilliant, thank you!

I did ask the woman from Easyjet if they could recommend a suitable seat by the way, but she just said something about "yes madam, any seat is fine, as long as it's no wider than 42cm and can be secured by a lap belt"

[ImNotAFlower]

Do all airlines have this policy for under twos?

[Mistigri]

As a regular easyjet passenger I think the cabin staff are unlikely to bat an eyelid if you put a toddler in an empty seat next to you. They may insist on a car seat on paper just to cover themselves but in practice no one will care. I flew easyjet on Friday and even the safety demo was lip service only ...

[cariadlet]

Crazy rule. We flew to Australia on a non-budget airline when dd was about that age. We used to have her on our laps for short haul, but couldn't face it for that length of time so got her her own seat.

She was on my lap for take off and landing, but there was no rule about having a car seat for the rest of the flight. She just had the normal seat - which gave her much more wriggle room than a car seat would have given her.

[ihearttc]

I used to work in Mothercare and Im sure a Britax Prince can just be secured by a lap belt. Its also very narrow as well (but not sure how narrow).

I don't know if you can even buy them anymore but we had several people get them to use on planes.

[ihearttc]

Or a CARES harness?