How do you take your car seat on holiday?

[letstryanewone]

Stupid I know but I'm baffled- I've seen the way luggage gets treated, it'll get destroyed if I check it in. I assume it won't fit in over head lockers ...

Can someone tell me what I'm supposed to do or how to protect it? (DS is 2.5 years - it's a britax eclipse)

Will you be driving over there? I've never taken a car seat on holiday. You can buy travel bags. I've heard that people bubble wrap them too

We've never taken a car seat on holiday...if you are getting a hire car, just hire a car seat to.

If you're not actually driving you don't need one

Yes, you just hire one. Never known anyone take them on an aeroplane. But I’m sure people do stick them in the hold and trust to luck.

Car seat hire costs more than hiring the car though. I am flying in the summer and my ticket includes the car seat as checked baggage, so it must be possible to take one.

Yes , could be true about the cost of hiring one. We didn’t have a car seat at home so we always just hired one.

We hired but you could bubble wrap it

Ask for 2 tags for your pushchair at check in and put on on pushchair and one on car seat (usually the check in person will ask if your pram is 1 or 2 parts, reply 2). Just balance it on your pram through the airport (strap it to secure it if necessary). Then at the aircraft doors leave it with your pram (both in travel bags from eBay) and they will both be there for you the other side.

We have done this successfully on 8 different airlines in the last year with no issues.

Yes I'm driving, seat hire is expensive and they can't confirm the quality of it

Quality would probably be similar to the state your seat would arrive if you take it on the plane.

If you wat to take one then wrap it in bubble wrap, but i'd just hire with the car

We check ours in, in a car seat bag with some bubble wrap around it. We've hired car seats twice, in different countries, and they were both dreadful so we prefer to take ours. Most airlines carry them for free if you are travelling with a child under a certain age (but rules do differ, so check with your airline). Yes, they could get damaged but given the price of hiring them, we've worked out that if it was damaged after three trips it would have paid for itself (and that's with a fairly pricey seat).

I’ve always taken one as the cost of hiring a car seat is ridiculous and once at Stansted airport the car seat hertz provided me looked like it was from the 90s!

So we bought a Britax Adventure high back seat, instead of using our normal expensive & heavy seats, wrap it in a lot of bubble wrap and have a car seat bag for it. I have used the “valet bag” service with some airlines so taken it through security and to the gate to then be put in the hold.

Buy a cheaper one just for travel if you will use more than once. That way you know your everyday one at home is secure and undamaged.

Car hire companies often charge £15 per day, so the cost adds up for a week hire.

The britx romer is currently £79, or the joie elevate £50 both from mothercare. They wouldbe suitable for travel for 2.5 year old, and up to 11 years, so you could use later at home as a spare seat if you give a friend a lift etc.

We took 2 big seats last year (joie stages) in these bags and they just put them in the hold for free. Pain to carry into the airport and then have to take them separately to oversized luggage after checking in but hiring one with the car is expensive and you don't know the quality of the seat. Plus mine are still rear facing at the moment.

I didn't really think about how they'd be treated. They came out the other side fine both times.

We always bring our own seats too as they are so expensive to hire (I have 3 dds). Hire seats are often grubby and I have in the past spent ages trying to figure out how to strap them in to the hire car! We used ‘sun shine kids’ travel bags when my dds uses the full car seats with backs. The bags have a handle on top and wheels on the bottom. My dds each had the job of pulling their own seats along to the oversized baggage area. You can check them in for free so it’s a no brainer really for us. We now only bring booster seats and put the three of them into one of these large car seat bags. They have never been damaged.

We wrapped ours in our beach towels and then put it in a bag very similar to the one Raylas posted above. We had no problems doing this.

I bought one of those bags and a Britax Romer which was fab. I was also able to put a pack of nappies or coats in with the seat without issue.

Where we go on holiday the car seats are included in the price of the hire car but the condition of them was not acceptable to me.

Those of you who fly with a baby without a car seat - how do you get to the airport in the first place?
We have to take our 6 month old’s car seat, as the taxi company does not provide these.

We just fly with our normal car seats and don’t even use a bag. Maybe we’re lucky but we’ve never had a problem.

I put mine in the hold with the chassis. It arrived fine.

We bought a travel bag which said handle carefully on it. It went with over sized luggage when we checked in. It was fine both ways no damage.

Agree that car seat hire is extortionate and you have no idea of safety etc

I have traveled with car seats several times. I always checked them in with the buggy, never been damaged or lost although the stroller was delayed by BA on one trip (it spent 5 days traveling around Europe without us).

If you are paying for a plane seat for your child, ie they are over 2 years old, you can take the car seat on to the plane as their seat so that they are more comfortable. I have seen other people do this but haven't yet tried it myself.

lozengeoflove, try a different cab firm, ours have always had car seats in case we need them

We checked ours in in another suitcase.

Hi OP I am a bit obsessed with safe car seats so would not hire one. This is useful:

erfmission.com/pack-your-car-seat-for-travel-in-4-simple-steps/

Some airlines allow you take take baby equipment for free but maybe with a weight limit. I’m flying with Ryanair and they allow you to take two items (eg car seat travel cot pram) for free.

That's what I thought @MiPaSoDu but I called the airline (jet2) and they said I couldn't take it on board even though it's airline approved