Another question about Airtravel w/ a Marathon

[ncmommy]

We just returned from our first trip with a Marathon. Continental put us in the bulkhead row for every leg of the trip, and we had a seriously hard time installing the carseat on each plane. It fit fine, even on small planes, but it was hard to install. We tried to install it rear-facing the first time without success, and when I asked the flight attendant for help she insisted that we were supposed to install the seat forward facing because DS is over a year old. I attempted to politely explain why it is safer for him to face the rear, and the woman got an attitude with me and was absolutely no help at all. They actually started to taxi before we had the seat installed!! We ended up installing it forward facing, but we could not get it tight at all. Even with no recline, the base was halfway hanging off the seat! DH had to hold the carseat during landing because we were afraid it would fall forward. We asked for a belt extension on another flight later in our trip, but that didn't work either. I was a nervous wreck the whole time. The whole experience was so frustrating.

I'm wondering if we should specifically ask for a seat other than the bulkhead next time so we can raise the armrests to install the seat. What do you think? DH wasn't sure this would have helped, but I have seen so many people on this board say it was easy to install their Marathons...any idea what we may have been doing wrong??

[Joolsplus2]

Oh, my heart goes out to you...I know that anxious feeling! Every post I've read on the subject says DON"T get the bulkhead, specifically because you can't lift the armrests (and isn't it a pain all your stuff has to go in the overheads? grrrr).
One trick, I don't know if you tried, to get it tight, is to recline the airplane seat while you install it, then pull it back upright to get that last bit of slack out.
StillPlaysWithBarbies has been on a zillion or so flights with her Marathon, maybe she'll pop in and give you some first hand advice.
:)
Julie CPS Tech and mom to 2 in seats
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx

[strollerfreak]

I agree...it was probably because of the bulkhead seats.

I also agree with the reclining the seat thing. DH does this when he installs our MA (I don't, as I can get it as tight as he does w/o reclining the seat.) and also when we uninstall it to get that buckle flap in the right position to get the carseat out.

It also really depends on the airplane seats too. I know on the company plane it's harder to get the carseats in sometimes because the seats are the wider "1st class" seats all through out the plane, and they also have those "bigger" squooshier headrests that stick out further making the top of the carseat kinda stick out funny.

Needless to say, it probably wasn't you...it was probably just a combo of the carseat and airplane seat not meshing well together...just like in a car, not every carseat will fit with every car...it's a try it and find out kinda thing.

Better luck next time, and glad you survived without getting too frustrated!!

[stillplayswithbarbies]

It probably was because of the bulkhead row. But even so, I can't imagine how the carseat could flip forward. Did you read the instruction manual for how to thread the seatbelt for forward facing? It's different than rear facing. The seatbelts would have had to be very loose to allow it to tip, I think.

I have never had a problem rear facing. In fact it is probably easier to install rear facing than forward facing because the buckle is always right there in easy reach on the seat.

I was in a bulkhead recently, but it was a small plane and the armrest between the two seats lifted up so I had no problem. The Marathon was more reclined than I like to see it because there was no seat in front to brace against, but other than that it worked fine.

I'm sorry you had such trouble. I've only had one flight attendant tell me to forward face because "that's what everyone does" and I politely told her that it was against the law for me to do that based on the instruction manual for my car seat and that if others were doing it with a baby this size, they were not correct. Then I went ahead and did it my way.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/borntobebreastfed2.gif