Airline travel, checking car seat & stroller...bag or no bag??

[2coconuts]

We are new parents and this is our first time traveling w/our 9mo old daughter. We are flying SW Airlines. They allow us to either baggage check our car seat or gate check both the car seat our stroller. We have had luggage destroyed by the airlines & are afraid of checking these items. We have a Chicco Key Fit 30 car seat & Baby Jogger City Mini stroller. Any suggestions on what we should use to check them? We have been debating between the actual carrying cases sold by baby jogger & JL childress, the simple big red gate check bags by JLChildress, and just simply puting them in either contractor grade trash bags/airline supplied plastic bags. This will be for a short 1.5 hour flight this coming Saturday. Your advice and experiences on airlines would greatly help! Thanks

[hlphillips2]

I strongly recommend against a trash bag. That doesn't do a thing but keep dust off of it in a garage!! I've only once had something broken by the handlers and it was a clip on the side of our stroller, but usually I've found them to be pretty careful with gate checked items. Lately we've been checking a car seat with our luggage and used a purchased bag: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2960524

Ours was a bit cheaper, maybe $25, but works great. I think those red bags are a good option. You definitely want something that's more durable than a plastic bag, and nylon bags (like the red one) work wonderfully.

You could also just buy a small umbrella stroller for the trip which you won't care about if it's dinged and gate check it.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i would not use a trash bag. like PP said, all it does is protects against dust. good chance it will probably tear.

when we traveled with the BJCM, i used the travel case sold by Baby Jogger for gate checking it. yes, it cost an extra $35, but with the padded wheel compartments at least i felt confident that i wasn't going to get huge rips in the stroller fabric. it ended up working ok. the travel bag was also very useful for getting stroller thru xray machine in security.

however, after that we realized that it's kind of a pain to travel with BJCM, and now that DS was old enough (6mo) an umbrella stroller would be easier. We bought a Maclaren Volo for our next plane trip after that, and it made a world of difference. Sooo much easier for traveling, not even just with the air travel part. The BJCM, since it has a wide wheel base and is bigger in general, is difficult to maneuver around confined spaces like hotel rooms and elevators. Mac Volo was just so much easier to use.

also, when we traveled with an infant seat, we used an JL Childress backpack bag to put carseat in.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2674958

tthe backpack was ridiculously huge so we just checked it at the ticket counter (cant' imagine going thru security with that thing!). it was useful to have the backpack though just from getting from the tram to the ticket counter. also, this bag is big so there's lots of room to throw extra stuff in (diapers, etc) in case your main suitcase is too heavy.

[maidofclay]

Hi! We are in the same boat: 9 mo travel SWA this Sat and I'd love any tips you have for transporting the PacknPlay and how to entertain our active little man for two 2 hr legs of the trip. I'm hoping he will want to crawl around and have time in between the legs of our trip from Tx to Oregon.

I think we are just going to pack the PnP in my DH's big army duffle padded with diapers n such and are taking a backpack carrier and sling rather than stroller since we will be hiking once there.

Looking forward to the wisdom of the experienced and I'll take all the prayer I can get, too!

Thanks in advance!
Liz

[♥ms.pacman♥]

for us, both times we did airline travel, we went with a BabyBjorn travel crib. much lighter and much easier to travel with than PnP (comes in carrying case that u can just check in), and most importantly 100x faster to setup. also, since it's narrower it's easier to fit inside places like hotel rooms...since the PnP is more "squarish" i found it hard to fit in many rooms

about keeping baby entertained...i had an inflatable MyBrestFriend that i brought on the flight, which was useful to let him nurse on takeoff/landing..also even when he wasn't nursing it was a nice flat area to let him sleep or have some tummy time in case he wanted to stretch out.

as for toys, we brought a lot..Sophie the Giraffe was a favorite. he also liked having his sippy cup with water. for clothing, we had him in a snug-fitting sleep-n-play with zipper...easy for diaper changes, and also having footed sleeper we didnt' have to worry about him losing socks here and there on the plane

and for feeding, i just nursed and gave him baby food before/after the trips. no way would i attempt to feed baby solids on plane, waaay too messy (unless it was more solid food like mum-mums or something).

oh and my Pikkolo was a godsend for airtravel, especially for getting thru security. all four times i've gone thru i've had DS in a Sleepywrap or in the Pikkolo, never had to take him out. also, it's nice for boarding the plane and other occasions when u want handsfree

anyway, hope your travels go well! my son did well especially on the last few flights, it wasn't as bad as i had thought.

[MacMacMoo]

We got to the airport early the other day so I cot to sit around and watch them do baggage. Well gate checked baggage. They are not gentle with it. When departing the have to get the bags to the ground level and send things down a shoot slide thing, arrivals they carry it up the steps to the walkway thing. Somethings the would let the carseats and stroller slide down others would hand carry them down. Bags can be deceiving they get treated worse than a stroller would, but would provided protection it it. It's always a tough call. We luck out and had stuff on the other end to use.