PresRDC

Hi All,

Preparing what will hopefully be our flight home from DFW to LGA with our newly adopted son. We have purchased the Chicco KeyFit 30 car seat and stroller frame -- came highly recommended by several friends and family. It is one of those systems where the car seat pops out of the base and into the stroller frame. Convenient, in most cases.

Baby will be a lap child on this flight. I know there are mixed views on this, and I am not 100% convinced it is the right thing to do, but that's the game plan.

We will fly home on AA. According to AA's website, you are allowed to gate check either a car seat or stroller if you have a lap child. My question is: what if the car seat and stroller work together as described above? Does that count as one unit?

Obviously, the stroller is useless without the car seat, so if we had to check one, it would be the stroller, but carrying the baby in a car seat would be heavy and cumbersome and also not ideal. Do you think it would be better just to carry the baby at that point and check both the car seat and the stroller? Are there any newborn strollers that are one unit (i.e. do not require a separate car seat and stroller?

Lastly, when you either check or gate check a car seat and/or stroller, do you typically put them in a bag first or just let them go unprotected? We have a bag for the car seat and diapers.com sells a bright red carry-on bag for the stroller, but I've never really noticed what other people do in this scenario.

Thanks!!!