Which car seat for 4 year old on airplane?

Hello,

This website is such a fabulous resource! Thank you for any responses to my question!

We will be travelling to Disney World via airplane, most likely Southwest or JetBlue.
On our last trip, when my daughter was 2, we used a Cosco Scenera on the flight & in the car rental. My daughter is about to turn 4, so we need a bigger car seat for this trip. My hope is to get one that she won't grown out of anytime soon so that when we return from our trip it can be used as a backup car seat in my mom's car.

Can you please recommend the best car seats for a 4 year old that are narrow enough to fit FF on a Southwest or JetBlue?

Thank you soooooo much in advance!

I would look at the Evenflo Sureride/Titan65 (it's a convertible but has the 2nd tallest harness height of any seat available) or for combo seats the Harmony Defender or Evenflo Securekid (or Maestro if she's light weight, it's very similar to the Securekid but only has a 50lb weight limit).

They should all fit on the plane, you'll probably need to put the armrest up to get it to fit better.

We've never had a problem installing a 17" wide seat in any aircraft -- including on Southwest, which seems to have the narrowest seats in general. Southwest's website has the following information: "Although the width of aircraft seats varies, a safety seat wider than 16 inches is unlikely to fit, even if the armrests of the aircraft seats are moved out of the way." That is baloney. They give a lot of information about how it's safest to have your child in a car seat, but I have to wonder whether they put this 16" clause in there to try to scare parents away from bringing their seats and thus speed up the boarding process. I can't think of any carseat currently in production that is that narrow, other than the Cocorro, which is for smaller kids.

An 18" seat should generally fit. If you have a specific seat in mind, ask on this forum and I'm sure someone will have an answer for you.

A lot of people recommend the Guide 65 for travel. It's an 18" wide seat, relatively light (14 lbs), not too pricey, and fits kids up to 65 lbs and 52" tall. I know people have said they've had no problem installing this one on Southwest.

The carseat will need to be in a window seat. Esp. if you're flying Southwest, try to get to the gate as early as you can and let the gate agent know you'll need to install a carseat -- with their open boarding policy, it can be a little trickier than on other airlines. They should let you board early -- maybe not in the first boarding group, but early enough that you'll be able to snag a window seat without the flight attendant having to reseat other passengers.

I like the Secure Kid LX... super light, becomes a good booster later. It's basically a Maestro, but with a higher weight limit, and taller height limit as the booster because the headrest raises up a couple notches. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-SecureKid-Booster-Seat-Kohl/dp/B00ISS2IT2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421944560&sr=8-1&keywords=secure+kid+lx"]Amazon.com : Evenflo SecureKid LX Booster Car Seat, Kohl : Baby[/ame]
Secure Kid DLX costs a bit more and has self-retracting LATCH straps, which are nice, but add a fair bit of weight to the seat, and a seatbelt install is generally very easy with this model.

We took our Radian on UA, but that is a more expensive seat & heavy. Just wanted to second letting the gate know you need to install the seat. I know UA was happy to let DH board first (I know SW is different though) with the seat so it was installed by the time we boarded. We boarded very last to avoid DS having to sit longer than necessary. I also recommend practicing the install ahead of time.

Please ignore typos, I'm mobile.