car hire and car seats

[Alison222]

Has anyone had experience of car hire in France? We are told that they cannot guarantee our request for a car seat.
My 6 mth boy is too large for his first car seat now, but is only just sitting up and I have been told that he should not sit forward facing until 9 months although he is past the 20lb mark. This is OK at home in our current seat.
Can you take car seats on planes? Do they count as part of your luggage allowance as our seat is very heavy.

[leese]

Thanks Tinker - got a good quote from carjet.com, as recommended by Utka

[Tinker]

Word of warning - just rang them. Only do it from the 'major cities' in France ie Paris, Marseilles!

[leese]

Thanks ks - I did look on the website, but could only find car hire available in N america, Australia, Malaysia etc - no Europe. Am I doing it wrong?

[leese]

Cheers ks - I will get on to it now.

[leese]

Thanks everyone! Have'nt heard of Buzz before aloha, but am going to check them out - sounds good. Also need to look at the carjet website - thanks Utka. Have also tried the Hertz website, which I've found a bit of a nightmare (not least because evrything priced in euros!), and it's taken ages, so now i'm trying to ring them, but am being placed in big queues at present - will try again later. Thanks again everyone!

[KatyW]

we went to Majorca in May and hired a Hertz car (although it was included as part of the package from Magic of Spain). We requested a carseat on the booking form and it was absolutely fine. I would say it would be better to use one of the bigger carhire firms though.

[bossykate]

leese

went to sicily in april and hired car and forward facing car seat from hertz (they're everywhere so i'm sure they'll also be in majorca). anyway, the car seat was fine, in fact i'm sure it was new! no problems at all. would definitely hire one again, rather than trying to lug our own one with all the rest of the stuff.

hth.

[aloha]

We've just got back from France, preordered our car seat with Buzz and it was absolutely fine. His first experience of a front facing car seat, but he rather liked it. No problems at all and so glad didn't have to lug a car seat through the airport etc.

[Utka]

We rented from Carjet.com last September, in Majorca.

We rented a Mercedes A class - great to drive, but boot space was vertical rather than horizontal which meant unloading everything each time as what you needed was inevitably at the bottom! Nice cars, well maintained.

We took our own rearward facing set though. We wrapped one of those thin carry mats around it and put it in a black bin bag. Most airlines require you to give it into their 'special / fragile items' area, but it ends up coming out on the carousel. You can't know therefore that it hasn't had a few knocks...

Have you thought about contacting the British Consulate (if you're British!) and asking whether they know of any baby goods hire places. I know there is one of these on the Spanish mainland (near Malaga I think - sorry I can't remember the name). It does things like high chairs and travel cots so you don't need to take your own.

[leese]

We're off to Majorca in September, and reading thru this thread, I'm undecided re: car hire/baby seats. we were (naively) just going to hire a car, and fully expected a car seat to be made available. However, it seems this may not be the case. A few questions then:

Know of any particularly good companies for car hire in Majorca? Any places to avoid?

Do you think we should take our (rather large) car seat with us? what do we do with it - just put it in with our baggage? I'm nervous it won't be accepted, as it's just a charter flight - notoriously un-generous!

Any advice gratefully received

[SofiaAmes]

whoops, he gave away the plane seat, not the car seat.

[SofiaAmes]

The only bad experience I've ever had with taking a car seat on a plane was with RyanAir. I had purchased a seat for my son (9 mo. at the time) and planned to put him in it in the car seat. We had our car seat confiscated and the flight attendant tried to give away our son's car seat as he said that we shouldn't have purchased him one as he was under 2 years and could have sat on my lap for free. Normal airlines are thrilled if you purchase a seat and bring a car seat on board. And most non-budget airlines don't count a carseat as part of your luggage allowance. Having said that, I rent cars frequently in italy and los angeles and have never had any trouble preordering a car seat, but have always had trouble finding anyone to help fit it. They always seem to be the same type, so I've got the hang of them now. They only ever have forward facing ones, so definitely bring your own if your child is under 20lbs.

[Tinker]

Cheers Fionn. It was Ryanair in Feb but it is Buzz in August. And yes, my daughter does have her little bag! I'll check with them. They come in quite handy to sit on when the flight is delayed!

[Fionn]

Tinker - which airline are you going on? I know Ryanair are very strict but you could always check with the airline first. If they didn't allow it as hand baggage you could always check it in. Also, if your daughter is over 2 which she presumably is, she's allowed a piece of hand baggage anyway, or does she have her own little bag? They'd have to be real jobsworths to stop you taking it on board I think!

[Tinker]

Fionn - I was planning to take booster as hand luggage like last year but it's just me and my daughter and wasn't sure if you were allowed more than 2 items of hand luggage - I know I wasn't in February (didn't hire a car then).

[Fionn]

Manna - was the car seat ok? which hire company was it? I'd much rather hire them but haven't had a single good experience, even with big names like Hertz. Probably because they usally don't have mothers running the offices, it's not a priority!

[manna]

I just hired a car seat for my 2 week holiday in france and I think it was about 16 quid for the whole time. Compared with lugging car seat on tube, stanstead express, into plane, off plane etc. I thought it was money well spent, as it's our first time abroad with ds and I'm sure there'll be enough problems travelling with him anyway, so I thought we might as well minimise the hassle if possible.

[Fionn]

Meant to say we've always checked the car seat in to Outsize Luggage and taken the booster (it's just the basic seat bit) on as hand luggage.

[Fionn]

We've taken a booster seat and a full size car seat with us on flights a couple of times in the last few months and are doing it again tomorrow. Never had a problem. They usually tag them and ask you to take them to the outsize luggage bit to hand in. We've always had terrible problems when ordering car seats with hire car companies. They've either been broken, filthy, the wrong size or non-existent. It really annoys me that so little attention is paid to the provision of car seats by hire companies, it must be such a common request, but they never got it right in our experience. Se we always lug our own now.

[sjd]

We recently went to Portugal taking with us a booster and a Super Cruise car seat. I simply removed the kids from them at the airport wrapped them (the seats not the kids) in bin liners secured with heavy tape and put them in the over size baggage - no problems at all and much less hassle than trying to fit an unfamiliar seat or being supplied with one which does not fit at all. We did the same thing on a trip to Scotland this year and I saw someone with just a booster bring it on as hand luggage on that occasion - it probably depends on how full the flight is.

[Tinker]

Has anyone taken a car seat as hand luggage since September? Last summer, I took my daughter's booster seat this way but, since September, there seem to be restrictions of one piece of hand luggage per passenger. Has anyone had any problems/experience of this since then?

Reluctant to hire a car seat when I can carry the booster seat.

Thanks

[Suew]

You could also have a look at the Handysitt. It's recommended on mumsnet here.