Travel to NZ - has anyone used a CARES harness?

[millie19]

we are travelling to NZ via SanFran with our nearly 4yo & 2yo - 2 flighs of approx 11-13 hours each. Have read various reviews (good and bad!) of the CARES 5 point harness and wondered if anyone has used one? If so are they good/worth the money (RRP is approx £80!) and did it keep your LO in their seat and happier than just sitting with the lap belt? I've done longhaul with our DD when she was 18months but she's a lot calmer than DS who doesn't do sitting still except in his car seat! Any comments/thoughts on the CARES harness gratefully received!

We have used one. If I am honest, we harly used it. We used it for take off but just the usual belt for landing. The people behind us were less than happy with the fiddling about to get the thing in place for landing so we just left it.

That was when we went to Australia. During the flight we just lifted the arm rests and made do. Seat belt sign only went on once during the flight and as he was sleeping we just tried our besst to attach the normal one around him.

Have used successfully a few times (just left it on the seat all the time, so no issue with putting it back on for landing), but the last time I took mine onto a flight, I decided it just wasn't going to work, far too much of the back of the seat at the relevant height was taken up by television screen. Fortunately DD (my second and like your DS, my wriggler) is now 4 and beginning to be less of a problem in that regard.

So it probably depends a bit on the actual airline seat, sorry.

Couple of things to consider - car seats are there to stop a child flying forward in a car. Airplanes go up and down - so really there is no need.
Also I was just about to purchase until this was pointed out and was also told by both Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines that as they obstruct the tray and/or TV screen of the passenger behind you you will only be able to sit in th eseats that have they wall behind them.Something here to be aware of is that those seats do not recline. So for long haul I would seriously save your money.
Hope this helps.