kit.kat

Could anyone please let me know what the car seat regulations are on SAS, as I will be traveling with a 3 year old child from Newark to Copenhagen and would appreciate it if I could know which car seats will be allowed on the plane. Is it correct that this flight is not under FAA jurisdiction, and that the FAA regulations on carseats do not apply. Does anyone know what the EU carseat regulations are? Or does anyone have an email address that will let me contact SAS directly? I could only find a form on their website that will be answered in 4-6 weeks. Thanks so much

helosc

My experience with the contact form ( on the Danish site ) is that they answer it much faster. The few times I have used it, it took only a couple of days for them to answer.

helosc

I found this information about car seats ( if you havent seen it already ) :
http://www.sas.dk/en/travel-info/bag...ecial-baggage/
Click for more information under the stroller/ buggy category

oliver2002

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SAS only covers baby seats for INF, children above 2 years are probably not allowed to use car seats. I would recommend the use of CARES: http://kidsflysafe.com/

On our long- and shorthaul trips both LH & SK allowed the use of this device.

GUWonder

CARES is allowed by LH and SK and BA, but cabin crew for these airlines don't always know that. You may need to refer crew to look in their guides, even as as there it comes up under "Amsafe" sometimes -- AMSAFE being the manufacturer of the CARES.

nacho

How big is your kid? Here we group car seats according to size. I don't think there is any EU regulation regarding using car seat on an airplane. I have never seen anyone using a car seat for a child flying out and to Europe. If your kids is above 15kg, then all he/she needs is a booster seat. You can use either the one with a back or not.

So it depends on whether your kid will be in a car when you are here - if you do, then bring a booster seat will be quite handy (car seats are expensive in Denmark).

oliver2002

SK crews follows the EASA directive that car seats approved for use on aircraft by the FAA are also allowed for use on carriers that normally follows EASA regs.

So if you show a SK (or LH) FA the FAA certification stamp/mark, they will allow the use of the restraint device.

That said I personally think a car seat is designed for use in a car (as the name suggests). The three point seat belt in a car provides a completely different restraint/anchorage than a two point belt found in aircraft seating. We carry our seats with us on travel (renting cars with child seating is expensive and you really don't know what brand you get), but always check them as luggage and don't use them in the cabin.

The EASA reluctantly approved the FAA directives on this topic as part of a bigger harmonisation deal, the EASA studies on car seat use in aircraft is so far pretty unconclusive and very few seats have been approved in Europe, mainly only for the seating in class I (ie infants).

nacho

I agree - Aircraft seats are not made to handle car seats. We normally just check them in as luggage and use it on our rentals when we go travelling.

Once a LX crew taught us how to use blanket and pillow to stuff the kids up to get them better protected and it worked when they were little.

GUWonder

Is it really always very easy with SK or LH? It's not always as easy as that with the CARES use on flights with EU carriers. I've repeatedly seen SK cabin crew struggle over the matter and sometimes say they can't see that it is allowed (even as it is supposed to be allowed) -- even as the FAA approved label is quite clearly on the device labels. I saw this happen again last month.

oliver2002

I used it on LH long haul without issues, at worst the Purser is called and immediately knows what it is. The FAs are usually more concerned on how to release the child from the harness in case they have to help during evacuation.

On SK I used it once on longhaul, and then mostly on shorthaul B736 domestic flights. Again no issues.

GUWonder

On BA long and short flights -- more on short-haul flights -- we've seen BA say no until we note that the CARES system is the Amsafe device listed in their guide which they can review on the plane.

On SK short-haul, we've had SK pursers refuse to allow CARES; and it made for a greater struggle in dealing with barely past two year olds -- especially as such children become too big/old to sit on the lap with accompanying passenger belt attachment for a lap-child when the child is two years of age or older. Not as many issues with LH as with SK, but LH experiences in this regard have mostly gone the way things went with BA. KL experiences are closer to SK experiences in this regard while AF is somewhat closer to the BA/LH situation in this regard.