CARES harness or Cosco car seat for plane?

[dms619]

Does anyone use the CARES harness for airplane travel? I usually lug a Cosco car seat that I got at Target strictly for use on the plane but this seems like a good alternate......any experiences - positive or negative? Any discount codes out there?

Thanks,
Debbie

[bensmom]

How old is your child? I've never used the CARES harness, but I've heard that it's not great in terms of providing sleep support for a child.

Do you have a seat (need a seat?) to use at your destination? I personally refuse to check (or gate check) a carseat that I need at my destination. So, I use the Cosco Scenera with my kids until they are old enough to sit well in just the airplane seat (for me, that's around 3) and at that point, I travel with a SafeGuard Go.

[californiagirl]

Good points to CARES harness:

Easy to carry. The tray comes down.

Bad points to CARES harness:

Unfamiliar (to kid and sometimes to airplane staff). Not as restrictive (i.e. your toddler can get out). Not as supportive (harder to sleep in). Can't be used in car.

For us, it wasn't worth going to a CARES until we could also go to a RideSafer for cars at the other end, but we have friends who were usually going from a car seat to a car seat and it was absolutely worth it for them.
If you have to haul the car seat along anyway, definitely use it on the plane. If not, boy, it's awful nice not to be carrying one more giant object, and having the tray work is big fun. Then again, we end up arguing about staying buckled... It ends up being worth it for us, but it depends a lot on your kid and your situation.