Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Bringing along a convertible car seat
We are going to Yosemite in 2 weeks and I'm having a hard time deciding on whether to bring our smallest convertible seat with us (Britax Roundabout 55, 17lbs) with us or if I should buy an inexpensive, lighter weight seat (9-11lbs) such as the Cosco Apt 40RF, Safety 1st Avenue or Safety 1st Onside Air. What would you or have you done?
Re: Bringing along a convertible car seat
Problem here is that you've just put your everyday seat through an unknown amount of rough treatment. It could be damaged but you can't see it.
I'd recommend what the PP does - get a costco scenera and use it for travel only. Yes, you're still running a risk using it after it's been checked, but at least it's only while you're away, and for everyday use at home you have a seat that's never been in an aeroplane hold.
It's a small risk we're willing to take for DS to be in what we deem as the safest carseat while at home and on vacation - an accident can happen anywhere.
Bears can be an issue at Yosemite. Are you camping or staying in the park? I've seen stories where they actually seek out cars that have car seats. If you take your current seat I'd give it a good cleaning before you go.
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/10/its-official-picky-yosemite-national-park-bears-prefer-their-meals-minivans4743
Um, crap! That's crazy.
Oh, and to add to my reply above for full disclosure... Last time we went to Aruba we brought our newly expired Marathon with us and left it there. If anyone rents from the Toyota I am sure they might see it again. And when we travel to England this time we are taking another seat that expires this month with us and are taking DS' Sunshine Monteray booster with us and putting it in a large suitcase that we will check, you can separate the seat and back to store and I feel it will be safer in there than in a bag and DH has platinum status so we can check up to 70 lbs, we will shove some other things in there with it.
So Tasty, So Yummy
The odds of an accident are much much greater in your everyday car, because you spend much much more time in it. A costco scenera isn't radically less safe than your boulevard.
Regardless, we will continue to travel with our Boulevard - we have 2 and travel with the one that is basically used to transport him to daycare and back a few times a week (all of 4 blocks). FWIW, I still don't view the airlines as a huge danger; I feel a bigger danger is people incorrectly installing a carseat they only use once or twice a year(or less). No matter, either of these options are better than renting a carseat.
The Cosco is really easy to install. And I use it as a 2nd carseat when we have another kid to tote around town. It works for us.
So Tasty, So Yummy
While I said that I bring our car seats on the plane I really want to disagree with your comment about the airline being a safety issue. I brought my Bumbleride Indy Twin stroller on the plane, gate checked it and when I got it back the front tire was bent at probably a 60 degree angle. They somehow bent the very thick metal rod that holds the tire into the frame. Continental (and most if not all domestic airlines) do not take responsibility for strollers. I brought the wheel, which has a quick release so I was able to separate it, to the local baby store that I bought it from and they were able to bend it back for me. A few months later the bold that holds it in place snapped in half, crazy b/c it is really think strong metal and I have no doubt that it was related since it was the on the side that was damaged, luckily it is a 4 wheel stroller b/c it literally fell off when I was walking the kids. There is no way this could have happened if they did not throw the stroller or put something crazy heavy on top of it. If they can bend that metal that easily they can certainly damage a car seat, and the main part of the damage was totally unseen until it broke months later.
We've flown quite a bit with DS and have never had an issues with our carseat, stroller, PNP, etc that we have checked and/or gate-checked - I also have plenty of friends who are frequent flyers that have not had a problem(Delta is our preferred airline). While it CAN happen, I don't think it's a giant problem and I'm certainly not going to scrimp on DS's safety or comfort for the "what if's.". Plus, knowing that we travel quite a bit we bought the coordinating travel bags with all of our items so IF something does happen they will be replaced/fixed.
We travel all the time as well and have had a stroller and car seat broken by Delta when they were gate checked, and they replaced them both for us with no issues and at their cost. I agree with you.