Travel
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
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International travel with a baby - car seats/strollers
In Sept, we are flying to Italy with our son who will be 9 months.
I spoke with the rep at US Air and because we are paying a lap-child fare (10% of my ticket + taxes), he is entitled to a free checked bag, a carry-on and either a stroller or car seat checked for free. If we checked a stroller, we'd have to pay to check the car seat and vice versa.
I've seen people take strollers to the gates and leave them right outside the door. Is this considered checking? Can I check the car seat at the ticket counter and then take the stroller to the gate and not have to pay for either of them?
Hopefully this will be moot as I'm hoping to be able to rent a car seat in Italy but I figure I'd ask.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Re: International travel with a baby - car seats/strollers
he's going to sit on your lap the whole flight?! eek. that's a long flight for that. i hope there's an empty seat near you.
i think you'll have an easier time with all of this if you just contact the rental company in italy and ask about the car seat.
also where are you planning on traveling?
Technically they call it "gate-checking" the stroller (or bag or whatever else) if you leave it at the gate. I don't know if they'll still consider it a checked item to pay for or not. But just leave the car seat at home and you won't have to worry about it. Also, in Europe, they do not always bring your stroller back to you at the gate when you arrive - sometimes you have to pick it up at the baggage claim with the rest of your luggage. This especially occurs in Italy from what I've noticed (but we've also had it happen in Germany once, and in Istanbul), just so you know as a heads-up if you'll be having other flight connections in Europe. It helps to have a baby carrier like an ergo or something similar in case this happens. And again, don't bother bringing the car seat. It obviously won't help you on the plane if your son is flying as a lap child, and car rental companies can also rent you a car seat. We've done that multiple times (rented a car seat with the rental car) and had zero issues. Do double check on that and reserve it before you go, but I don't think you'll have any issues.
We are renting a villa in Umbria - specifically near the tiny town of Ficulle. Planning this kind of stuff was easier when we visited the bigger cities of Venice and Rome because there is more online information. Since the region is more rural and the towns are smaller, I'm having a harder time finding solid information, especially about car rentals.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Eh, we traveled with ds as a baby as a lap child 6 times between the US and UK, and dd went on her first US-UK trip over Christmas at 9 months as a lap child, just request the bassinet
Gate check the stroller, they won't charge you, and bring a carrier
Yes, overnight flight. Not sure about the sleeping. When we flew to Berlin a couple years ago, I napped a bit but not until very late in the evening/morning.
Not sure about pickup. The idea is to rent a smaller car just for short trips around Umbria so it won't hold 8 people, plus a baby, plus luggage. I think the plan right now is to take the train up to Ficulle (we are flying in to Rome) and if possible, getting a car nearby.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
yes the 8 people is tough!! it reminds me of us in sicily once. 4 adults, one compact car, 5 suitcases. it was the clown car from hell-suitcases on laps, on the floor, in the middle in the back seat LOL took us an hour to figure how to get everyone and everyhting in there
my father and his wife and my little sister (well she's 13 now) went to italy every year-mostly tuscany and north and always rented a car-until she was 11 or so. they picked it up at the rome airport and basically drove everywhere and ended up in milan or venice etc... i dont recall if they got a carseat there or not. i know they always flew first or business so they didnt do the lap thing. i know that they did take the train up to florence from rome once instead of driving and they said that while the train was fine it was tough with luggage (i 2nd this-not a lot of room on the train for luggage) so they preferred driving everywhere.
anyway-good luck-it sounds like a nice trip
Wimps. Two adults, such a short flight? No problemo! Besides, he's small enough to fit in the bassinette so he won't be in their laps.
That's called gate checking.They tag your stuff at checkin, and you hand it over at the gate. So yes, it's accounted for and you'll only be allowed to take one of them. But, you surely won't have six suitcases for six adults, will you?
If you'd ever seen an Italian rental place car seat pile you wouldn't ever ever ever ever ever consider using one of them. This one time I went through four trying to find one that had all the right bits in the right places. And I still don't know if it was really right, because there are no instructions.
Don't check your good carseat, buy a costco scenera that you will use only for travel. It may well have hidden damage after a trip in the hold.
I flew with DD as a lap child until age 2 on several flights domestically and to Europe and Latin America. No big deal for us. And she was too big for the bassinet. But, neither of us has any problems sleeping on planes. I could probably sleep on a moving vehicle if I had 20 suitcases piled on top of me, so a sleeping child didn't bother me.
I have no idea what car seat rentals are like in Italy. We have always been able to borrow car seats from friends upon arrival when traveling in Europe, but I did do some research and found some sites in Spain that rent car seats (not connected to the car rental agency). Perhaps you could find something similar for Italy?
Ditto bringing an Ergo or something like that. But a stroller is still a good idea since you're bound to run into places that don't have high chairs and/or changing tables. I used DD's stroller for these purposes tons of times when she was still little.
Are you renting a car? Where in Italy are you going? We rented a car seat when we went to Scotland for a week, and it would have been cheaper to buy a brand new car seat! I'm not sure what it is like in Italy, but you may have to pay an arm and a leg for a car seat. Also the security regulations for car seats are much different in Europe verses the US, so if you're worried about safety I would bring your own. If you are just going to take public transport, you probably don't need a car seat at all.
We only usually fly with United, but at the airport I would check the car seat and take the stroller to the gate. I would doubt that you would have to pay for it. Good luck! Also, can you check how full/empty your flight is the night before? DD is always a lap child, and the last few flights we've gotten really lucky with very empty flights and we take the car seat onto the plane and belt it into a seat, and she has her own seat. We've never had problems with that - usually the attendants at the gate have pity on us and put us in a row with an extra seat if we ask nicely. It doesn't hurt to ask!
my dd didn't fit in the bassinet at that age - but its TOTALLY doable to have a lap baby at 9 months
I did it, by myself, with an 11 month old as a 'lap baby' and it was fine (tiring, but fine) - that was a for a 14 hour, then another 3 1/2 hour flight
I agree with gate check the stroller (then you can use it in the airport too - which is REALLY nice!) and check the carseat
however, how much will you really need the stroller? could you just bring a carrier? just wondering since a lot of places in Italy are cobblestone - which would not be stroller friendly
have fun!
We recently went to the Netherlands with our now 10-month old. We gate checked the stroller and brought the Ergo. We didn't bring car seats as I don't think it's necessarily allowed to have US car seats in European cars. Unfortunately in Europe the rules are slightly different than here. In the Netherlands at least, they have an infant seat and a FF facing seat but no RF convertible car seat like we have here. So even though my son was 9 months old we had to put him FF as he was too big for the infant seat.
And it's totally doable as a lap child. Just don't expect to get too much sleep. I got maybe 2.5 hrs at most, but our son is not much of a napper anyway. We also had our DD with us who didn't sleep much either.