Essential Tips for Flying with a Car Seat

I have always loved traveling and wanted to ensure that didn’t stop when my husband and I started adding to our family. There are so many more details to consider when traveling with kids, from nap schedules to a more extensive packing list! One thing that tripped me up was how to travel with a car seat. Here are some essential tips for flying with a car seat. It’s the information I struggled to find when deciding how to tackle the challenge of traveling with a kid who needs a car seat.

You have several choices. The best option for you depends on personal values, available resources, specific destinations, napping preferences, and the kids’ age. I’ll break down the pros and cons below, but the basic options are to use a different car seat at the destination, use the car seat on the plane, check it with your luggage, gate check it, or use a car seat alternative such as a Ride Safer Harness or public transit. Thankfully, car seats are considered baby gear, and airlines must allow them on without charging extra baggage costs.

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Can you Avoid Bringing a Car Seat?

One of the best tips for flying with a car seat is to avoid it if possible! If there is a location you travel to often, such as a grandparents, it may be reasonable to have a different car seat at your destination. My in-laws bought a budget car seat, so we didn’t have to bother lugging ours. We liked the Evenflow Tribute LX Lightweight Convertible car seat as it had good safety reviews and was affordable. Alternatively, if you have family and friends in the location you are flying to, there may be one you can borrow for a week. Many families with kids have multiple seats for different cars and would be willing to let a friend borrow it for a week.

Certain locations may be amenable to not using a car seat at all. We recently spent a weekend in Chicago, and they didn’t get in their car seats the whole time! In places that have excellent public transport, car seats are something you can leave behind! Be sure to research your destination to see if that’s possible.

One family we know uses the Ride Safer Harness instead of a car seat. This is for kids over 40 lbs and comes in several sizes. They wear a 5-point harness, and it clips right into the car. It is super easy to transport and easy to use.

If you are heading to a larger or touristy city, rental companies are sometimes available for car seats. This is something to consider for places like Disney. We’ve never found this to be a great option for our destinations.

Checking the Car Seat

This is the option I use most of the time, and it’s extremely common. But what’s better, checking it with the luggage or at the gate? Checking the car seat with the luggage means you don’t have to haul it through TSA and the whole darn airport! It is so nice to drop those big bags off and not have to worry about them for a while. After all, your hands are plenty busy with all the other stuff you need!

There are two main downsides to checking the car seat with the luggage. One is that there is a chance it could be damaged during transit. This concern becomes less as the kids graduate from full-on car seats to booster seats that are harder to damage. Two, there is the chance that the luggage is delayed or lost, potentially leaving you and your kid stranded at the airport without a way to get them home safely. This is less of a concern on the return flight when you are more likely to have resources such as family and friends to get your family home safely. If you check your car seats, be aware at pick up. They may be placed with oversized luggage and not on the carousel.

Getting the Car Seat through the Terminal

If you are trying to carry a forward-facing car seat, or worse, more than one forward-facing car seat, it can get tricky! Covid happened when my kids were in a rear-facing and forward-facing car seat, so I did not have to tackle that challenge. I put a forward-facing and booster seats in the world’s most enormous backpack! It would have been much more challenging if one wasn’t a booster. If you have more car seats than adults, you may be forced to check at least one seat with the luggage.

Whether you check it with the luggage or at the gate, you need a car seat bag. We got a VolkGo car seat backpack. It was only $20 and had lots of great reviews, and I love that I can carry it on my back. When I crammed both a forward-facing seat and a booster in it, the shoulder strap broke. Thankfully, I had a carabiner, which I used for a quick repair. Without a way to reconnect the handle, getting that through the airport would have sucked. I would consider something more expensive to avoid that particular hassle; however, there isn’t an option that looks higher quality and has good reviews. You could consider the Reperkid, but it has a more fitted style and probably can’t fit both a car seat and a booster seat. Perhaps I just needed to have each adult carry a separate car seat bag.

Taking the Car Seat on the Flight

Another option is to take the car seat on the flight itself. This means you still have to lug it through the terminal, but it always remains in your possession, so there is zero chance it will be lost or damaged. You also may not need a bag for it if you can transport it differently. Some parents I know feel their child is safer traveling in a plane in a car seat. I feel the risk of a plane crash is so low, so that didn’t play into my choice.

I did consider how a car seat would improve or worsen our experience during the flight. Pros of having a car seat on the flight include having a comfortable place to nap and a way to restrain your kid in a seat. Cons include the kid having less freedom to move around and being unable to take advantage of kids less than two years getting a free flight by sitting on a parent’s lap.

If you bring your car seat onto the plane, be sure you check that your particular carseat is allowed on your airline. Not all car seats are allowed, and each airline and plane have different rules. Here is a compilation of car seat regulations for different airlines put together by the TSA. It was written in 2018.

A Few More Tips and Tricks

To help travel days go more smoothly, I tell my kids about the expected travel day with plenty of lead time. As adults, we know travel days can suck. There is a lot of hurrying and a lot of waiting. You must sit still and be quiet, and there will oftentimes be delays. If that stuff surprised you, you would be cranky, too. We like to read airport and plane books from the library and talk about some of the fun and not-so-fun things about flying. This gets easier every time you fly.

Consider getting TSA-Precheck. It lets you go through the fast lane through security, and they are a bit more forgiving about making you take your shoes off and such. If you are only going to fly once, it is probably not worth it, but if you fly more often, this is something to consider. It lasts 5 years and costs $78, and if your kids are 12 and under, they go through the pre-check with you. Some travel credit cards, such as Capital One Venture, provide a $100 credit to the cost of TSA Precheck.

I have also written up some thoughts on entertaining kids on a flight.

In Conclusion

Managing car seats is one of the more challenging aspects of traveling with kids, but it is doable and worth it. It’s something you can consider ahead of time and plan for.

There are plenty of other anxiety-provoking things about traveling with kids. Just remember, if you travel with kids enough, they will have a bad travel day. Even if the day is hard, it won’t last forever. The more you travel with them, the better they will be next time. You got this! Enjoy your travels.