When traveling with toddlers, would you rent the baby seat from the car rental or take your own? I think most airlines check-in the baby seat (or pram) with no charge. Just a bit of trouble to carry the baby seat around. Would the hustle worth it?
Baby Seat on a Rental Car
Lbigeater on 30/05/2017 - 12:28
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I also have a pram to take. I heard that airlines would only allow 1 piece per kid (not 100% sure). Will def check with airlines when I book the flight.
depend on the airline and the ticket, you can check it before even you buy a tickets in Qantas.
Would you rather take yours, with a known history, or use one that you didn't know anything about?
Yeah that's my concern as well. But the one at car rental should be pre-fitted so save me lots of trouble. You know kids are so impatience and mrs might get cranky when I'm stuck in fitting car seats. lol. But cost-wise, renting baby seat costs like an extra day's car rental (not to mention multiple car seats).
We rented a car and requested a baby seat but it was given to us separately. Luckily we had some experience with installing baby seat so it wasn't too complicated. It did save a lot of hassle from carrying the extra seat to, from and at the airport. We only needed to check in our pram. I think if your child can't sit unaided it'll give you a peace of mind to BYO or buy new at your destination like someone suggested below. The seat we were given was very basic with minimal cushion.
depends what country you are travelling to and what purpose your travels are for. whether you have family or friends
we went to USA for 4 weeks loaned a family members unused baby seat for the duration of the trip… and bought a second one because we had 2 kids…left the new one with the family member to sell and keep the money for loaning us their seat,
I have friends that also did a similar thing where they bought car seat over seas that were a lot cheap than here and just left them with people overseas
another friend of ours has twins and brought theirs over seas with them. a lot more stuff to carry but worked for them as they were travelling with a couple extra adults.
my sister bought cheaper car seat here for her toddler and took that overseas and just donated it, worked out cheaper than hiring one, and the hassle of bringing it back
That's good thought! Would def consider that when I travel overseas.
Might be a bit late for the OP, but my advice is to use the box and packaging the seat/chair came in, add gaffa tape to make a handle, and use that when travelling by air. Alternately a large wheeled duffel bag works as well.
That would be considered as a check-in luggage right? Kinda want to take advantage of free check-in baby seat offered by airlines :)
no… all baby seats and strollers don't equate to luggage limit,
I don't think because you have it in a bag or box would make a difference,
might need to check.
I have done it with both a stroller in its box and a car seat in a wheeled duffel (on separate occasions), and it was not counted as part of our luggage allowance. One domestic and one international.
Was no questions at all with the stroller. Got asked what was in the duffel bag, showed them it was just the car seat, and had no further issue.
Also appreciate those people who negged me for offering advice/experience in direct response to the OP's question. Feel free to actually comment and discuss if you disagree.
The problem with boxes or duffel bag is baggage handlers don't know what is in the box/bag, and will treat them as a normal luggage, i.e. without much care (throw them around, stack other heavy luggage/suitcases on top of it…)
Most airlines will provide huge clear plastic bags for car seat/pram. So baggage handlers & customs can identify them straight away. Quite often the car seat/pram are loaded onto the plane last, and are unload first on arrival.
Good to know, thanks!
Have you seen baggage handlers work… they don't show much care irrespective of what's inside your bags they just toss, throw and jam your bags in regardless…
sitting on the plane watching them load other planes is a comical sight sometimes.
I've hired before in two different ways. Depending on destination you can get them delivered to the airport for pickup when you land. Costs a lot less than using one from a car hire company.
Remembering that a child seat really should be adjusted (straps to the correct height etc), so if you take your own it's 'plug n play' so to speak.
Depends how confident you are with installing and removing the seat.
Up to 2y*, taking baby seat in airlines are free, might as get well use of it :)
[edit]
* subject to the airline, from and to :)