Gate check stroller, use a special bag or it's fine alone?
 

For those of you who have gate checked strollers, do they often get damaged? Would you recommend buying one of those stroller bags for gate check or is that only advisable when you check it with baggage?

I fly with a very cheap, ultra-light umbrella stroller and have never bagged it. It's not incredibly sturdy but has never been damaged, and frankly, if it were damaged, it wouldn't be so awful (OK, it would be a pain to replace it while travelling as you'd need a stroller to get around, but mine would cost a whole $20 to replace).

Lavandula

I've travelled with a large Graco stroller and after 16 gate checks I only ended up with one tear, and not one that was very noticeable. I never bothered with a bag, it just seemed to be an extra hassle in those rushed moments of boarding. Have a great trip!

My stoller got damaged once during 2 years of frequent plane travel and the airline paid out for a new stroller, luckily was on the return flight home

Well British Air really screwed us. We had our stroller at the gate for "gate check", wrapped in a special bright red bag that was labeled "gate check" and they took it from the end of the gate and said they were gate checking it but they checked it into cargo! Then when we got to Paris it was lost, took them an hour to find it. When the guy brought it out we could see him dragging it across the area we were in and lo and behold it was damaged. We hadn't even arrived in Paris and the stroller was wrecked, one wheel would fall off every time you lifted up the stroller to go up a step and one of the legs was bent. We've suffered through this entire trip with a wonky stroller and it really made things difficult, so disappointed that they did that. Now we will have to file a claim.

fredandgingermad, how easy was it to get them to pay for the stroller?????

I had to get proof from the manufacturer (maclaren in my case) that it was cheaper for the airline to pay for a new one than for them to pay for the repairs, however it was easy enough to sort, they wouldn't pay the full amount but instead paid 80% which i was happy enough with seeing as it was hardly a new stroller, fortunately it only took about 2 weeks to sort