Decathlon on an United flight

Unregistered · Nov 19, 2009

Hi
We will be traveling (transatlantic) with our 18 months son on United. 1 flight is a boing 767-300, the other is a B777. we bought a seat for him.
Last year we traveled Air France with a maxi-cosi seat w/o any trouble.

Now he has a Britax Decathlon and we are worry that it will not fit in cattle seat. Does anyone have any experience about it?
I've read the thread about the roundabout/marathon seat but I am not sure that the Decathlon is not even bigger.

He is a small baby not even 19 pounds now so he has to RF in a car. Should we try to RF as well in a plane?
If we realize in the plane that the seat is to big, what are our options?
If we know now that it's to big, which one (size vs comfort?) should we buy?

I know that it is a long questions. Thanks for any answer.

murphydog77 · Nov 24, 2009

I checked seatguru.com and saw that the pitch is 31"--that's the distance between the your seat and the seat in front of you. It'll be tight for a rf seat, especially since the person in front of you is going to want to recline his/her seat to sleep. The Decathlon will fit in the seat width-wise and you can always raise the armrests. It could be tight-impossible in a bulkhead seat.

One thing you can do is start and finish the flight rear-facing, but during sleep time, turn the seat forward and recline it. That way the person in front can recline his/her seat and sleep and your child is still safely secured. Remember to flip the buckle upside down if you install the seat forward-facing during the flight so that it doesn't get stuck against the seat when you pull it tight.

ginny4 · Nov 25, 2009

i have no idea from one plane type to another...but in ours i was happy my kid was older & can be FFing. it was hard as it was FFing - hardly any leg room for DS. i can't imagine it RFing. that would've been terrible.
if you do FF the seat....make sure you use a seatbelt extender. when using the extender be sure to tighten the original buckle to the tightest possible so that the buckle is on the outside/side of the seat. then feed the extender buckle thru the seat, buckle & tight as you normally would. i din't realize how important it was to have the buckle on the side in our first flight. the problem of the buckle behind the seat was removing it. it took 20MIN with flight attendants help to get it out. they were on the verge to cut the seatbelt!

vonfirmath · Nov 25, 2009

That is a common problem with the bigger Britaxes FF on the airplane -- be sure to get a seatbelt extender belt.

My son has travelled FF and RF in his Marathon and roundabout 50 in the airplane (similar size seats to the Decatholon, I believe)

There was no lack of leg space when RF, and when FFing his feet were at a perfect place to KICK the back of the seat ahead of him. Just an inch or so from resting ON the tray table. So impossible to stop. So my trip was pleasanter when he was riding RF and I didn't have to scold him the entire trip for kicking the passenger in front of us.

tweetykl · Nov 25, 2009

I did it on an Alaskan flight rf decathalon with Carlie before she was a year. It fit fine. I had Peter next to the window ff and Carlie in the center rf and it worked well. She was not kicking the seat around, bouncing around yet though. She was larger weight then that, probably 24lbs. when we flew but only 9 months. I even had the flight attendance helping me get them in because dh ended up in a row a few ahead of us. Good luck!

Unregistered · Dec 7, 2009

Thanks for your tips and advice!

TnT's Mom · Dec 9, 2009

We have traveled with a Marathon in the past and it fit width wise with the armrest up and I think the Decathlon is the same size.

Another thing you might want to consider in regards to the FF seat and child kicking the seat in front of them is that you could split up and have one of your traveling party sit in the seat in front of your child so that if he kicks the seat it won't be some stranger getting upset with you. We do this when we travel and we have our oldest son sit in front of our younger son and my husband sits with him while I sit with the younger one.

Oh and while we were able to install our Marathon with out the extender, I second? third? the suggestion about flipping the buckle on the seat belt when you install the seat. I speak from experience when I say the skin on your hand will thank you! We forgot to flip it the first time we used the Marathon on a plane and I thought we wouldn't be able to get it undone!

jessclear · Dec 9, 2009

I have been known to ask the person in front of DD if they would rather not be able to recline or risk being kicked throughout the flight. Different people prefer different things. If it doesn't matter to you, I would ask the other passenger. If you really want your child RF, don't worry about what the others think. They will be just fine sitting upright. :twocents:

Our DC has fit on every plane we've been on both FF and RF. RF is a very upright install in some seats, but your child is older so it will be just fine. And, I suggest a seatbelt extender as well for FF installs.

Mummy2Summer · Dec 12, 2009

jessclear said:
I have been known to ask the person in front of DD if they would rather not be able to recline or risk being kicked throughout the flight. Different people prefer different things. If it doesn't matter to you, I would ask the other passenger. If you really want your child RF, don't worry about what the others think. They will be just fine sitting upright. :twocents:

Our DC has fit on every plane we've been on both FF and RF. RF is a very upright install in some seats, but your child is older so it will be just fine. And, I suggest a seatbelt extender as well for FF installs.

I did this and the passenger turned nasty and wanted us booted of the flight!! that woman was a nutjob!!

I ended up FFing my DD her legs didn't reach the seat until the seat infront was reclined.

jessclear · Dec 12, 2009

Mummy2Summer said:
I did this and the passenger turned nasty and wanted us booted of the flight!! that woman was a nutjob!!

I ended up FFing my DD her legs didn't reach the seat until the seat infront was reclined.

What a crank! Sorry lady, but people with kids have to travel too. What else do you expect us to do?

If I RF DD, she is happy and quiet and plays with her toys (for the most part). If she is FF, she complains about where to put her feet and wants to put the tray down the whole time. :thumbsdown: I would much rather a happy child than be able to recline my seat. What ever. Mean people suck!

Decathlon on an United flight

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