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Original poster

car seats on airlines

9 replies

calcium · 24/08/2002 23:46

we are going to Italy at the end of Sept and my dd will be 16 weeks old. Do any of you know whether you are allowed to take car seats onto planes. We are going budget with Ryan Air.

Also if you hire a car I have heard that it is not guaranteed that if you request a car seat in the vehicle that they will definately supply it? Is this true?

OP posts:

sb34 · 25/08/2002 00:14

Message withdrawn

SofiaAmes · 25/08/2002 07:58

Ryan Air WILL NOT let you take a car seat on board. Last year I bought a seat for my son (9 mo. at the time) so that I could put him in a car seat. Despite their official rules at the time (i think they've changed them now) they would not let me take my car seat on board and tried to give the seat that I had paid for away saying that my son was small enough to sit on my lap and I shouldn't have bought him a seat! I was very angry and was told that if i didn't shut up i and my family would be thrown off the plane. Rude comments were made by the flight attendents about my breastfeeding during the flight and when I wrote a complaint letter, the response implied that I had made the whole thing up. Personally I would never fly RYAN AIR no matter how cheap they are and certainly avoid them if you are travelling with children. I think they count your car seat and buggy towards the very limited amount of luggage they allow you. Also, they frequently lose luggage and are delayed. I go to italy 5 or 6 times a year and have never experienced anything like this on the other airlines.
I have never had a problem with a car seat on any other airline. If you buy a seat they are delighted for you to put a car seat in it. If you don't buy a seat (ie pay 10% and have your baby in your lap) then generally they won't let you bring a car seat on unless it looks like the flight is very empty and it is likely that there will be an empty seat for it.
I have rented many cars in italy and requested car seats about half the time. I have never not had a car seat when I requested it. However bear in mind that they are forward facing seats and not suitable for a child of 16 weeks. I have not come across a company that does newborn seats even when they say they do.
Good luck. Travelling in italy with a baby is wonderful once you get there. People are very baby friendly and helpful.

Original poster

calcium · 25/08/2002 09:38

SophiaAmes - oh dear now I am truely nervous Ryan Air sound awful, I will ring today but as for the not letting you breastfeed on the plane thats outragous! If you buy a seat surely they cannot dictate whether or not you can put a car seat in it, do they tell large people they cannot sit in them as they may break them?? I will have to put it in the hold then but am not happy incase they loose it which by the sounds of it they do frequently.

I don't like flying anyway so I hope this whole experience doesn't ruin a much needed holiday.

OP posts:

Girly · 25/08/2002 16:47

Calcium, how did you get on with Ryan Air? We too are due to fly with them in September, but have not bought a separate seat for DS (who will be 17 wks by then). I was wondering waht to do about car seat etc.

clucks · 25/08/2002 17:07

We had to hire a car seat while in ITaly and shouldn't have bothered, The safety requirements are not as strict as in the UK and the seat, even though correctly fitted, would have flown around all over the car in the case of an accident.

Also, it cost 60 euros to hire (regardless of length of hire), we should have bought one out there.

I have used a basinette on a flight for a non-crawler and that was quite useful, but you have to ask for a bulk-head seat.

Azzie · 27/08/2002 12:07

We flew with Easyjet a couple of weekends ago. We took ds's booster seat with us. Being small it went as hand luggage (a bigger car seat would have had to go through as part of our hold luggage allowance). However, the check in staff made it clear that he wouldn't be able to use it on the flight. Before now we have bought a (cheap budget airline) seat for a baby (so that we had space on the flight and the full luggage allowance) but still had the baby on our laps for take off and landing (because of the adult seat belt not fitting a small baby).

Original poster

calcium · 30/08/2002 21:26

Girly - We have decided to take car seat and base (mamas and papas) and the buggy but we will have to put it in the hold, I shall wrap it up in plastic that it came in so not to damage too much. I will take the sling although dd doesn't care for it too much so I will hold her during the flight. Bit of a pain but at least I know when we get there that the seat/buggy is safe and ours rather than risk a dodgy one.

OP posts:

tanyac · 02/09/2002 17:19

Hi!,

I have had no problems flying with my little one (who is now three months)...we flew from London Heathrow to Syney Australia without a hitch! I think this is probably the best time to fly!

nics1stbaby · 02/09/2002 17:27

We recently went to flew with our friends and their 3 month old. They took their baby confort car seat and base right to the plane door, but then it was put in the hold, with all other pushchairs.

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