Cosco Scenera - Will It Really Fit Rear Facing
 

After reading the recommendations on FT I bought a Cosco Scenera car seat for an upcoming trip to Asia for my 11 month old daughter.

But now that I've got it home, and started using it in our Civic, it doesn't seem possible that it would really fit in an airplane seat rear facing. So I've come to Flyer Talk to ask those of you with first hand experience, can you really fit a car seat rear-facing in coach? Even if it would fit, I have to imagine it would ruin the recline of the seat in front of it, right?

I would suggest a bulkhead seat if at all possible. I thought about using a seat for our april 16th flight pvg-ord. But decided against it for that reason. We purchased a seat for the lil spud and will hold her when the seat belt sign is on.

Note that many bulkhead seats have fixed armrests, thus reducing the amount of width available for a carseat. For that reason, we've always selected seats with moveable armrests, as it was essential to fit our Peg Perego rear-facing carseat and even our Britax front-facing carseats when our kids were little(r).

And yes, depending on the seat pitch, rear-facing may affect the full recline of the seat in front. Never had that issue in United Economy Plus, though.

It fits, even on tiny commuter jets. We've used ours on Embraers before. I think it should fit in the bulkhead row.

If you can't get a bulkhead row, and if you have two adults in your party, you could have one adult sit in the seat in front of the child, so that you're not inconveniencing a stranger. Otherwise, you could offer a gift card to the inconvenienced stranger. That's what we would do -- although all of our flights at the time were domestic.

If the child pushes with their feet on their seatback it can cause the back of the scenera to touch the seat in front, which could disturb the person sitting in it. So you might want to do what you can to discourage your child from doing it if you can.

They really are great for travel. Have a nice trip!

ETA- Here's a picture (not a great one... but at least you can see that it fits). This was, I think, an MD80.

ETA2: Here's a better picture. (found on the googles) And here's the article related to the picture. Good info!

Wow, that looks terrible for the person sitting in the seat in front of the car seat. They not only cannot recline at all, any movement by your child is going to jostle their seat. I would never use a rear facing seat on a plane unless a family member could sit in the seat in front.

In order to be FAA compliant, any child under 22 lbs cannot be faced forward in a Scenera. Additionally, a child *can* sit rear-facing up to 35 lbs in a scenera. It reclines more rear-facing, making it more comfortable for sleeping.

So, optimal scenario, imo, is to put one parent in front of the child and one next to the child, so that no (major) compromises have to be made.

I should add that sometimes the Scenera does touch the seat in front of it, and other times it clears the seat. Sometimes the seat in front has even been able to recline slightly, in our experience. And AA's new seat backs don't lean back at all; the seat bottom instead slides forward. So there will be some flights where it's not an issue.

Why don't you get an infant basket seat?

My daughter is right at the edge of our Keyfit 22's limit weight wise. I'm not sure if she'd be under 22 pounds on our return in a month. (That's why we are leaving our infant carrier at home).

I think I'd rather forward face, if necessary, on the plane, and have a better fitting car seat for all the driving we'll be doing on the other side of the world. Rear facing in the car won't be a problem.

"22 lb weight limit"?
So 21.5 lb is ok but 22.5 will lead to catastrophic failure?

also is there a reference for this rather bold (and imho misleading) statement?
The question to ask is why would you want a 22lbs forward facing when rear-facing is so much safer and comfortable?

Most babies outgrow car seats by height, not weight. Mine were well under the weight limit when they outgrew all of theirs'. Babies are usually way too small for the car seat by the time they get to the weight limit and often, those infant-bucket styled seats are uncomfortable at that age. They're cramped and want to sit up more. If there's a lot of driving at the destination, then a convertible makes much more sense.

IME, quite the contrary. We've taken both our kids around the world in a Cosco Scenera. It does fit backwards--in every plane we've ever tried, including various flavors of regional jets. When it's backwards, any kicking the kid does is of his/her own seat. When forward-facing, kicking will inevitably be of the seat in front of them.

Now, it is true that in many coach cabins, pitch is sufficiently tight that it does deny the person in front the ability to recline, especially in the older style seats that recline into the space behind. (Many newer seats recline in place by sliding the seat bottom forward, so they do not encroach on the passenger behind.)

I agree that bulkheads are ideal for a number of reasons, but I've never head a problem physically rear-facing a Scenera. I have, however, encountered FAs who insist it is not "allowed" (contrary to all FAA rules/regs to my knowledge) and so have spun it around rather than get into a fight about it.

In another amusing development my post was edited by moderator of this forum (hopefully by mistake) with underlined part added.

I have to agree. If you can rear-face the Scenera, it is much more comfortable for the child, as they are more reclined for sleeping. There is a foot that adjusts for forward-facing that tilts the seat much more upright.


One must consider both height *and* weight limits when determining when to move from a bucket to a convertible and when to transition from rear-facing to forward-facing. Additionally, the top of the child's head needs to be 2" below the top of the shell of the seat when rear-facing. Some seats also have requirements on which slots the harness belt can be in when rear-facing vs. forward-facing.

Can you please remove reference to my post or at least my handle - I did not write that part - see above.

Weird, I didn't underline anything! How did that happen??

It's also not misleading. Strange thing to say.

Did you look at photo my post was referencing? It was quite clear that the backwards facing car seat was leaning against the seat in front, preventing it from reclining and causing every movement made by the child to be felt by the unfortunate PAX in front.