Checking in a baby car seat and isofix base

[Sunrise888]

We are going on a short haul flight within the UK and are driving to the airport and checking in our baby car seat as PILs are picking us up.

We bought a padded car seat bag that has plenty of room. Question is, how best do we pack the car seat and base?

1. Do we fix them together and put them together in the bag?
2. Do we bubble wrap the base separately and put it in the bag with the car seat (possibly also wrapped)?

I prefer 2). I think 1) might test the locking mechanism and risk damaging it if it's flung about. DH thinks it's designed to lock together tight so it'll be safe.

Also if the car seat or base arrives damaged, will the airline be liable?

Are you sure you can take the base at all? They’re quite heavy and I thought you were allowed to take a car seat - the base isn’t integral.

I would go for 2 as well, just make sure you push the fixings back into the base so they're less likely to get damaged. We've travelled loads of times with car seats in a carrier (albeit without the Isofix) and the airlines never bother looking in it to see how many items are inside. I used to pad the bag out with nappies to save room elsewhere and provide more padding!

Can't you just not take the base and belt the car seat in? Would save you taking it with you and the base isn't essential anyway.

Thanks for the advice. We'd prefer to take the base as it's easier to secure the seat properly. I might buy a roll of bubble wrap tmw and try to create a couple of bags that can just slip over the seat and base separately and easily so it's not too much faff at the airport.

Just so you know, isofix is no 'safer' than belting a car seat in. It's just easier and you can tell very easily if it's in correctly.

I would call the airline to check they will accept the car seat in two parts, they may charge you extra.

1. That's what we did when we flew with ours.

If it’s a trip you’ll do frequently to see PiL, I’d just buy a seat to keep at their house.

No need to call the airline. They count a car seat as an item of equipment. Just like our buggy was one item of equipment even though it is in two parts (chassis and carrycot /seat). And they asked us how many parts it was at the check in purely so they could give us the right number of tags (we delivered it to the aircraft). A travel cot is also one item of equipment, or do you really think they'll count it as 3 items - the cot, the base and the mattress????

If you can fit the seat with the belt then definitely don’t bother with the isofix, it’s no safer, it’s a lot of hassle to fit at the other end and depending on the car you’re using (if it’s a hire car or taxi), isofix might actually be a bit awkward and cause the seat to sit in a less than ideal position. Our infant seat was isofix only and after 1 trip abroad we bought a second car seat maxi that could fit with the seat belt as it was such a nightmare.

But if you do have to take it then I’d go with the all in one bag but bubble wrapped separately option.

Sorry that’s meant to say we bought a second maxi cosi seat (our original one was a lie flat isofix only)