Retrieving Prams After a Flight

[Jan1984]

Hi all,
We are people’s general experiences about getting prams back after a flight?

We’re flying with Turkish Airlines and on our way back we will have a 24hr layover in Istanbul with our little kiddie. All very nice until we found our pram is slightly too big to fit in an overhead locker and so would need to go into the hold.

I understand you can usually wheel the pram almost to the doors of the plane, the cabin crew takes it and puts it in the hold and you get it back after the flight.

But do they get it out and give it to you at the doors of the plane/top of the ramp or do you need to get it off the baggage carousel?

As we are on a 24hr layover our baggage will remain at the airport - and I am worried we won’t be able to get the pram back either as we don’t go to the carousel. Has anyone been in the same predicament?

Both times we've travelled with our pram in the hold (with two different airlines), it's come back to us on the carousel. Definitely worth calling the airline to ask them.

It could be either on the jetway or equally the baggage carousel re the pram.

I would check with the airline re your baggage for transfer as this is normally collected by the passenger.

Our experience was that it varied, although ours always went in the hold (though not until the gate, of course) - usually it was by the plane steps, sometimes on the carousel and once or twice in an 'outsize luggage' area

Make sure you check it for damage before leaving the airport. We flew with an expensive pram and didn’t need to use it when coming out of the airport coming home, so left it folded up. When we got home we realised the inside (bottom and back where the straps attach) had been torn out, and someone had tied it together to hide the damage. We tried to put a claim in but they said as we’d already left the airport they wouldn’t pay

It's normally the carousel. They sometimes get them at the gate but that seems to be quite rare

We flew with BA recently. On the way out all was fine and the buggy was waiting at the plane door. Coming back (on a delayed flight) we had to go to the carousel. The top part of the buggy came out fairly quickly on the carousel but the bottom part was nowhere to be seen. Turns out it had been put in the "oversized" area which was cordoned off from the main carousel.

When I spoke to the guy at the desk he said that there are different coloured tags and that we should have got an orange one which means "bring to plane door". Don't know if that applies to all airlines, but might be worth asking.

Airports with stricter security often make you get to at the baggage claim. Definitely call (but sometimes they don’t even know tbh the process at another airport) but prepare accordingly, you may not be getting it back during your layover

If you ask the crew when you give it to the baggage guy at the plane door it usually comes back. The baggage handlers will bring the buggies and wheelchairs up to quite close to the plane exit when you arrive. Can take ages though! So if your destination is somewhere cold take a jumper as often not a heated area.

Sometimes it’s at the bottom of the steps when you get off. Sometimes you have to be very fast to grab them when they’re handling these, otherwise they come out on the belt with luggage, or at the oversized luggage collection point. No set rules.

The last flight we were on said the buggy would be at the bottom of the steps as there was a wheelchair on the flight, so they would have to unload anyway, but if there were no wheelchairs, it would be sent to the belt.