Car seat/cares harness - US travel w/ 2.5 year old

[WolfMother326]

Hello,
I'm planning to travel to the US for a month with my 2.5 year old to see family. We are flying Delta. I'm planning not to take a car seat but instead use a cares harness on the plane and then have my relatives just buy a car seat and install it so its ready when they pick us up. My understanding is that UK car seats can't be used in the US anyway, so it seems pointless to lug one on the plane.
Does this seem sensible or flawed? I will be 5 months pregnant and we'll be flying alone on the outbound direction so want to make things as simple as possible.
Thanks.

If you're staying for a while and likely to travel out there again, I think it makes sense to have a US spec seat out there to use. Also a lot of them are plane approved whereas UK ones that are plane approved are really rare now. So if you wanted to you could bring it back with you to use in the future (for this DC or younger one).

The usual argument against getting a local one is that their car seats are a bit different to ours, so getting it installed correctly and adjusted for your child might be difficult as it will all be totally new/work differently so hard to grapple with when you've just been on a long flight. But this won't really apply because your relatives can do the installing for you. If you measure your DC bum to shoulder when sitting, they can also get the harness to the right height for them.

The main downside will be that DC might be uncomfortable sleeping on the plane on the way out as the CARES harness doesn't really add any body support.

What are you aiming to achieve by using the harness on the plane? Ime they are rarely used on flights out of European airports. Do you need to factor in seat allocation with it? On some planes they cover the tray table or screen of the person behind.

@eurochick I suppose I only want to achieve not bringing a car seat on board. We've used a plane pal bed for longer flights and he's slept well on it (obviously only without turbulence and not during take off and landing). Do I need to use a harness if I don't have a car seat, or can he just sit in his seat with a normal safety belt on? He'll be just under 2.5.

@BertieBotts thanks for your reply. Yes I think my family can get the car seat installed for us. I might just leave it there as we could use it again the next year/with future DC.

See above post please, we've used a plane pal inflatable seat for DC to stretch out on for longer flights and sleep. It worked really well. Do I have to bring either a carseat or harness, or could I just bring nothing if he'll sit in his seat for take off and landing?

You don't need a harness or car seat. He can just sit in his seat. The only benefit I can see of a harness is to stop him running off if he escapes the lap belt. Is he likely to do that or is he the type to be mesmerised by unlimited cartoons?