dtc

SFO-HKG. United 777 w/10 across. Economy+. 22 month old.

I worry about bringing my car seat on board. It barely fit in the Southwest flight I recently took, and the 777 seats are even narrower (sigh). And on the Southwest flight, the pax in front couldn't recline as a result... I'd hate to trigger an in cabin flight mid-Pacific.

The catch is that my kid kind of likes (tolerates?) being in the car seat. He hates laps. I picked this up the other day. Has anyone tried this before? How does your toddler sleep restrained like this?

LapLap

Here you go:

CARES Child Aviation Restraints for toddlers

Occasionally my kid would be asleep when we were landing. I’d have to hold her head up with a hand as she would just loll forwards right over . Would have to keep wrenching her up too as she would often slouch down at the same time and the breast clip would end up at her neck.
Never regretted buying it. It is what it is. Just makes a safety belt a little safer for somebody who cannot take a proper brace position. That’s all.
Unless the seat has significant incline, it is not an option for a kid to sleep in.

Worked for us particularly as we don’t drive and never took a car seat anywhere.

FindAWay

I own one. I bought it for my son when he was about 18 months old. I tried it a few times over the past couple of years, but it has it's own issues:

• my son loved to unbuckle the seat belt since it was now easy for him. (I addressed this by bringing a sock with the toes cut off to act as a sleeve over the latch)
• my son sleeps well on planes in the car seat, but cant in this.
• It involves installation that requires fiddling with the tray table of the person sitting behind, which can be awkward.
• If I'm renting a car when landing, I still need to bring a car seat anyway.

I will probably try it again soon now that my son is 3. But, recently, we have simply used the Cosco Scenera Next on-board.

GUWonder

sportsguy1

What car seat do you have? Is the base/footprint particularly wide? And are you certain the seats will be narrower? Also, at 22 months, is the seat rear-facing?

According to seatguru, all United 777 versions have economy seats at least 17 inches wide. We had our daughter in a Britax Frontier which could always fit in a 777 seat. She was of course forward-facing, so there was no issue with the passenger in front being unable to recline their seat, but for a rear-facing seat it might be different.

We would suggest using a car seat if you possibly can. Our daughter was too heavy for the CARES harness (and doesn’t have any special needs so couldn’t use the larger version), and also found plane seats really uncomfortable. Being very small for her age she was in the Frontier until 13 years old and preferred it way more than the airplane seat. She could read, watch movies, and sleep totally comfortably whereas the few times she was in the airplane seat she always complained she could never get comfortable.

The choice will probably depend a lot on whether you’ll be hiring a car. As LapLap has said, the case for the CARES harness is probably stronger if you won’t have a car, but if you will then the car seat is probably the much better option. As GUWonder and FindAWay have said, a car seat is generally much better anyway; they don’t involve any issues with the passenger behind, and most importantly they’re familiar so kids generally are comfortable and more relaxed in their own seat – and will thus likely sleep better and enjoy the journey more.

alpinecow

Op: I'm on the other side of the coin. In the last couple years, my 3.5yo daughter has flown ~100K miles in domestic economy, domestic F, int'l economy, and int'l business using the CARES harness. I like it, and so does she, but we live in a city and don't drive much, so she's not used to car seats. It's lighter than a car seat and safer than a lap belt (let's be honest; the real safety benefit is just during bumps, t/o, and landing). If you don't like lugging a carseat around, I say go for the harness.

As for the other criticisms, I suppose it's an opinion thing. I'm a little puzzled about the negative example above in which the poster mentioned using a carseat until 13 years old...

sportsguy1

We didn't mean to be negative or confusing; sorry if we were! It sounds like the CARES harness has worked out for your daughter – which is great, and we certainly agree that it’s much safer than a lap belt and obviously very portable.

We just thought our experience might be useful information for the original poster as we faced similar questions, albeit with a much older kid. We too once thought car seats were impractical for airplanes, and we also struggled to find a way our daughter could be comfortable during flights.

We didn’t mean to cause any confusion or be negative at all, and we fully understand that it's unusual to use a car seat until 13 years old. We just wished to point out that if a car seat is available and the child likes/accepts it – just as our daughter did hers – then it might be a preferable option as it could be more familiar and comfortable for the child (which it certainly was for our daughter), that it might help out with car travel during their stay, and that it may not be as impractical as it might at first seem to be. If the CARES harness works then that’s great – of course. We didn’t mean to criticize it, only point out the possible benefits of a car seat as another option.

Sorry again and we hope that makes sense!!

alpinecow

To each his/her own, and no need to be sorry.

dtc

Ah... I just realized something. I use the car seat rear facing because... welll... that's what I'm used to. (In California, the law requires rear facing until age 2 or unless your baby is way off the charts big.)

So the reason the seat in front could not recline on Southwest was definitely because rear facing. As for what the seat didn't quite fit maybe it was also because rear facing - it's not unusually wide or anything. In fact, it's marketed as being great for travel (especially due to weight.)

Hm... maybe I should try front facing on this flight.

I'll actually have a car in the HK end (yeah I know its a bit weird) - which is why I'm bring this with me.

FindAWay

Yes, we have found car seats (other than the infant buckets) work better forward-facing on planes for our kids, even when sub-2yo.

GUWonder

dtc

Er... what's a floor rest safety leg? Or is that auto correct speaking?

GUWonder

sportsguy1

Trying the seat forward-facing sounds like it might solve the issue and as you'll have a car taking the seat is certainly preferable (it's good that rental companies offer car seats, but as the history of them is not known and the child might not be comfortable in them, having your own if at all possible is generally almost always better).

It sounds like the seat you have is well-suited for traveling which is great. We found even with our daughter's Britax Frontier which was heavy and big, once we had traveled a few times and figured out how to best carry it, it became really quite easy to travel with. Obviously our daughter was at the age where she could help (she actually learned how to install the seat herself), and that's obviously different at 22 months, but there are things like small collapsible wheeled carry carts you can buy to move the seat around if that would help (we've even seen some kids at airports travel in the seats when the seats are attached to the carts).

brillb

How do you install the CARES on an international business class seat? Like, what part of the seat would it actually wrap around? I'm trying to visualize how this would work around a lie-flat pod seat and I'm not seeing it. Eg, the Thompson Vantage sleeper? The back of the seat isn't actually accessible, is it? Or it's covered in a motor/track thing for the recline.