When Traveling With Car Seats on an Airplane
November 17, 2007 by Kailani
Filed under flight attendant stories
Hey everyone! I’m currently on a layover and I’m loving the cold weather! It’s actually in the upper 40s here and I love that I can wear my long winter coat! It really makes me feel like the holidays are near.
Anyway, the reason for this post is that I was involved in a situation on the plane today that I hope you never have to go through as a passenger.
A family was boarding the flight with a baby that looked to be about a year old. They had brought on board their own car seat and even purchased a plane seat to put it in. However, upon inspecting the car seat, we found that they had removed the stickers from the side of the car seat that say it’s been approved by the FAA for aircraft use.
Even though it was your typical GRACO car seat that we all know is okay to use, that sticker HAS to be there. If we allowed the family to use it, we could get fined big time. In fact, my sister who works for another airline said there was recently a ghost rider on her flight who tried to break FAA rules to see what the flight attendants would do.
I felt so bad when I had to explain the situation to them but I can’t afford to pay a fine or get suspended. Thank goodness they were pretty understanding about it and checked it in instead.
Now, not every airline will check even though they’re supposed to. But just in case, if you’re planning on using your car seat on the plane, please make sure you have the sticker on the side that says, “This car seat is approved by the FAA for aircraft use.” It’s usually printed in red for easy viewing.
Mahalo from your flight crew.
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About the author: Owner and founder of An Island Life. Sharing my life as a mother to 3 wonderful daughters, working as a flight attendant, and living a blessed life in Hawaii. |
interesting article..made good reading.!!
Thanks for the tip! I never would have thought about that and Alex will be doing some flying in the future!! Thanks again!
Good to know. The stickers on our carseats usually curl up and flake off due to the extreme temps in the car over the summer. I wonder if replacement labels are available. We’re flying in 2 weeks, though, so it’s probably too late.
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How lucky that they were understanding and didn’t make a scene. For traveling I like the Sit N’ Stroll car seat/stroller combo.
This reminds me of a very ugly incident that involved my family, a plane trip, and a car seat. Your situation ended quite peacefully. Ours did too, eventually. As a matter of fact, my letter to the airline regarding the incident ending up being a training exercise for that airline!
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I didn’t even know that a car seat had to be approved for flying. That tells you how often I fly.
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I never knew about that sticker so that was nice to know! Thanks for the info
We had some snow falling yesterday morning (nothing that stayed) so it’s feeling more like the holidays
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Thank you for the info. We will be traveling with our baby in the new year and we want to bring his car seat for safety rather than just putting him on our lap. Do you know if the Britax Boulevard is FAA approved for travel?
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I’m sure folks love the reminder…but I’m also pretty sure that most airlines post this info on their websites if folks bother to check.
I’m saying this because my crazy mother is all upset because she had all of her toiletries tossed out at the airport cuz she tried to fly with them…*eyeroll*!! With as much as that has been in the news you would have thought that she knew that and I don’t understand why she had to have those items in her carryon bag anyway. sorry to vent here. I’m betting they tossed out her lighter too.
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Thanks for the tip – we’ve done both, flew with our daughter in her car seat, and also checked it. Both were 8 hour plus flights and I was actually more comfortable with her strapped in her car seat than having her sit in the seat or worse… in one of the on board cribs.
Sure, she was comfortable laying sleeping and later playing in there when she was 9 months old, but I was a nervous wrack the entire flight worried about her flying across the plane if we hit an air pocket or bad weather.
We also generally have chosen to buy a seat after our kid hits one year old. We find that they sit better strapped into a familiar car seat, not to mention the fact that it IS safer for them to have their own seat.
I appreciate the insider-info about that sticker. I never would have thought about it. In fact one time with Amanda (so a long time ago), they were looking for it, and I was kind of mad. I was thinking, “of course it’s fine–she uses it all the time and the seatbelt in the car goes in the same way.”
What a wonderful tip. I would never have thought to leave a sticker like that on. Learn something new everyday (and it’s usually here.)
That is great they could check it in. I have heard of other people (with smaller items) having to give away or throw away something they could not take on board.
Great tip, I have never used the seat on the airplane, but always wondered if it would make travelling easier. I may do it now that I have two.
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I didn’t know it had to say that!!!
That’s great to know! I have to say that this is one situation where I understand regulations but wonder where common sense has gone in the creation of them. We took our son’s booster with us on our last flight, he didn’t really need it but we thought he might travel better if it was like the car. We were told it wasn’t allowed but not given a reason. The stickers were still on it so I assumed it was a difference in the style of seat being a booster vs. car seat. At any rate, as he was nearly five and not needing it so it wasn’t a big deal. Unfortunately, we left it on the plane because she put it in a closet up front and we forgot about it until we reached baggage claim. Ironically, the rest of our vacation he rode without his booster in the car simply because it wasn’t allowed on a plane. And I say ironic because this is all about child safety??
Hugs,
Holly
This is good to know, although we have traveled with a car seat for our son for over two years and no one has ever checked for the stickers and we have been on several different airlines… I don’t even know if we have the stickers on the seat that we use. Now I’ll check because I will be paranoid if I don’t.