My preschooler is already at the destination site, but I have his car seat that I'm bringing on my flight.
I'm flying United domestically, and I can't figure if, according to their policy, the car seat is free to check-in if I'm not traveling with a child.

My father actually was able to check-in a stroller for free at the gate when he wasn't traveling with a child on a United flight, but idk if he just got lucky.

Does anyone have recent experience with this? I found some dated threads from years ago where people didn't have any issues.