Travelling with car seat, stroller etc. Suggestions...
 

Travelling later in the year GCI - LGW, LHR - JNB and back. 2 adults and 1 five month old.

Most relevant luggage allowance, GCI - LGW, which is 40/80 (if extra paid).

We will need a car seat in Joburg, plus with the transfer between LGW and LHR, so we're thinking of taking our own. With him being small, also want to take bugaboo chameleon stroller + bassinet. If you know what this is great, if not, it's a fairly large two part stroller. It does fold flat. Car seat is a maxicosi pebble.

Any suggestions on the following:
1) checking in a car seat - would you put in a bag, get it wrapped in plastic at LHR, or try and carry it in as hand luggage? BA are vague here - they say one car seat as HL, but I suspect this is when travelling in a seat - so the tiny list of approved car seats that can be used in a seat. As we have not booked the baby a seat, this is irrelevant. We would need to use it GCI, then use it again LGW - LHR then not need it again until JNB, where we would definitely need it (being met by family, not hiring a car). I'm currently thinking of getting a bag and a roll of gaffer tape to do running repairs as all the bag reviews imply seam and fabric weaknesses.

2) stroller - would very much like to use this in LGW, LHR and JNB - can bugaboos be taken to the gate and then made available on arrival (as opposed to baggage collection)? JNB is a long walk and wait and often rather hot, so would prefer not to have to carry the lad through all that. Anyone had experience of travelling with a Chameleon + bassinet on this route or on BA 744's in general?

Any other suggestions as it's our first long haul with the baby? Experienced travellers as a couple and individually with many trips on this route but first time with a third...

If you take your MaxiCosi on board, the issue will be where to put it (since your child won't be sitting in it). Probably more chance of the crew finding somewhere on a l/h aircraft. As it happens, we're flying tomorrow (s/h) and I still haven't decided whether to:

• attempt to sneak our MaxiCosi on board and (try to) stick it in the overhead bin [Q: has anyone tried this on a A319? Will it even fit once the handle is folded down?]
  
  
• hand it in on boarding and risk a long wait in the airbridge when we land at T5 (last time we did this with a buggy inbound to LHR, despite being the first off the aircraft at T5 not only had all the pax left by the time the buggy appeared, so had all of the crew!)
  
  
• wrap it in a bag and check it in as normal

I'm fairly sure you can do this with any buggy. We've seen a wide variety of other pax's wheels on our travels and have tried it ourselves with both a Quinny Buzz and a Zapp.

We just did two trips with our four month old. At that age I wouldn't bother bringing the car seat or the buggy to the gate. We did it for the first flight and it was totally pointless, especially as when you land you then have to wait an age for the buggy and seat. We just presented our Maxicosi car seat to excess baggage and didn't especially wrap it.

Bugaboo do a great travel case that is £50 and also has space to put in nappies, towels etc.

Also BA give the infant one bag plus a buggy and a car seat as luggage so it won't cost you any more.

How did you transport the baby once checked in - so through the airport and while waiting to board? I am considering using the sling, however again quite hot for both parties after awhile and no where to lay him down. Well not true, there is always a seat/the floor - the idea of using the buggy seems easier but a good point about the wait times.

With a 5 year old and a 2 year old, who each have pretty full log books already, I can give my view on some of the questions you ask.

It doesn't look like it folds up that small, and I wouldn't put a £700/£800 stroller in the hold. You can get a range of quite cheap buggies that lie flat and fold up quite small (I'll edit this post when I remember what ours is called, where the wheels come off and it can fit in the wardrobe/overhead).

This is what we do, and didn't even buy a specialist bag, just got a strong plastic bag. We also got a luggage trolley so that it is easier to transport around the airport.

This seems to be really hit and miss, and I guess is route dependent - I'll let someone with experience of your route answer that, but have you considered a sling? I'm sure you will want one eventually, they are light and don't take up much space, and you can get ones which are suitable for new borns.

Good luck!

Does the carseat fit on the bugaboo frame or can you buy adaptors to do this?

We had a Quinny Zapp and a Maxicosi car seat seat that plugged together by taking the fabric seat off the Zapp. The Zapp went into a bag that we always managed to get on the plane with us. The maxicosi seat fitted in most overhead lockers, but not the 737-400s

I'd also make sure you really need the bassinet before lugging that out there as it's such a size. Would a pop-up travel cot not do 90% of the job?

The maxicosi can indeed go on the bugaboo frame - I have considered this, though had taken the view that I'm taking the frame, might as well take the bassinet too and check in the car seat. We could then use the bassinet as the cot. Still will give it some more thought.

As someone else mentioned, there is a side question as to the merits of checking in an expensive stroller which isn't covered by airline insurance. Issue is that I believe he will be too young for a fold-up chair as still needs to lie flat. His head control is already good, so this may not be an issue in two months.

Your suggestion of a travel cot is something I hadn't considered - so thanks for that, will give it a ponder.

Someone mentioned a sling and we have one - however I find we both (baby and me) get very hot quite quickly in it. It would work well for a 15 minute stroll, not so much for a 60 minute passport queue.

The other thing I didn't mention is the layover in LHR will be approx. 8 hours owing to the GCI travel requirements and delay risks. So he needs somewhere to sleep ideally - though I suspect on a towel on a chair would work just as well.

You could consider this for your stroller.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prince-Lionh.../dp/B006JINBLM

and this for your car seat.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Prince-Lionh...t+car+seat+bag

I have a pebble and wouldnt consider taking it on board. However I would take my own away as the ones I have seen at car hire depots dont always look in the best of health. Usually quite expensive to hire for any length of time anyway.

I wouldnt take the bassinet. Im not sure that would travel well in the hold or whether that fits in with BA's definition of a fully colapisbale stroller. A proper foldup would probably be fine. That's what we bought to take away and our little one loved it and even asked to go in it to go to sleep. Much more practical to take on board too if you want it for your layover.

Combination of Baby Bjorn and carrying her. We just broke everything done into chunks; checkin, break, security, break in lounge, walk to gate. Really wasn't stressful at all.

Granted, when we next travel and she is bigger we might consider the buggy. However it took forever last time to get car seat back when we checked it at the gate and we ended up right at the back of the queue for immigration despite being first off the plane so it is not ideal.

Just travelled LGW-JER with 10wk old and a bugaboo.

It's fine to the gate, then collapse it at the aircraft door into the two seperate parts and these will go in the hold and be returned at JER in our case at the steps.

Just make sure when checking in that they print two bag tags for the bugaboo.



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There are a number of stroller type pushchairs that are suitable from birth, both cheap end and more expensive, on the flying with children board they always suggest gate checking car seats over hold checking apparently there's less risk of damage?

I'd recommend a sling also, just incase you opt to gate check your pushchair on departure and then don't get it back until baggage arrivals at LGW

Last time we flew BA l/h there were 2 families with Bugaboo's although i think one was a Bee the other was a Chameleon

To add, we put our Chameleon 3 in the hold using the Bugaboo travel bag and had no issues at all. Also, given a car seat is designed to withstand a crash, I'm sure it can survive BA's baggage handlers.

A few thoughts in response to original questions:

After one attempt at taking a small-ish stroller on a TATL, and finding (as others have said) that it takes a while to arrive at airbridge, thereby putting you at the back of any immigration queue, we tried other means. Next time we took a back-pack type carrier for the little one, which can be rolled up and carried as hand-luggage, and just bought a very cheap stroller at destination to use while we were there.

Also found that our Pack'n'play/travel crib, would just about fit inside our largest suitcase so worked a way to take that and stay under weight/dimensions limits for baggage.

We do check-in our car seat, in a purpose bought bag, but beware (as others have also said), that car seat bags seem to easily get damaged by the rubbing & sliding of luggage handling. Mrs LH had to patch the areas that got worn through after first usage - she used tough material, with duct tape underneath, and it's fine now. Dunno why they can't make them fit for airline use in the first place?

We've never tried using the car seat on board, even when we had a seat for baby, though I have seen people taking car seats in with them, in Y, and it just looks cumbersome & restrictive both for baby and for people sat next to it.

I just did DUS-LHR [8 hour Layover] LHR-JNB with a 7 Month old.

Travelling with a MacLaren BMW Buggy, a Maxi Cosi + Isofix Base, three checked bags and four items of hand luggage (Laptop Bag, Camera Bag, Diaper Bag, Toy-Bag) was a bit scary, but all turned out well.

I bought a "Sunshine Kids Car Seat Travel Bag" on Amazon, which took the Maxi-Cosi and Base (and still had room left), could be carried over my shoulder and checked that through from DUS (had to go through oversized luggage though).

I bought the MacLaren pretty much for purpose (I wanted something small for Airport and Plane - being a BMW Driver and Fan only made it easier when I saw they made a branded one); so we took that and gate-checked it on both flights. Unfortunately it doesn't take the Maxi-Cosi and raph JR also can't quite sit yet, but he can lie almost flat in it, and it works well.


For protection, I did buy a cheap "JL Childress Gate Check Travel Bag" [careful though: according to German Reviews, chances are it'll break after one flight - so far it survived and I don't mind at 10 quid] to protect the stroller in the hold. However, we only used it on the LHR-JNB leg, as I failed to think about it when the stroller was tagged in DUS. At LHR, I made sure they put the tag on the travel bag, rather than the stroller itself.

We also have a "travel system" stroller at home, but I like the "proper buggy" better for travel through the airport and am glad I didn't have to carry the Maxi-Cosi through London, or have the hassle of gate-checking that also.

Thanks everyone for the views and suggestions.