Travel with Children - SWISS with baby + FAA car seat recos?

Hi - I'm new to the forum, and have a couple questions regarding traveling with a baby. We'll be taking a flight to Zurich from BOS this summer with our 14 month old. I'd like to buy a seat for him in hopes that he'll sleep the 8 hours better in a car seat than in my arms, as well as be safer.

Just wondering if anyone has experience traveling on Swiss Air with a baby (either in seat or in lap) and how it was? Any advice?

Also looking for recommendations on the best car seat to purchase for use on flights. We currently use a Britax Boulevard, which I fear will be too wide for plane use. We need to purchase a second seat anyway for our use at home, so would love to perhaps buy something a bit more travel friendly.

Thanks in advance!

For the carseat, I'd recommend Cosco Scenera. It's a good spare seat for travel because of its size, it's cheap (like 40-50 dollars), and then you won't feel bad if it sits in the garage 90% of its life.

It's a good size for plane travel. You can face baby toward the front in the airplane because really, it's not going to make an issue safety-wise in the plane, but then you can install it rear0facing in the car you'll be using on your trip.

You *should* be able to use LATCH, which is called ISOFIX in europe with no problem, but bring a seatbelt locking clip along with you just in case.

Hi and welcome!

That's not true about the safety. A baby is safer rear-facing in the airplane, just like in a car. The physics are similar.

What is different is the chance of anything going wrong (have to be specific about this). That's much less likely on any commercial aircraft. So keeping this in mind, if installing it rear-facing on the plane becomes a headache, you might want to consider turning it around, just for the flight. Try to get a bulkhead seat to avoid this issue. I hope your child is still rear-facing in the car per the new AAP guidelines. I wish I had kept mine rfacing longer!

I'll confirm with the previous poster that Isofix and LATCH are the same. I have attached numerous American seats in Europe that way.

I had a heck of a time with their website but finally found the answer;

"Baby seat
You can book a separate seat for your baby at the children’s rate. You can then use your own car or baby seat on it. This way, you will have enough room for yourself and the baby. Please ensure that the seat is certified for air travel and is appropriate to our seat dimensions (40x40cm/15.7x15.7IN). You are responsible for fitting the seat to the aircraft seat. However, our crew will be pleased to help you."

http://www.swiss.com/WEB/EN/SERVICES/BEFORE_FLIGHT/CHILDREN/Pages/infants.aspx

You need to hit "Can I take my baby seat on board?" to get that quote.

I assume that "certified for air travel" means FAA approved!

Email them to confirm this. Print it out and present it if you run into problems.

I can't say if your Britax will work. Measure it but bear in mind, those dimensions are usually conservative.

There are so many car seats on the market. The Scenera is a good recommendation since it's light and cheap. If you want something with more bells and whistles, you might want to head over to one of the many car seat sites for more car seat specific information. They'll probably want your baby's height, weight and but-to-shoulder length, as well as what cars you own.

Now that I got the "dry info" out of the way, hopefully someone has actually flown them with a kid (not here, Lufthansa was still a better price but I keep checking them!)

What is different is the chance of anything going wrong (have to be specific about this). That's much less likely on any commercial aircraft.

Yeah, that's what I meant. :)
You said it better.