car seats on planes

[mamaJK]

Hi there
I was wondering if anyone had any advice regarding a car seat that is not too expensive / heavy to be bought for the specific purpose of travelling on a plane? (ie don't really care about it being carried / dropped as won't be being used in a car.)
My son will be 18 mths + for the travel we're doing.

Thanks in advance!

Where are you travelling to? Not sure about Europe, but if you are travel to the US or Canada, some of their airlines will only accept car seats made in the US or Canada. We had this issue last February when we flew to Canada. The airline would not allow us to use our car seat as it wasn't made in Canada and therefore wasn't authorised.

Just thought I'd mention it on the off chance that you were heading west.

I would check with the airline as we flew with BMI once and took our own car seat as they said it was first come first serve and they couldn't gauarantee we would get one of theirs and when we got there, they made us parcel it up and it went in the hold..we had paid for a seat for DS so he went in DH's lap for take off and then back in his seat for the rest of the journey - he was nearly 2 at the time.

The problem with the airlines is that they never give straight answers and the left hand doesn't seem to know what the right is doing!!

thankyou! i know all the airlines seem to have different rules.
i guess that's why we want one that if they do make us pack up and put in the hold i don't really mind it getting chucked around.
weight is the main issue.
that's crazy about having to use US / canadian made car seats - thanks for the tip.
this particular trip we're going from london to geneva but ideally it would see us through all our plane trips! I've rung swiss air and they have said i can take the car seat if the base is 40 x 40 cm or less but i had to book him as a 2 year old to get a seat.

so basically does anyone have a clue abuot a lightweight car seat with a small base?
i'm hoping this will work for most trips but i guess time will tell

I have no specific advice regarding the car seat, but am just wondering why you want a car seat at all for the plane journey? I have travelled a lot with my 2 dc and it would never occur to me to lug a heavy car seat onto a plane. Genuine question, not meaning to be rude!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=3&threadid=117307&stamp=051128103937

someone already asked this question on mumsnet so I have a few brands to try here - thanks guys!

re why a car seat - apparently it's safer to have them in a car seat than just using the seatbelt in a seat or in a bassinet