What car seat can you use on planes for a 1yo?

[OriginalUsername3]

Using aibu for traffic. Does anyone have a car seat they use on planes? I cannot for the life of me actually find one. Googling "car seat for planes" just brings up loads that aren't actually suitable. Driving me mad! Would like one that's actually pretty safe, and preferably rear facing, in cars aswell as being suitable for planes.

@cooolio

the car seat is very helpful when it comes to turbulence. Holding a child is not that safe. I have flown through storms where we dropped enough the oxygen masks were deployed. People who didn’t have a seat belt on were seriously injured as their heads hit the ceiling with force.

I know it’s not the point of the thread but am I the only person reading this and thinking that there is no way in hell that my child would tolerate sitting in a car seat for the duration of a flight? Short or long haul. Maybe I just have a difficult one. We’ve paid for an extra seat before and had him on our laps for take off and landing.

"A child strapped in their car seat on the plane would have the same space they’d have in the car"

No, there's more space in the average car.

"the car seat is very helpful when it comes to turbulence. Holding a child is not that safe. I have flown through storms where we dropped enough the oxygen masks were deployed. People who didn’t have a seat belt on were seriously injured as their heads hit the ceiling with force."

You'd cover the baby with your own body in this situation if you were holding them. You don't have the chance to if they're buckled into a car seat. Items crashing round the cabin etc, you have no way of shielding them from that in a car seat. There is zero safety benefit to a car seat on a plane.

No, there's more space in the average car.

The seat is the size that it is. Doesn’t change on a plane so they’re no more confined.

There is zero safety benefit to a car seat on a plane.

Given that everything I’ve ever read contradicts that do you have a link to your evidence for that statement? Or your qualifications to contradict the likes of Lufthansa and Maxi Cosi?

"Or your qualifications to contradict the likes of Lufthansa and Maxi Cosi?"

The people who want to sell flights to families and car seats? 😂 erm, of course they'll encourage buying one.

It's useless on a flight.

So that’ll be no links and no qualifications. Thought not.

John Lewis do a baby car seat for £60. That's quite slim and it's good for the price. X

I’m not that daft😂I know that in the event of a plane crash we can all pretty much kiss our arses goodbye, it’s for safety in the event of turbulence and takeoff/landing. I would’ve thought that would be obvious.

This is a ridiculous comment, it’s fair enough if you personally don’t want to use a car seat on a plane but to say there’s zero safety benefit to it is like saying there’s no safety benefit to using a car seat in a car🤦🏼‍♀️ Of course there’s a benefit.
I know that you can’t seriously be suggesting that it would be safer in the event of extreme turbulence to cover your unrestrained child with your own body than to have them securely strapped into a car seat where they basically won’t move? I mean come on, that stretches reason a bit.
This is no different than saying your child would be safer in your lap and being held by you than in a car seat in a car crash.

Decide for yourself the amount of risk you’re happy to take regarding your kids but let’s not throw reason and fact straight out the window and pretend that no car seat is safer.

I think the main benefit is having a car seat you know is safe for car journeys on the other side, and hasn't been mishandled or crashing about in the hold during transit. There's no way my 1 year old child would be forward facing, or travelling in a rented seat you have no idea of the crash history of or expiration date just to make going on holiday easier for myself. I imagine the OP has similar concerns and all the bewilderment is due to the complete lack of car seat knowledge in this country due to our disgustingly lax laws.

Your best to phone the airline OP, they should be able to advise. Jet2 don't need seats to be TUV approved, so the Joie Steadi is a good budget seat if your airline also allows it.

If you want to bring a car seat for the holiday you will hand it over to the cabin crew for holding just before boarding. They will return it to you when you disembark.

I don't think I've ever seen someone using it on the plane itself 🤔

They'll give you a cot for the baby if you book it before hand. Mind you both my babies never wanted to stay in it, they wanted to be held the whole time! On the rare occasion when I managed to transfer them into the cot once they were sound asleep the air turbulence light came on and they woke from all the movement.

We used a cares harness on a plane for a long haul flight. It's a five point harness that fits to the seat. It is quite common to use these in the States but not in Europe. And yes of course it is safer than having them on your lap in the event of turbulence or a hard landing

Anecdotally, you can fit a Joie Tilt/Graco Extend, Joie Steadi, Joie Steadi R129, Cozy n Safe Fitzroy, Britax Two Way Elite, possibly a Britax First Class Plus. They only need to be narrow enough at the base. Most airlines don't need the flight approval and won't check the manual to see if the lap belt fitting is actually approved. These seats have a suitable belt routing that you can simply fasten a lap belt where the lap portion of a lap-shoulder belt would go in a car. They are all rear facing (various limits - 13kg / 18kg / 25kg) and forward facing. They don't have the plane approval (I think because no airline actually asks for it and it's not worth it to the company to get the certification) so use at your own risk, as obviously the lap belt only fitting is not officially approved. But for comfort purposes and knowing the car seat hasn't been chucked around in the hold, it's probably worth it.

The only other option is importing a seat from America where they have lots of plane approved car seats because it's common and accepted to use car seats on planes there.

There are quite a lot of airline approved infant carriers, if your 1yo is small for their age, but some airlines won't allow you to use a rear facing seat.

I have also flown with a lap infant and for a short flight it's absolutely tolerable, the seatbelt is so useless at constraining them that they can actually stand on the floor and walk around (!) and they only need to be in the seatbelt during take off and landing anyway. DS3 spent most of the flight opening and closing the meal tray and opening and closing the window shade.

It's not allowed to use a cares harness for child under 2 years old.

Just like with the seatbelt, they only need to be in the seat when the seatbelt sign is on. You can let them out to play/explore otherwise. I think many children would be comfortable in a car seat as it is like being in the car, which is familiar to them.

I had a doona for two kids which definitely isn't narrow and travelled a few times with it. Some airlines made me hold the baby during take off and landing but otherwise it was great both when my baby was little and also at a year when they had a safe familiar place to be. That's besides for the convenience of having the car seat when we landed. I never paid for an extra seat. But checked at boarding if there were empty seats on the flight and where there were I was able to board with the carseat.

We bought a britax eclipse for flights and car hires. It can legally be strapped in with just a lap belt and met the size restrictions on BA and tui. This was a few years ago, but it was great.

Ah ha ok that makes sense! I was impinge that everyone else has very compliant babies who would just sit there and maybe drift off to sleep. Still I am not sure he would go for that but they’re all different. I would much rather just book an extra seat and have the extra room for us all to use.

I do totally get the OP wanting to take her own car seat though. I wouldn’t use one from a hire car either. Incidentally we have the Joie Tilt for travel which it seems can be used on a plane. Pretty sure we picked it up in an Argos sale for about £80. I would recommend it as a good car seat, a little fiddly to fit the first time but fine once you’re used to it.

The child is sat in the car seat on the plane.

The child is sat in the car seat in a car

Exactly the same!! No loss of space.

A car seat on a plane gives the child support and comfort. How often have you flown and wished you had a head rest for a little snooze so your head doesn't keep bobbing up and down?

does your child sit in a car seat in a car? If so there's no difference. Why wouldn't they sit in a car seat on a plane?

My children love a car journey and will happily sit in their car seats for hours. We took car seats on a plane (long haul and short haul) and they loved it!!

Long haul they were comfortable and slept for many hours. Bingo!

Car seats must be installed on a window seat by the way.

Another plus point for using a car seat on longer flights is don't forget that once in place, the car seat can be reclined without affecting the plane seat. The same way you can recline it in a car. So really it's a great idea (in my opinion).

@OriginalUsername3 I started reading your thread and you have so many unhelpful replies 😩 I only scanned so apologies if this is a repeat but this is what we have always done when flying (under about 8 months we would have them in our arms but after that we pay for a seat):

Take your car seat in the hold; consider buying one just for travel that is lighter than your standard ERF seat - we purchased a JOIE seat which was still ERF to 18kg but much lighter and fixed with a seatbelt rather than isofix. Purchase a car seat travel bag to protect it in the hole and you can stuff nappies/towels around it in the car seat bag too.

On the plane we never used a car seat because we never found one that was suitable for the plane that also ticked out boxes for cars; instead we purchased an AmSafe CARES harness which is a special seatbelt specifically designed for use on planes by children around age 1 to 4. With the CARES harness a 1 year old can remain in their own seat next to you for takeoff and landing. It packs up really really small so no bother about carrying it.

Hope that helps

I don’t want to disagree with the car seat guru as I know you really know your stuff but I’m not sure that’s accurate to say they’re blanket not allowed for under 2s and maybe that’s a specific airline policy you’ve encountered?

The FAA says it’s ok to use if the child can sit up and is 22lbs with no mention of an age restriction. British Airways say a CARES can be used for infants as well as children weighing 10-20kg so the same as the FAA. And I know several American friends that have used them for 1YOs no problem although I’m not sure what airlines they flew with.

As always I’d advise anyone considering it to check with their airline first though! And worth keeping in mind that they’re generally only suitable for economy class, often have to be placed in the window and can’t be used in exit rows and also often the rows directly in-front of or behind the exits.

I might be wrong - I thought that was standard policy across all airlines but I could be mistaken. I wonder why I thought that. Sorry for confusion.

@PurpleBananas22 DS is happy in the car if it is moving but not stationary. He can see out of both the side and rear windows and point out cars, lorries and animals. I can’t imagine him getting much of a view in a plane. He also knows that everyone else is sat down in a car. Watching people move around a cabin whilst he is strapped in a seat? Absolutely no way.

But they don't need to be strapped in when people are moving around. True they can't see much out of the windows, but they do get that comforting motion of the engine and sense that the plane is moving.