Please critique my flight plan?

Hi, longtime lurker, first time poster. I've learned a lot reading here and have often directed others to this site with their questions. Usually, my questions have already been thoroughly discussed and I haven't needed to post.

Now we are planning for our first trip by air and I'm worried I'll overlook some major factor. Any advice, tips, commentary, or jokes appreciated!

We'll be flying to spend a week in Florida. We will need to rent a car at our destination for several short rides. We will have two able-bodied adults, one toddler and one infant (ticketed). My 35 month old daughter is about 35#, currently forward facing in a Boulevard. My son, now 4 months, will be 6 months at the time of the travel, is already 18# and rear facing in a Snugride. Both kids are tall as well as heavy. We don't use a stroller in our regular life and would carry the infant in a Moby wrap or the Ergo and the toddler would walk, or perhaps go in the Ergo. She's good for 1 mile walks routinely and doesn't run off in crowds (so far!).

My current tentative plan is to fly down with our current carseats. They are a known quantity, my husband is confident about installing them super-solid in cars and will read up on airplane install tricks. We would buy a folding metal luggage cart, and strap the Boulevard and the Snugride to it for travel in the airport. My husband could board with the seats early to install them, and I'd hang back with the kids until last call.

As I see it, the perks of this plan are:
~ minimal purchase of new stuff
~ car seats (and plane seats) that are safe and familiar
Downsides:
~Boulevard is heavy and awkward
~May be tough to mount the Boulevard next to the Snugride on the plane (anyone tried this?)
~We will need to disassemble the luggage rack/carseat bungie mountain in order to get through security regardless. Hmm.

Another thought would be to buy a Scenera for this trip. It would be nice to have a lighter seat for the toddler for trips with Grandma, our regular babysitter, etc. Or we could buy a CARES & a RideSafer Travel Vest, which would be much more expensive initially but lighter and less bulky. We won't be flying very often, so the CARES isn't a great investment.

Last possible modifying factor, my son is enormous and is projected to outgrow the height limit of the Snugride in February at this rate, so we are considering whether to buy a second Boulevard for him, or maybe move the daughter up into a Frontier and pass her Boulevard down to my son. Would a new Scenera be a seat he could ride in routinely for a few years?

Thanks for any comments!

Dismantling the car seat/luggage cart at security isn't that bad and for me personally, once they are on a luggage cart I don't notice the weight (we regularly travel with a Marathon and Radian strapped to ours). The only time weight is an issue is lifting them up over the seats to walk down the isle but that is short enough I haven't felt the need to get different seats (our Radian is narrow enough it can roll down the isle on the cart but the MA doesn't fit).

The airline I usually travel with doesn't let me put 2 car seats side by side because I wouldn't be able to assist the seat 2 over from me in an emergency so we usually do window-RF seat - adult - FF seat |||isle||| other adult or else split up into 2 pairs and get 2 window seats & 2 middles. Not sure what other airline policies are though.

We went a month ago and we don't normally use a stroller but we did rent one for the 1 day we did Disney. It spent most of the day empty and parked in the various stroller corrals with our food backpack in it but it was nice to have when they did nap (it was August so heat was also a factor). DD went in the carrier for the last 2-3 hours of the night and I was sore enough from that (she's refused all carriers since shortly after learning to walk so I wasn't used to lugging the extra 25lbs after a long day of walking).

Have fun!

If your infant has/is close to outgrowing the Snugride I'd probably get a Scenera or Avenue for him.

We flew a couple of times with our Marathon & Uptown (older version of the Avenue) when our kids were 1 & 3. With 1 RF & 1 FF I liked to get 2 seats (window & center) in front of each other that way we could put the FF seat in front of the RF seat and not have to worry about an angry person not being able to recline their seat.

I wouldn't worry about taking stuff apart for security, we need to do that even when there's only 1 seat on the luggage cart and I've just gotten very good at getting all the stuff organized while DH keeps track of the kids. We also suck it up and pay to check bags so we have as little stuff to carry on as possible.

Just thought of another option for seats. If your LO needs a bigger seat than the Snugride get a Maestro for your older one, it's a lighter weight seat and if you don't fly a lot no point in getting another convertible since you have one already. Then use the Blvd for the baby. When I've RF our Marathon on planes I've needed to install it in the upright position, but it does fit.

I can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck.

I think it might be very difficult to get the Boulevard and SnugRide installed next to each other, depending on the plane, etc. For that and other reasons I would highly recommend getting 2 rows, one behind the other, 2 seats in each row (window for car seat, and if you can try to book the aisle for you-- you can always trade with someone for the middle, no one wants the middle, and if you book those 2 seats it's less likely you'll be sharing the row, so you MIGHT get to keep it and have extra space.) One of you sit with the baby, one with the toddler. Since the toddler will be forward facing, put her in the front row of the two, so there's no hassle about the rear-facing baby and someone being unable to recline their seat.

I would much prefer a lighter seat to hauling the Boulevard through an airport personally if dealing with another seat as well. But that's me. (I also prefer a seat that gives me a little more arm room next to it when possible. But that may not be an option.) Since she's forward-facing, unless you want to rear-face her again (which is an option at her stats though more expensive) I'd consider an Evenflo Maestro.

Also be aware that on most planes your husband won't be able to pull the luggage cart down the aisle with the seats on. They tend to be too wide and not fit well on most planes. He'll have to take them off and carry the seats back to your row.

Your plan sounds pretty good I agree with the OP about getting back to back seats and put the older behind the younger so that seat kicking isn't an issue. We've flown quite a few times with either 2 MA's or an MA and Frontier 85 and never had a problem

Just use a seat belt extender b/c if you get the buckle stuck in the seat it will take FOREVER to get it undone! We had always used them until the last trip and dh decided he could do it without b/c the FA was taking too long to bring it. Well when we landed we thought we might have to cut the belt to get it out, LOL! Luckily I was finally able to wedge my hand in there and get it out!

I would recommend taking a Maestro and Boulevard over a Boulevard and Scenera. The scenera can be VERY difficult to install RFing if you have to install it with the seatbelt. it also requires carrying a pool noodle or something like that with you as well.

The Maestro is an easy install with the seatbelt. (And personally, I prefer installing the Britax convertibles RFing to FFing on planes!)

I have never had a problem installing a Scenera in any car, though a towel or pool noodle is usually helpful (you CAN do it without if needed-- by pushing from behind at the desired angle like an infant seat, but it's harder), with seatbelt or LATCH, and the plane install is a breeze. :shrug-shoulders:

ketchupqueen said:

I have never had a problem installing a Scenera in any car, though a towel or pool noodle is usually helpful (you CAN do it without if needed-- by pushing from behind at the desired angle like an infant seat, but it's harder), with seatbelt or LATCH, and the plane install is a breeze. :shrug-shoulders:

Click to expand...

Try it one day in a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am. I even took it to a "Check my car seat" place and the TECH was having troubles getting it in. She took about 20 minutes figuring out how to get it into my car tight. Then she had me "install" it -- except I could not get it tight enough and she ended up helping me in the end. But I drove out of there knowing the first time I had to uninstall the car seat, it would be installed forward facing because I could not do that.

I never tried it in any other car. But with those difficulties, I would not take it with me on a trip to install in strange cars and leave myself in the possible situation of not being able to install it on the other end.

I have never had problems installing any other car seat I've tried in that car.

Thanks for your input everyone!

6 weeks before the trip, I'm leaning towards purchasing a Scenera and traveling with the Snugride and the Scenera. It seems like it would be easier to wrangle those two than the Boulevard or another larger seat for my toddler. Or to potentially deal with her melting down when she sees us put the baby in "her" seat! She'll be at the top of the weight range for the Scenera, but when we come home the infant can use it for a while.

I appreciate the idea of buying her next seat now and moving him up into her Boulevard but we do move the seats around a fair bit between cars and having the Scenera would be helpful. We will be practicing installing the Scenera and I will find lots of threads for him with tips about airplane installs (such as reclining the seatback for a FF install - never would have come up with that - and asking for a seatbelt extender).

Oddly, my husband is willing without much comment to buy a ticket for the infant, but just won't agree that it makes sense to pay for a direct flight. He knows that lugging, installing and uninstalling seats will be his responsibility on the trip, so I'm just going to aim for a 90-120 minute layover to allow for difficulty uninstalling, pack plenty of toddler distractions and admit I'm wasting the entire day in travel. Argh. I did warn him that he'd have to carry both seats overhead down the plane aisle but he is unfazed. He's Viking shaped (the babies take after him) and thinks he is quite impervious to heavy weights or long distances.

Thanks for the tip about sitting in two rows, with the infant in the back one. That's brilliant.

I know this thread is a bit older, but if you plan on taking a Scenera for the older child, make sure she fits by height. You said she's tall but didn't mention torso height. My dd is short, but has a longer torso and outgrew the Scenera when she was three. Just something to consider. :thumbsup: