Swiss Tony

I'm going to pitch in here as we rent car seats. It would be impractical to try anything else.

Furthermore, the stresses that a car seat potentially gets put through in the hold of an aircraft are something that never seems to get mentioned. How cold is it in that hold? What's that going to do to the brittle nature of the plastic? Oh, and then there's the risk of the luggage going missing, leaving you to rent one at the other end anyway.

We've predominantly used Avis, both in Europe and N. America, and their seats have been in immaculate condition each time. Europcar also impressed me on this aspect (but not much else to be honest!)

The link cited by GBeckman is frightening, but 1) rent from a 2 bit agency get a 2 bit service, and 2) if I'd seen a bunch of seats like that I would have walked out straight away!

themicah

Be sure to confirm this with the airline you're flying. Midwest Airlines, for example, counts both strollers and carseats toward your two bag allowance (but at least they still have a two bag allowance unlike most carriers).

jason123

Hi, another option is to rent from a baby equipment rental company. They are throughout the USA and Canada. You might also want to consider two products from gogbabyz-the travelmate that attaches to a car seat and allows you to roll your child through the airport and right up onto the plane or the car seat protector bag from the same company. It is made from a heavy weaved material and is superb protection for your car seat if you are checking it through. I'm not certain that a plastic bag will do a great job of protecting your seat. There are lots of sharp objects in the cargo hold of a plane. If you are flying into Vancouver, Victoria or Toronto Canada then take a look at the site weetravel.ca as they can provide everything you need.

cityfishing

I have brought my own car seat, rented and bought a car seat at our final destination too. When we bring our own, we gate check it so it never costs us anything and is far less likely to get lost. Renting a carseat from Avis and Hertz has been a good experience. Most of the ones we received were new or cleaned up to be as good as new. On some rentals they were even free as they were running a promotion.
Now that my son is big enough we just carry the small booster seat.

GNALUZU

I posted this on the Avis forum earlier this week, but got no response. Looking for some input.

Last week I flew into CLE for some business and since my wife's family lives there we brought our 10 week old daughter to spend some time with her grandparents.

On the Avis website it lists the car seat choices as: Infant, Safety and Booster. I requested an Infant seat.

When we got to the car it had a toddler seat installed. I went back inside and somebody came out to look at the seat and said that is what they use for infants as well. He said that once you lower the shoulder straps it would do just fine. Of course, we couldn't get the shoulder straps any lower because the seat was installed wrong. Then we couldn't uninstall the seat. We ended up having to get a new seat in a new car.

Now, our daughter is only 11lbs and we have a Chico infant seat that we use at home(that has a lot of padding around her body and head). This Avis seat had no additional padding. We were told again that Avis does not rent actual infant seats.

We ended up using a lot of blankets around our daughter to secure her and it did okay, but we were not happy with Avis regarding this.

So, are they right? Does Avis really not have true infant seats? Or was I just given the run around?

Going forward we will just bring our car seat, but was curious about other people's experience with this.

codex57

From what I've seen, it's true. Stores don't all get some standard allowance of seats. I've only seen convertible seats. Financially, it makes the most sense b/c convertibles are supposed to be able to be used with infants as well.

Of course, you're gonna be lucky if the seat isn't disgusting and/or expired. Maui had relatively new ones, but they weren't good ones. You happen to have arguably the top infant seat on the market. Like the cars they have, rental companies buy some of the crappiest seats on the market. The sad thing is, unlike the cars, there are better seats for the same price or cheaper then the ones they buy.

That's why I bring my own seat. Check out the Cosco Scenera. Not well padded (kids typically don't care too much), but very light and cheap. I bought mine at Target for $40. That's like 4 or 5 days rental and it's paid for itself. Often cited as the best travel convertible seat. Having a seat with straps that go low enough is very important for infants. The Scenera has a ton of slot heights for the harness, unlike the Graco ComfortSport which only has 3.

Eclipsepearl

Welcome to the club! You are not alone;

http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal...s-infant-risk/

At least the opposite didn't happen to you, which was worse. I was a first time mom and trusted my husband's relatives in the U.S. who assured they "took care" of everything and that I didn't need to bring a car seat. We were flying to NYC for a wedding so obviously, for visiting the city, we didn't need a car seat.

The limo company showed up with an old infant bucket for a large one-year old. There was no way he could even begin to fit in it. I had to sit in my fancy long dress with my child in my lap...in the car!

NEVER AGAIN. I didn't have the net, I was not informed about car safety (especially living here in France where they just don't care much about these issues) but I got my act in gear when I returned.

It's a common myth that infant seats are safer than using a convertible. You actually can use one instead. I kept a convertible at my parents' home in California that I used on visits. The head area actually doesn't need to be "padded" (it compresses in an accident anyway). Most convertibles do have an "infant insert" for comfort, which obviously the rental company didn't provide.

The other issue is the expense. They often charge a fortune for these seats. You could get a Cosco Scenera for $40-50. Four or five rental day fees and you could get a whole new seat!

http://www.coscojuvenile.com/usa/eng...tible-Car-Seat

There are other seats in that price category, some with higher limits.

Remember too, if you read the small print, the rental companies never guarantee that you will even get a seat. These are sent all over and there's a chance they could run out and you'd have bad news at the counter in your arrival city.

Options; bring your own seat. Yes, it can be installed without the base. Consider this to make travel easier (this obviously depends on how much car travel you'll be doing and how much you take the seat out of the car). That way, you can leave the base at home.

If you're visiting someone, try to arrange a seat through them or order on line and have them delivered to their address. Obviously they'd have to be at the airport with it or you could take public transport. Make sure the seat isn't expired, been in an accident, etc.

If you're really stuck, I would go out on a limb and say that a baby equipment rental company would be more sure than using the actual rental company's seat. You could probably be more demanding (age of seat, assurance that it will be there, etc.) but there's the problem of having the seat at the airport... I can't compare prices because often, they have different rates depending on what else you're renting from them, i.e. if you'll be using their high chair, etc. then you'd pay for the whole lot, etc.

http://www.babysaway.com/products/car-seats.html
http://www.thenewparentsguide.com/ba...nt-rentals.htm

Live and learn, right? At least nothing really went wrong and you got home safely. You'll know for next time. Just get the word out to other new and expecting parents who will be travelling. Too many of us have had this happen and it's putting children at risk.

schwarm

The same thing happened with us with Hertz in England. They only had a front-facing seat for our <20 lb., 10-month-old. I had quite a discussion regarding the definitions of "infant" and "child" with the agents. This involved a discussion of the latin root of the word infant and a look at the label of the car seat that they had for us (which certainly did not use the word infant).

In the end, I actually took the car, drove around the corner to an English-version big-box store, and bought an inexpensive convertible seat to use. <1/2 hour time investment (very, very lucky). In the end, we left the seat I bought with the agency. They gave us a break on the rental that almost paid the entire cost of the seat.

It worked out OK, but I don't think I would trust a rental car company regarding a children's car seat again.

GNALUZU

Wow, thanks for all the quick replies. At the beginning, when making the reservation with Avis, I wasn't too worried and was actually happy because my Avis status gets me a free seat. However, now that I have gone through all of this we'll definitely be bringing our own seat from now on.

Big Mo

In my experience, rental car agents are totally clueless when it comes to child safety seats. I'm amazed that they installed anything. I always had to install it myself with the agent refusing to assist me.

Considering this and the ridiculous charge, I finally wised up and now bring my own on trips.

awtravel

We always bring our own car seats for our children. The airlines still allow us to check the car seats with free of charge. Base on our own experiences, we did not feel comfortable to use the car rental's car seats.

livious

Sorry to change subjects a bit, but has anyone had an experience where the rental company would not let you use your own seat? We (almost) had this problem in February for a trip to Curacao. We had called ahead to ask it we could use our own and were told "definitely not". I figure this was a ploy to charge us for the use of their seats.

We are flying to South Africa for Christmas with our twins, and 3 weeks rental for 2 seats would of course be expensive. We are also going to bring our own, hence I am curious to know if anyone has been refused/hassled while picking up the rental car.

Cheers,

Andrew

TrojanHorse

i find that often if I have a late night arrival where i stay a the hotel then i will find its cheaper to buy one there at target if my stay is three days or more..

Finite Elephant

I've purchased a couple of cheap ($40) Cosco seats for use when traveling. One is now permanently stationed with my in-laws and the other is used as back-up at home and goes with us when we travel. In addition to the peace of mind of knowing what car seat you'll have when you arrive, the lower-end ones are, IME, lighter and more compact, making it easier to secure in a rental car. Granted, they're skimpy on padding, but do well for moderate trips.

Besides, a $40 car seat is more cost effective than renting if you're going for more than three days.

codex57

The car seat manufacturers are partially at fault. The convertible seats usually have a minimum weight limit of 5 lbs. That means they allow it to work with newborns, even if the straps may not go down far enough. Rental companies can take the seat manufacturers at their word and use the convertibles as "infant" seats.

And yes, we have a Cosco Scenera as a travel seat as well.