I’ve turned up vague information and experiences at best on this topic. I’d be curious if any FT’ers have experience putting their toddler (2+ yo), not an infant, in a car seat on Air France? We’ve done this a lot on other airlines but I know AF can march to the beat of its own drum sometimes. It’s own policies on car seats are vague for 2+ yo’s. For a 10+ hour flight, we’d love to put the little guy in his comfortable, FAA approved seat for some Zzzzz’s.

I've only flown with a newborn on AF, so in the AF bassinet (cradle) with specific seats assigned. Looking at the Families and Children section of AF's web site, it would appear that you can use a car seat optionally for a child over 2 years of age (it is mandatory under 2 years if you want your child to have his/her own seat) as long as it meets certain requirements:

Quote:

APPROVED CAR SEATS AND HARNESSES

In order for your infant (under 2 years old) to travel in an individual seat, you must install him or her in an approved car seat or with a CARES-approved (Child Aviation Restraint System) harness. To install these safety devices, please follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer. Any equipment that does not comply will be refused.

The car seat must be secured with the seat belt and its width must not exceed 44 cm*. During take-off and landing, the car seat may be positioned facing the rear of the aircraft. At cruising altitude, it must be positioned facing forward, so as not to prevent the seat in front from reclining.

The CARES-approved harness must be compatible with the weight and size of your infant, i.e. from 10 to 20 kg, and 100 cm maximum.

Attention

The use of a car seat or harness is not possible in the following cases:

- in the La Premičre cabin, on all types of aircraft.
- in the Business cabin, on certain Boeing 777 and all Boeing 787 aircraft, and center seats on Airbus A350 aircraft.

The use of a harness is not possible:

- in the Premium Economy cabin, on all types of aircraft.

If the safety device cannot be installed, your infant must travel on your lap.

* 42 cm/16 in if your seat is located in the first row of the Economy cabin.

As you say, it's not totally clear, so I would call Air France to discuss.

Thanks, yeah, the phone agent I spoke with was relatively unclear and said to ask at the airport. LOL … anyone else with real world experience?

Just to update others on our experience here ex-U.S., no one from the check-in to the gate to the airplane batted an eye with our car seat coming on board for our 2 year old. We even checked our stroller at the gate (it was delivered in baggage claim in Paris, FYI — so on arrival I used a luggage strap to strap the car seat to my roll-aboard so the little guy didn’t have to walk all over CDG on arrival).

Onboard, the car seat fit great front facing, but it was a tight wedge rear facing. Thankfully we had another of our kids in front of us and they didn’t need to recline.

I’m preparing for it not to be as seamless on the return as we’ll be connecting into CDG on an E190 from an outstation. Let’s see what happens!

Thanks, JohnnyP, for reporting back … helpful information for others. I’m glad the outbound went well for you, and interested to hear about the E190 leg on your return.

Thanks JohhnyP! I'm wondering about this exact topic for a July flight on Air France to Paris. Looking forward to hear how outbound went for you! Also wondering what car seat you used if you don't mind sharing? The width requirements Air France specifies are quite narrow so I've been struggling to find one that will work.

In short: a bit of a mess, and not a wise decision if you have a tight CDG layover.

The inter-France E190 flight was a no-go from check-in despite my pleading. Their rationale was simply it was “not allowed at our airport.” (Ironically the E190 is a wide and spacious seat, so of course it would have not been a problem.)

They did however suggest we just check the seat to pick up in Paris and go from there. Since we had a 2.5 hour layover, we decided to chance that. (Side note: on this flight, they also did not allow families with young children to board early — I asked specifically at the gate and was told to wait until my Zone was called.) On arrival at CDG, I left the family to transit terminals airside and exited to baggage claim to fetch the car seat. It came out pretty quickly in the “oversized bags” area.

Car seat in hand, I was able to re-enter security, transit to the international terminal, and meet them at the lounge/gate for our international segment.

I did get a number of “hmmms” from AF agents along the way about the seat going onboard. In the CDG lounge, the car seat became the topic of a hushed conversation and a lot of pointing from the lounge dragons, but no fire was breathed. At the gate, the GA raised an eyebrow, but I explained we had it on the 777 on the way over without issue and she waived it through. Onboard, one FA did come by to ask if it was FAA compliant, but he was otherwise pleasant.

Having the car seat for our 2 (almost 3) year old was a game changer. He sat still. He slept. He felt safe and comfortable. The 777 was tight though — in rear-facing the seat in front couldn’t recline. In forward-facing, he could reach the seat in front with his feet. (Thankfully we had put our easy going 5 year old in the seat in front, so we were too worried about these issues!) I couldn’t imagine as a parent of 3 kids that we could do a flight of this length with as much peace/quiet/comfort without being able to take a car seat for this little boy! Glad it worked out in the end.

Glad it all worked out, despite a few hiccups (and that you came through without getting singed by the lounge staff).

Hi, we are travelling on air France flight in December to canada and our little one will be 2 and a half then. On the website it says you can take the seat as long as it's 44cm.....the best I can find is 44.4cm (maxicosi seat) do you think this will be ok? What seat did you take if you don't mind me asking. panicking a bit about it as have to do 3 flights each way but he's a bit of wriggler and I dread to think he could be running around the plane when it's trying to take off haha. I think he will be comfier in his seat too....I'm also a bit worried if it goes in the hold it may not arriving.

Thanks 😊

I researched a lot to find one that was super light and sized well for aircraft. We found an old used 2016 Grace Contender 65 on Facebook Marketplace for $25. The logic here was (1) if we had to check it, it could get bashed around and we wouldn’t care, (2) if we had to trash it at some point on the trip, it had already lived a good life. Lasted well to/from France and on long car rides.

For the older kids we got the mifold hifold seats for the trip (not for use on the airplane). These just collapsed in our checked luggage.

"Child restraint devices" no longer allowed in AF Business Class.

Still allowed in Premium Economy but no mention of plain Economy....