Airline travel with car seat - need help please!!

[booda]

Hi,
I'm traveling overseas next month with my 2-month old and am clueless about how everything works. We will be purchasing a ticket for the baby and will have a seat. My question is...how does the car seat work in the airplane? Do you have to install the base? or do you just strap in the car seat without the base? I have both the Snugride and the Roundabout...any ideas on which might be better to use? Any help would be SO much appreciated!
Thank you!
Booda

[new_mommy25]

I would bring the Sungride. It is sooo much easier to travel with because you can snap it into your stroller. When I traveled with the Snugride I never brought the base. It is very easy to install it with the seatbelt. You might want to practice with it before you leave.

[WooChx]

I did the same thing and the Snugride was a breeze! I also think its great that you bought the baby a ticket. My DD had one for our flight and I felt so badly for the children that were being passed around by their parents. I felt bad for the parents too, they looked exhausted. Don't worry, your trip will be easy!

[stillplayswithbarbies]

The Snugride will be much easier to use. You install it in the airplane just like you do in a car with a lapbelt (no shoulderbelts). You might want to look at the instructions and practice in your car first. You never need a locking clip on an airplane because the seatbelt always locks.

Here is how it will work. You get to the airport early, because it will take a little longer to get through security. You check in and get your boarding passes and give them your checked luggage. Keep the baby in the stroller and wheel on down to security.

Try to have just one carry-on per person. Backpacks are great because they free your hands to carry the carseat or the baby or both.

At security, you will be asked to take the baby out of the carseat and send the car seat and the stroller through the x-ray. Don't panic and don't stress, just take all the time you need. The people behind you should have gotten to the airport earlier too, it's their problem not yours. :)

Walk through the metal detector holding the baby and then put it all back together at the other side.

Wheel on down to your gate. Relax until it is time to board. When they call for pre-boarding people travelling with small children, go on and board. Some people like to send one parent on with the car seat and as much stuff as they can carry while the other parent waits with the baby and boards later. That way you don't have two of you standing around the aisle of the plane trying to install the seat and a baby who is going to be on the plane long enough anyway. With a 2 month old that probably won't matter as much as it does with a toddler who could use the extra time to run around a little.

Wheel the stroller down to the door of the plane, take the baby out, and fold up your stroller. They will give you a gate-check tag when you board to put on your stroller. It will be waiting for you when you get off the plane. (note: some foreign airlines do not give it back to you for connecting flights, only at the end. Most or all US Airlines will give it back in between flights)

Your car seat MUST be installed in a window seat or if the plane is large and has that center row of seats with an aisle on each side it can go in the very middle of that. Ask about the seats when you check in because not all airline employees know this rule. You also cannot be in an exit row, or the row just ahead of or just behind an exit row. The person in front of the baby will not be able to recline their seat. Don't stress over that. The airline makes the rules and you are within the rules to use your carseat, so if someone is upset over that they can be upset at the airline, not at you.

Install the seat just like you would in a car. Sometimes it is easier if you recline the airplane seat and install the car seat and then put the seat back up. Relax. Look at your (hopefully) sleeping baby and hope he sleeps the whole flight!

Be prepared for baby to poop after takeoff. I think it is the change of pressure that causes it. If baby takes a pacifier, give it during take off and landing. The sucking can help with the pressure in the ears. Logan didn't take a pacifier so I used to lean over and nurse her.

Good luck and have fun!

[booda]

Thanks SO much for your long and thoughtful responses. You folks are GREAT! :-)