flying with a carseat - attaching it to a bugaboo?

[CurleyShirley]

I am flying to france in a few weeks and have a lap seat for my dd. I am debating whether to rent or hire a car seat. I would rather take my own, but am worried about it getting damaged in the hold. I have a bugaboo pram and am wondering whether if I use the car seat as the push chair seat (ie have it attached to the chassis) and pack the carrycot in my luggage it will be OK and I will be able to then take the car seat to the gate of the plan. Has anyone tried this before??

can u travel with an umbrella stroller instead. bugaboo dont fold small - i have the cameleon. when i have flown the took car seat as bulky item - seperate check in for bulky item baggage handlers can be rough with items, so i dont travel with bugaboo use a zapp (folds tiny take on as hand luggage in travel bag)

if u are set on travelling with bugaboo - make sure it well protected eg travel bag, and car seat as i said is a bulky item seperate check in. what u describe means collapsing your frame, packing it away and then remove car seat to bulky item check in

Only have the bugaboo, with carry cot, as DD not yet 3 months. But am basing this on assumption that pram can be taken to the gate (fairly certain this is right) so it isnt actually 'checked in'. So I mean walking up to the gate with the car seat on, to avoid that also being checked in.

tbh i dont see how u can avoid checking in the bugaboo frame or the maxi cosi as in my experience the car seat (maxi cosi) if travelling with you will need to be checked in to bulky items, and pram folded and put in bag to go in hold

i have travelled with maxi cosi pram seat on a zapp fram . car seat in bulky items , zapp frame folded in bag as hand luggage

tbh i dont know if what you describe is achievable but i think involves checking the care seat in for bulky items, and folding bugaboo frame into travel bag and checking that in too. dont think bgaboo fame is hand luggage tho

yes airport staff gave me an airport lightweight buggy at check in to wheel the baby to pram door, then leave their light weight buggy at plane door carry your own baby on

you still have issue of maxi cosi car seat and frame will needed tagged and checked in - this can not be avoided

so good luck hope this works out how u want

thanks scottishmummy, but I do think you dont have to check the buggy in - from what I have read on here, and from the airlines website which says

" Flybe. accept prams / pushchairs and carrycots as additional items on top of their allocated baggage allowance. These items are only permitted in the hold of the aircraft and can only be accepted if they are foldable.

The passenger is permitted to use the pushchair for the child to the point of boarding where they will then be required to hand it to the ground staff for stowage in the aircraft hold.

On arrival the passenger can then obtain the pushchair from the ground staff so that they can transport their child through baggage reclaim and into arrivals.

So I was simply wondering whether it would be ok for he pram to consist fo chassis and car seat.

sounds okay then - i have only flown BA and easy and they made me fold up pram

good luck

i have a bugaboo but never took it on planes

a friend has one that has been trashed over a number of flights

buy a maclaren for hols

yep - i also have cameleon but fly with zapp (umbrella fold)- baggage handlers can damamge pram, so dont risk it

thanks for your advice ladies!
Dont think I have much choice though on whether to take the bugaboo - DD will not be quite 3 months when we go so needs to still be in the carrycot bit of the Bubgaboo (which she will also sleep in while we are there) so cant get a maclaren to take??

the maclaren techno xt (which we have) is suitable from birth - lies almost flat - so would be fine

I have flown BA a few times with my carseat attached to bugaboo frog chassis (left carrycot at home as ds was 5 months+ by then) and they let me wheel it up to the gate, disassemble both there and they put it in the hold. Then had to collect it at other end from bulky items bit. This was a couple of years ago though. Main disadvantage is if you are travelling on your own with a young baby, you then have the issue that you will need to put the baby down somewhere so you have 2 hands free to unfold bugaboo chassis and put carseat (or carrycot, or pushchair) back on. I defy anyone to do this one handed. Best solution I came up with was to pack a sling in hand luggage for the journey from plane to luggage carosels at the other end so could have hands free for assembling bugaboo.

To be honest though, once he got too big for a sling we bought a cheap mothercare umbrella pushchair for travelling, the bugaboo is just too much hassle - and once our chassis got completely destroyed by baggage handlers and we had to get a new one - cheap stroller just for travel that you don't mid getting lost or broken is the way to go I think (it often takes a worrying amount of time to find them at the other end as they come off in weird places).