jhaas2629

We have flights booked in a few weeks and purchased a third seat for our 8 month old and car seat so we have a full row. Her particular seat is FAA approved but is 17.5in wide, Delta's aircraft specs page says Main Cabin seats are 17.3 in wide, but Child Seat Fit Guide says 16.3in wide. It seems pretty straightforward that the math is not in our favor here but does this matter? Is there a chance the seat fits anyway? Just curious to hear from fellow travelers. It will be a pain to hold the baby for a pair of five hours flights but would rather just know ahead of time if we're SOL on this.

Billy Mumphrey

Car seat measurements are usually at the widest point, typically at the top of the seat. Most car seats will fit in any economy seat, and worst case you'll need to lift the armrest and the parent sitting in the middle seat might have a bit less shoulder space. If you bought a seat for an infant then you should definitely take the car seat on board, everyone will be more comfortable. The only row where you could potentially have issues is the bulkhead (behind First class), because the armrests are fixed and you couldn't create more space if the seat is slightly too wide. But our Cosco Scenera seat even fit fine in those seats.

jhaas2629

Thanks. We have a nuna pipa rx. Is lifting an armrest an issue for taxi/takeoff/landing though? We booked these flights a few months ago and I'm certain we did enough research at the time to feel comfortable buying the extra seat lol. Our itinerary did get switched from 757s to this but seems like the seat dimensions are about the same.

Billy Mumphrey

You're thinking of tray tables, armrests can be up or down at all times. And most likely it will still fit with the armrest down. Just don't pick a row (usually C+) that has fixed armrests. For a 5 hour flight I wouldn't even consider going without a car seat with an 8 month old.

pgh234

I travelled once with a (light and cheap, not the big typical ones in your car) car seat on the plane and even that was a massive pain to lug through the airport. I have since done over 120 flights (up to 9 hours long) with a few lap infants from 2 mos to 2 years on my lap and never once thought of bringing the car seat with us again. Maybe I am just cheap. Lol

phongn

You'll be fine; I used to travel with the Pipa onboard any number of 737s across different airlines.

JW6130

Friends don't let friends fly on the 737-900. A baby is probably the only human being that would be comfortable on a long flight on that aircraft.

VacationMode

One exception is the arm rests in the aisle which have to be down during take off and landing, but the other arm rests can be up and since baby can’t take the aisle seat this shouldn’t be an issue.

aww3583

Traveled dozens of times with our little ones.

I'm 99% sure your seat will fit and you'll be fine, even with the narrow seats on the 739. Put the car seat in the window seat so you won't have to climb over it, or move it anytime someone wants to use the lav. Additionally, it'll prevent the seat from being bumped by passers-by, galley carts, etc. Car seats can be on the aisle anyways.

Even in the unlikely event the widest dimension of the car seat (likely the hubs of the handle mechanism) is wider than the narrowest dimension of the seat (arm rests), the interference will be minimal. Just raise one, or both, of the arm rests and you should be fine. There's a button on the underside of the armrest, close to the hinge point, that you'll push to release the arm rest lock.

As the little one gets older, invest in the lightest rear-facing car seat you can, and get a car seat bag with backpack straps. I've carried car seats through ATL, DTW, LHR, PHL, etc. The bag with backpack straps makes it manageable.

Edit to add: Not sure if this is your first time flying with the little one, but we've always had success with the following... When the gate agent calls for families with infants, have one parent take the car seat, board the plane, and get it installed. At the same time, the other parent should do one last diaper change and/or feeding. The parents + baby should be the absolute last passengers to get on the plane. Nothing like having a Code Brown or a screaming baby during taxi/takeoff when you can't do anything about it.

ChevyCruze

Have a 767/330 transatlantic trip in Oct. Planning on getting some type of car seat for our 1year old. Any reason the car seat is not allowed to face forward? I know it’s recommended to be rear facing in a car, but the tray table and seat back IFE will not be useful if he’s facing rearward. He definitely has a case of FOMO. We’ve made several trips up and down the east coast. We’re on the frugal side but the $39 we spent on SW for a seat for him was well worth it. He barely sits still now so went ahead and dropped the $900 for his seat to Europe and back. (For my own sanity)

aww3583

A couple of years ago we flew transit lantic on Delta with a 1.5 -year-old. Her car seat faced forward. Flight attendants didn’t care one way or the other.

we did have an issue on a return flight on Virgin Atlantic. The European based flight attendance argued that my car seat was noncompliant because it didn’t have a European department of transportation sticker on it. I got the chief purser involved and everything was settled Without further incident.