Any bad experiences travelling with a child's car seat?

[Homer]

Marge and Maggie are travelling up to BNE on Sunday on QF and Avis is all out of children's car seats. We've never travelled with ours - we've always just booked one with the car - but I have seen people doing this and I was just wondering if anyone has had a bad experience travelling with one, eg perhaps having it broken by the airline?

 

[serfty]

You can check and take your chances - however, if Maggie has her own seat booked, it may be possible for you to carry it onboard and have Maggie use it during the flight.

http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/travelling-with-children-infants/global/en

Child Restraint Device

The safest way for an infant to travel on an aircraft is in a Child Restraint Device (car seat). Carriage of a lap held infant is allowed however research has demonstrated it does not provide the protection of a child seat.

To purchase a seat for your infant and obtain pre-approval for the use of a child seat contact your local Qantas Office (pre-approval must be obtained a minimum of 24 hours prior to departure).

Note: Approval cannot be obtained on departure at the airport.

 

[medhead]

How old is maggie? Are we talking booster seat or full baby capsule?

Well anyway, we've taken both a small booster and a larger car seat (but not capsule) without any problems. Just popped them into one of those stripy plastic bags from the $2 shop.

 

[Homer]

Thanks everyone. I just called Avis at BNE to lean on them and they told me they have ordered an extra 50 child seats so we have been able to add one to the booking. It just goes to show that you shouldn't rely on the (sometimes cranky) call centre reps in every case...

 

[davidj-bell]

Marge and Maggie are travelling up to BNE on Sunday on QF and Avis is all out of children's car seats. We've never travelled with ours - we've always just booked one with the car - but I have seen people doing this and I was just wondering if anyone has had a bad experience travelling with one, eg perhaps having it broken by the airline?

We're travelled with a car seat extensively, and have had no issues with it so far. My biggest fear is it getting lost. When we had a smaller car seat (infant less than 1 year old), sometimes we were able to take it into the cabin (ie, we weren't stopped) except with JAL who said it had to be checked in. The bonus of taking it on board is that if there is a spare seat, you can set it up (but different countries have different policies, so you may not be able to use it for take off/landing. Eg, US airlines have to have a baby seat rear facing, yet UK it has to be forward facing).