Does Graco SnugRide easily fit plane seats?
 

Friends,

We're taking our 3-month-old to the East Coast this weekend and to Hawaii later in August. We've bought her a seat on both trips. Does anyone have experience using a Graco SnugRide in the seats?

Here's the breakdown of the planes we'll be attempting to use the seat on:

Airbus A321
Dehaviland Dash 8-300
Boeing 767-300

All flights are in coach. Any experiences and advice would be appreciated. When used in the car, this seat is rear-facing. I am not sure how it works on a plane (front/rear facing)?

With the base (which you need for rear facing) the Snug Ride is 17.5". Whether or not it will fit depends on the particular aircraft. We would need to know which airline in addition to what type of plane to determine the seat confirguration. I get my data from:

http://www.carseatdata.org/csnumbers.html for the measurements
- and -
http://seatguru.com for the airplane configurations.

Thanks for the reply! I was not planning to carry the base of the snugride onto the plane, as friends have told me that the airline belt will route through the seat itself.

We're packing a base in our suitcase to use in the car once we land.

Do I have the facts wrong? I didn't think I would need a base on board the aircraft.

If you are going to use it front facing then you do not need the base, but just as in a car, if you put it in rear facing the seat will not mount correctly if you do not use the base.

Without the base your seat is 17", so you are good for most domestic carriers that way. Not sure about the Dash-8 though.

Our Graco fit in all airplane seats (RJs to jumbos) with one slight problem: the pax in the row ahead of baby couldn't recline the seat. Only one person complained to which an irate Mrs. Joneing (red-head you know) set Mr. Poopy straight :o We mounted the seat rear facing and didn't even need the seatbelt extender we brought along. No worries about the exact reclingin angle--with the handle locked to the front, he was wedged in fairly good.

We never bothered taking the base since it was only for ease of getting in/out of the vehicle. It only took an extra 30 seconds to get the seatbelt arranged and clipped on.

Let me revive this thread to ask about the Snugride 32. I am looking at the specs, which say it's 18.6" wide. Seats on the United aircraft we're traveling are 18" wide -- but we're careful to sit in a row where the armrest lifts up, and I'm willing to let my son impinge .6" into my space -- so will we have a problem?

I have never been able to install a graco carseat with base on a plane. However, I have successfully installed them without the base. Just makes it a bit of a pain to get the baby in and out (you have to either loosen or undo the seatbelt each time).
The person in front of you won't be able to recline, Ive only had a problem with one person on that. Funny thing is she was flying with three kids, all in carseats but wanted to complain to the flight attendant that my carseat was blocking her recline and I needed to move.

Seriously? Gotta love it. :rolleyes:

I have used the regular snugride with ease. You of course do NOT bring the base. the seatbelt goes through those little "claws" on the top side edges of the seat shell.

It goes rear-facing. There is no front-facing this seat ever under any circumstances.

Just offer to buy the person in front of you a drink as a goodwill gesture. Since you bought your child a seat, this person has no grounds for complaint except to ask the FA for a new seat for himself as a courtesy if there is one available. If you hadn't bought your child a seat, I'd feel differently and say that you had no "right" to inconvenience the passenger in front of oyu in that case. Good for you for buying a seat - honestly! You'll all be MUCH happier. Three months is great age for traveling with a baby.

This isn't the best picture, but this one will give you a sense of how it installs. Those little "claws" are right where the belt is crossing the seat on the outer sides.

http://travelswithbaby.blogspot.com/...nd-babies.html

Buying a seat doesn't mean buying a right to prevent a person in front from reclining. I'd be quite annoyed quite frankly. I suggest getting a smaller carseat (ours, babytrend, leaves enough room for full recline on CRJ) or booking bulkhead, E+ or similar 33-34" seat pitch options.

I know. I didn't mean to imply that it does in all cases. It's just that a child in a carseat is how that child MUST travel, so if it interferes with the recline, so be it. It's like a traveler with very long legs. They can't just go without.

Generally I am of your opinion (even with 2 kids myself) that people traveling with children are in no position to impose on everyone around them.This is just one circumstance where there isn't really much that can be done. They bought the child a seat and will be using an FAA-approved car seat in the appropriate position, etc. They've done pretty much all they can to make this work well for all involved.

In situations like this, I recommend just addressing it with that passenger and say, "hey, because of the car seat, it won't be possible for your seat to recline. Let me buy you a couple beers to make it a better flight for you." This at least recognizes the inconvenience being caused without overly (and unnecessarily) apologizing for it

OK, if we stipulate to the fact that I'm in Economy Plus (giving the person in front of my son more chance to recline), can we return to the question of whether the Snugride 32 will be OK despite the 0.6" spillover?

Yes, I think you will be fine for the following reasons:

1. You won't be using the base
2. the widest part of the seat is not the bottom - it's the hinge area for the handle and/or the sides at about hip level.

The worst thing you should run into is having to put up the armrest, and I doubt that will even happen

If it's a moveable armrest you should have no problem.

It was a movable armrest, and there was in fact no problem. Because of being in Economy Plus, the person in front could even recline a little bit. Whew.

glad it worked out! ^