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

Sorry - that isn’t terribly clear - what I mean is I don’t think the different airlines have their own baggage handlers, do they?

Boxed up will be classed as cargo and will cost much much more than another pram/stroller and there’s still a chance it would get be smooshed under other heavier cargo/luggage. Best thing we did was get a lie flat umbrella fold mclaren that we were allowed to take as carry on.

One boring practical point re passports, you can’t apply for one until you have registered the birth and where I live in SE London it is taking weeks to get an appointment to do this....

Also (half) Spanish and i get wanting to take the nice stuff when visiting family.

Seriously? I'm also not from the UK and have been travelling to my home country (shorthaul flight) with my DS since he was a newborn. Never has it occurred to me that my and DH's families were negatively judging our cheap travelling pushchair. Mind you, I've also spent a fair amount of time in various parts of Spain without realising that Vanity Pushchairs was a Spanish 'thing'....

I normally travel with a cheap pram, but did do it with a travel system so my dd2 would sleep in carry cot at night. Worked fine. I wasn't so fussed about my pram second time around. once they bashed it and actually fixed a bit. I took a lot of packaging material and all the towels plus tape to wrap it in. Knew where scissors were other end. The frame WILL get bashed.

So OP... You cannot justify the added expense of a cheap stroller yet you are prepared to spend money on:

1. Bespoke packaging
2. Enhanced insurance
3. Extra luggage allowance

Do you not see how ridiculous this is?

Take your pram OP and don't forget to start a new thread on your return. 'AIBU' to think that EasyJet should replace my pram after dumping it under 10 tons of luggage on the plane...'

I have the Doona car seat that has the wheels attached that I was going to use when I go away in April. However, this thread has reminded me how my eldest’s pram got absolutely destroyed by Emirates and I had flown first class so you’ve got no chance with EasyJet!

I’ve just googled strollers that can go onboard planes and I’m going to get myself the Besrey travel stroller for the trip. I suggest you do the same OP!!

I googled 'egg' pram and got this...

I think you sound like a terrible snob.

I've been flying across UK (as moved to other side of country from family) every 3/4 months since ds1 was 6 weeks old he's now 7 and Ds2 2 I have never flown with my good buggy EVER. Last year buggy was lost for over an hour when arrived at airport with bRely walking 1 yeAr old 2 bags and a suitcase funnily enough it was the one time I did ponder taking my proper buggy

Bite the bullet and get a travel cot for over there and a cheap lie flat stroller it'll work out much better on the long run

I just realised two things, firstly I accidentally bolded most of my last reply.

Also, OP is planning on taking a 5 wk old to Spain. Yikes. At 5 wks post partum I was still a bleeding tender mess. And what if baby is late? Are you going to take a 3 wk old on holiday, or if you've had a c-section? So many issues here!

"dc will only be weeks old and will be sleeping in the carrycot also"

At 5 wks dc is most likely going to be sleeping on your chest!

@WhiteDust They look more like bombs than prams! Can you imagine the annoyance of fingermarks

Gummy
After a flight on EasyJet, fingerprints would be the least of our worries! 😀

Hmm. I am late to the party but putting this here since it may be useful to OP/others. I have flown easyJet several times with a pram. I have a travel bag for it that I stuff full of coats, clothes etc as padding. It has always been fine in the bag. My last easyJet flight the buggy bag weighed 31kg because I had added so much padding! It was fine, went on for free.

Likewise, CAR SEATS. We always travel with these boxed. If the airline ask I just explain we have had one written off checking them in as is. We double box and again stuff with clothes etc to pad. Always goes on as free allowance.

Experiences of what is and isn't allowed will vary wildly between airports.

I recently flew with our expensive buggy. It was an internal UK flight which offered ‘plane door to plane door’ service (or whatever it’s called), so I thought it would be ok. It wasn’t. I can only imagine a heavy suitcase was thrown on it after it had been put in the hold? That was on the outward journey. On the return journey, despite them saying door to door, I had to collect it from the carousel (which meant carrying my baby and all hand luggage on the shuttle bus) so the buggy got far more of a battering then I’d anticipated! If you do decide to take it, make sure your travel insurance covers it just in case, although having said that, my airline agreed to replace the broken part (the whole chair bit) with no quibbles. Good luck and have a lovely holiday :-)

someones a bit stuck up arent they

im sure you have motherhood all planned out

have you thought about if the pram never makes it there-loads of luggage gets lost

Can’t you order a secondhand icandy or similar on Spanish eBay and just have it delivered to your Spanish family address; simple job done with a pram abroad for whenever you need it. Or get a lie flat Maclaren secondhand and take that on the plane. Trust me after a few months of hauling around a heavy designer pram and trying to fit it into your car boot; you will be trading it in for a light weight stroller in no time,

We’ve either travelled with our big bugaboo Chameleon in its own padded travel bag which prevented damage or the smaller cheaper Bee in an airline plastic bag with two kids with no problems . I wouldn’t take an expensive new prom except in a padded bag . A little lie flat one and a pop up travel sleeper thing I think would be a good option .

I can't understand why you are so keen on taking an expensive pram on an Easyjet flight! It is very unlikely that it will survive in tact, they managed to break a very expensive unbreakable case of ours!

Seriously, find another pram suitable for the child. If you want to disguise the fact it is a cheapie you could always stitch some fabric to the outside, you could make it look quite amazing if you tried! surely all you need is something for the child to ride in/sleep in, does it really matter what it looks like?

I'm crying with laughter at the idea of a designer pram. Mine has had vomit, bogies, milk, poop from leaking nappies, and even dog poop on it at various points in its lifetime

@SenoraSurf

If you want to box up your pushchair and presumably the even more important car seat and pay any excess charges then that's your choice. It's possible you won't be charged anything also. If well padded both should be fine. Nothing wrong with having a nice pram you want to keep nice.

However, it's extremely rude to come to AIBU and almost completely ignore the (vocal majority) posters who are offering good advice just because they think YABU and causing unnecessary extra work for yourself at a time we all know is difficult. Cuz even easy newborns turn your world upside down.

"Again, to those offering newborn advice, I'm sorry you struggled in your experiences. Fortunately, I'm preparing for all instances"

This^ BS is seriously not okay though and some day you will think back to this thread and cringe at yourself. You are not a mother yet, you truly have absolutely NO idea what you're really in for. None. At all. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

So don't preach to all of us that already are mothers about how you've got this whole parenting thing down 🙄 so our silly advice based on our actual experience of Being a Mother isn't needed. 🤨

It doesn’t matter if it’s an EJ flight or any other airline. The baggage has to get thrown about to meet the airport deadlines. Every single person saying buy a cheaper bombproof buggy is right.

You’re going to look a proper knobber turning up with your Egg on a wonky frame with only 3 wheels.

The funny thing is, looking back now dc is 10, the time that the baby is lying helpless is so short. So very, very short. It doesn't seem like it at the time and a good pram is a godsend, but the more important features of the pram were like:

How manoeuverable is it? Can I whizz it around 360 degrees with one hand?
How much shopping can I fit underneath?
How easily does it fold and unfold? Will I need to ask passersby to help in Asda carpark?
How stable is it? If I put shopping near the back, will it tip?
How well does it clean? Does it shrug off stains/wipe clean?
Are the brakes efficient? Does the brake lever look robust and up to being shoved by a shoe several times a day?

Really, how the thing looked was nowhere near as important as how well it functioned. (And by 2 years, the baby wouldn't go in the pushchair any more anyway, so it would have been a waste our buying a super expensive pram for our one.)

And we borrowed a cheap stroller from others to take abroad when the baby was bigger, as it was even lighter and easier to manage than our regular pushchair. If it had been wrecked it wouldn't really matter.

I don't understand the reverse snobbery about expensive prams. Obviously there are great prams at every price point and no one should go into debt for one. But mine was £800 I think and it's excellent, I love it. Really well built, quick and easy to fold, I can lug it around no problem even though I'm short and weak. I would've happily bought cheaper if I found one that was better, but I didn't. Plus, once it was picked my parents said they wanted to pay (unasked) and now they love seeing DD happy in their present. So of course I can understand OP wanting to bring her lovely pram to visit her parents, so they can see their gift.

It's an utterly insane plan but I can understand it!