To box my egg pram up to avoid airline damage?

[SenoraSurf]

We are going to Spain from UK with easyJet when DC1 will be 5 weeks old. We will be taking our beautifully stunning and expensive egg stroller with us. I have read online that you can take it free of charge and it will be put in the hold but naturally, I'm really worried about potential damage.
Would it be ok to box it up and check it in properly when we get to the airport? would I have to pay to do this?

Any experience or advice would be gratefully received!

Before anybody suggests it, getting a cheap one to take is not an option I would like to explore.

Thanks

’arf at the Top Gear ‘turn on a sixpence’ and shrewd investor Limited Edition pram buyers

If you want to bludgeon the stubborn McClaren with the wheels that keep sticking around corners, be my guest my love

Those days are well behind me. And I don’t recall anything memorably difficult about a cheapo that a Rolls Royce pram would have solved.

But I have done your bugaboo a disservice: not only does it “turn on a sixpence” but apparently it’s so responsive.

Does it have auto-park? Or maybe auto-wean?

"There will be times when baby will need to be put down during visits and meals." "as would rather not dine with a child strapped to me every time." 😁
I don’t think I drank a hot cup of coffee until my Velcro baby DS was about 2. I ate standing up jiggling him about quite a bit too.
Seriously though your fancy pram will get trashed in the hold.

I will admit I fell for the expensive pram hype with my first pregnancy but I always understood it was ridiculous (I thought we all did.) Now I hear words like “beautifully stunning” and “investment”— do people actually take baby transportation this seriously or am I missing the sarcasm-meta-reverseness??

I had a very expensive limited edition Bugaboo which I didn’t dare put in the airline hold so I borrowed a friends stroller. I realised very quick let that strollers are far easier to deal with all round and bought one when I returned home and sacked off the Bugaboo. The stroller got very bashed about in the hold so don’t even think about risking it unless you have a proper case.

And I also realised that I was a massive dick spending so much on a pram in the first place and happily used a rubbish second hand one with my second child before quickly moving into a stroller!

I can't believe that we've got to page 12 and no-one has said that the egg is likely to be cracked or scrambled in transit!

Honestly, buy a cheaper or second hand one for the holiday, leave it out there if you are planning on travelling there frequently.

I once spent £650 on a Mamas and Papas pram for my daughter, that was 21 years ago, a bloody huge amount at the time.

I thought I was the bees knees and wanted everyone to notice. Looking back it was money wasted, she was in it for such a short amount of time.

I would have been better investing that money for her future and buying a good second hand one.

On all the holidays we took I bought a cheap £20 stroller that she loved being in and it didn't matter how badly it got treated.

A fool and his money are soon parted.... so crack on and don't say you weren't warned :-)

not only does it “turn on a sixpence” but apparently it’s so responsive.

Well it is. 🤷‍♀️

I have the McClaren to compare it to.

But each to his own and all that. I don’t give a shiny shit what kind of pram you or anyone else has/had.

I would absolutely not use the carry cot from the Egg as a travel cot substitute for a young baby. I’d buy a little life Arc and a lightweight push chair.

And I speak as someone who had a Bugaboo Cam, Bugaboo Bee and a MaClaren all at the same time.

I'm sorry you struggled in your experiences. Fortunately, I'm preparing for all instances
We all tried to do that. Being so smug, it will hit you even harder when you learn the hard way that nothing prepares you for parenthood.
You currently do not know what date your baby will arrive, how your labour will be, how long recovery will take for either of you, what feeding will be like, how much sleep you will be getting, what type of sling will suit your baby best (if at all), if baby will let you put them in pram... and the list goes on. You are in for a huge shock when your baby arrives

I reckon if you rock up with it boxed they'll charge you for oversized baggage. Will they even take the carrycot of the pram? There are maximum dimensions the pram has to be (which my 'good' one was bigger than so would have had to check in with baggage rather than handing over at the aircraft door if I decided to take it).
Just took my car seat and a cheap fold up. Car seat got damaged!

both sets of GPs spent a lot on a bugaboo travel system for DC1. contrary to a previous poster we all found it a pain to steer and quite cumbersome. With DC2 we bought a second hand tandem buggy which suited us better and was easier to push than the bugaboo. We also had a couple of strollers - one of which survived gatwick baggage handlers and being run over!! (thankfully without a child in it!) Having said this we did use the original car seat for both kids and I used the carrycot for DC1 to sleep in for the first 4 or 5 months instead of a moses basket. Although DH and I felt guilty that we chose an expensive pram that our parents paid for when a less expensive one would have been just as good.

Never mind the eggbox, how are you even going to be sure of getting a passport with that short a turnaround time, especially if they baby is late? It's not always easy to get an appointment to register the birth immediately, then the whole application for the passport... I fear you may be cutting it rather fine....

As regards the Egg, I agree it would be madness to try and take it just because you like the look of it and don't want to be seen with a cheaper alternative. But nor do I really think that a lie-flat stroller is suitable for such a young baby, who may only be 3 weeks' old. A sling for the journey, and arrange somehow for an age appropriate buggy / pram to be at your family's place. If you're going to be there often anyway, it's worth having one there as pps have said. Seriously, even the most modest of buggies will fill your boot and you won't have any room for all the other kit you'll be needing for a 25 hour nightmare drive with a kid. Tbh I personally wouldn't fly with them at that age, there are way too many hassles and hurdles (as evidenced by the buggy issues), not least the fact that airports are horrendous for germs and your baby won't have had most of their vaccinations by then. But if you are absolutely dead set on doing it and dead set on taking the egg, have you looked into renting an Airshell?
Good luck OP, keep an open mind and be prepared to be flexible

I had a bugaboo for my first child. Cost more than my first car. By child number 3 I would only use the cheapo £20 Maclaren we got off eBay. Realised what dicks we were to spend that kind of utterly wasteful money on a pram and for falling for the marketing hype, especially when it was frankly a pain in the arse.

Never mind the eggbox, how are you even going to be sure of getting a passport with that short a turnaround time, especially if they baby is late? It's not always easy to get an appointment to register the birth immediately

Yeah this was one of my thoughts. Can't do anything until the birth is registered but I assumed the OP is planning on a planned C section so will know the date of birth, but that wouldn't figure in those plans to travel so soon after the birth. It's the only way to cover one of those plans that was mentioned earlier though. If there's been a slew of births then it could be a couple of weeks nearly to register the birth and then there's the passport application carry on.

Maybe concentrating on this pram thing is a bit of a coping mechanism that things might not go according to plan.

You currently do not know what date your baby will arrive, how your labour will be, how long recovery will take for either of you, what feeding will be like, how much sleep you will be getting, what type of sling will suit your baby best (if at all), if baby will let you put them in pram... and the list goes on. You are in for a huge shock when your baby

..,, if you’ll still be bleeding, if you’ll be able to sit down comfortably, walk very far or stand up straight; if the baby will let you put it down; if feeding - by any method - will be going ok...

I don’t give a shiny shit what kind of pram you or anyone else has/had.

OK. Not what your posts suggest, but I’ll go with it.

Why don't you get your parents to buy a 2nd hand pram out there and then sell it on once you've returned home and use your sling at the airports?

Oh goodness this has made me chuckle!
There is just no telling some people.

Is anyone else imagining a pained expression on the OPs face as she winces towards the gate carrying the baby who refuses to be put in any bloody pram. To board the flight a week after she planned due to passport issues. Realise that she had in fact not catered for any eventuality. Seeing the precious parcel (pram, not baby obvs) flung across the runway in the vague direction of the plane. Thinking to herself, do you know those 100s of strangers actually did know better than me. I was full of shit and now I feel a bit silly. As she tries to eat her plane food whilst trying not to drop food on the baby who still refuses to be put down. And then does a massive shart, again... sorry getting carried away now but you know!

OP do me a favour and come back and read this in 6/7 months time. If you're humble enough leave a comment

Mine are all grown up now but are they really a GRAND!!>?
Fucking HELL .

I'd actually get open date tickets or whatever they're called- you or the baby simply might not be well enough to travel at all and you'll be wasting a lot of money. Obviously, hopefully it'll all work out ok, but there's no guarantees unfortunately.

I agree about the passports, when is the soonest you can register the birth as the passport will take 1 week at a minimum and that's with FastTrack btw. And you'll have to travel to get it done in a week which is no fun with a newborn.

Can't people visit you? That's what we did.

Are your diamond shoes okay there OP? Not too tight or anything?
Just wanted to check.

EasyJet allow you to check all sorts of sports equipment and oversized musical instruments for $45 or $55 it seems from their web site. I would wrap it in bin bags and duct tape to seal, so it cant get wet or dirty, then bubble wrap and box it. Make sure you pack supplies to pack it again for the trip home. Then stick neon fragile stickers all over it and pay to check it. If its important to you, then make it happen. For what its worth, i think baggage handlers are more careful with hold luggage than gate checked strollers as they often have conveyor belts to assist with loading rather than doing it by hand on awkward stairs etc.

Just googled Egg prams. Jesus they are fucking ugly things

How are you planning on caring for a newborn on a flight? It's hard enough getting thro the first few weeks at home. Estabilising feeding, dealing with explolive poos, sick, colic, I was still bleeding myself. Neither of my baby's would let me put them down at this age. You will have these plus other things going on and have to deal with them on a flight. I would wait a few months to get used to having a baby first.