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I will be soon be traveling with my infant from US to Croatia (connecting in UK) and have purchased a seat for him for his comfort and my sanity! We have an 8 hour flight to London, a 5 hour layover at Heathrow Ariport, a three hour plane ride to RIjeka Croatia and then a 2 hour carride. My question is regarding whether or not a carseat would be advisable for use on the plane(s) or just have my son use the seat seatbelt or possibly use a CARES type harness.
A second question I have is regarding stroller. I would like to bring his day-to-day stroller which is 4 inches larger than the dimension (LxWlH) permitted by continental airlines (62 is permitted, stroller is 66 total LxHxW). Further, I wonder whether I could check the stroller at the gate so that I have use of it during our 5 hour layover in London.
I will be contacting the airlines for their guidance but would love to get feedback from those with experience since sometimes the "rules" can be flexible.
Many thanks in advance!
Car seat and stroller for 1 year old from US to UK to Croatia?
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Take the car seat, your 1 YO will be much more comfortable and safer. Our Granddaughter has been traveling since she was 6 months old and used a car seat for the first 3 or 4 years.
I've seen people "gate check" collapsable strollers all the time both on international and domestic flights but can't guarantee you'll be able to do it since the "rules" are often arbitrarily enforced by the Gate agents and/or Flight Attendants. Your best bet is to follow your instincts and check directly with your airline.
DD is almost 3 and we have made 30+ (mostly international) flights with her. I started off taking her car seat on board with us, but it is (for us) not worth the hassle. After the first few trips, she flew without it. I got a good, padded, back-pack style travel bag for the car seat (off Amazon) and check it with luggage. I have asked a dozen flight attendants about the CARES harness, and only one ever saw it in use, and she wasn't a fan. If you take the car seat on board, check your seat dimensions with regards as to how much leg space your little one will have - our car seat basically ensured that DD's legs were up against the seat in front of her, which was fine when she slept, but not so much when she was awake. Also, it interfered with the tray table, so no place to put food/snacks/books/ipad/toys.
Take the stroller and don't worry about it. Gate check it, but make sure they tag it to retrieve it in London. FWIW, the stroller we use had a folded HxWxL of almost 70 inches, and we have never had a problem with any airline ( Continental included).
Hope that helps.
We have done a few air trips with our daughter (now 3) and the stroller we have for her is a very lightweight collapsible umbrella stroller, the cheapest we could find ($20), so if something goes wrong and it gets lost or broken it doesn't matter. And don't think it can't happen - one of the trips we took, we got back the stroller from the conveyor belt with another stroller component attached - not from our stroller, but someone else's, and someone who evidently had a lot better stroller than ours, judging by its looks. I advise keeping it lightweight if you can because you have to lug it around, and it looks like you might have a carseat to carry too. (All this is advice if you are travelling during reasonable weather - obviously if you are travelling in winter you have to have a stroller suited to the conditions.)
Lavandula