Gate Checking a carseat on an airplane

shortcake3930

New member
So I posted a question on a FB page of a car seat manufacturer about gate checking a convertible car seat. Someone commented back that once a car seat is gate checked it is considered crashed.

Is this true? I know you wouldn't be able to verify how the seat is treated by the baggage handlers but how can an airline provide a service that would render something unsafe and "crashed"?
 
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wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzmJr1a-BHU&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - Mistreating luggage[/ame]

It can also shift around and be hit in the cargo hold, fall out of the hold onto the tarmac, we've had gate checked luggage come back on some carousels, which means it gets tossed onto a conveyor belt, tossed onto a train, then tossed onto another conveyor belt.

I checked the carseats of someone who used to (or still does) work for Alaska Airlines, and he swears up and down that anyone who throws carseats gets fired. I wouldn't trust my carseat to Bob on the baggage line who makes just more than minimum wage and has been standing outside in who knows what weather since who knows what time, though. Consider the carseat a lifesaving device. Would you trust Bob the baggage man with a defibrillator? No, you'd get a new one.

Wendy
 

KaiLing

New member
I always gate check my stroller and it looks *bad*. Based on that I don't check seats, if only for vanity (I like my seats, don't care about my stroller).

That said, why do we think that similar things didn't happen in the box on the way from China to the merchant and then from the merchant to me? I *know* they throw boxes at UPS and Babies R Us. And there's conveyor belts and vans and airplanes and all that too.

The Radian I bought from Baby Viva arrived with a gash in the side the width of my hand. I didn't open it because I had already decided to send it back, but I wanted to make sure I got the full refund so I called to tell them that it was ripped when it came to me. The lady on the phone said "oh, we don't worry about that. They're usually really beat up when they come to me. It's a car seat, you can't really hurt it in shipping." I know it was packed, but I've unloaded Radians before and if I recall properly there's little or no packing material anywhere but right at the seat (the seat folds up so it fits right in the rectangle package). When I stuffed my hand in there I touched the seat, not any packaging.
 
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wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
The cardboard box itself offers a lot of protection for whatever is inside. It takes a lot of the forces and crumples, that way the carseat doesn't. We do tell people, if you must check a carseat, put it in the original box.

Wendy
 

bensmom

Admin - CPS Technician
My bigger concern about checking (or gate-checking) a carseat is that it will not be at my destination when I arrive.
 

cupcakepirate11

Active member
If you gate-check a car seat it will be going directly onto the plane as i understand it. Never had a problem with it missing when I gate checked luggage!

I think a padded bag or box is good enough for me. I did not keep the original box as I live in an apartment.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
A padded bag will not take forces the way a sturdy box will. I'd trust a box (especially if you also use bubble wrap) but not a bag. And I've had a gate-checked stroller arrive 2 flights after me. Somehow it didn't make it on the plane so they threw it on a later one. I was later told that they had a recurring problem with luggage from that airport arriving late. But what if it was a car seat and I had a connecting flight to catch?
 

KaiLing

New member
A padded bag will not take forces the way a sturdy box will. I'd trust a box (especially if you also use bubble wrap) but not a bag.

The Cosco Scenera 40RF comes to Target in a plastic bag! Do we consider all of them crashed? Or as crashed as a checked seat? I'm not being snarky, I'm seriously flummoxed here.

I confirmed with the shipping dudes at the Target that it comes off the truck in a plastic bag and is put on the shelf like that. It's particularly confusing since this is the inexpensive seat that people here recommend for flying (and why I was buying one at the $35 price today--if I can not carry the Radian I'm happy to pay $35). I don't know what happens before the distributing station (ie, does it come from China in a bag?!), but between central distributing and local Target, at least here, it comes on the truck in a bag.
 

Jillybeans5

Active member
I would think(do not actually know, just speculating) that the bagged sceneras, since stackable probably arrive with a whole bunch of them stacked inside of a larger container, be it a box or something else. It wouldn't be practical for the seats to all be floating around loose.

I have only flown with a child once and since I was forced against my will;) to take my then 1 yr old as a lap baby I checked the cheap spare seat we bought for that purpose only but packaged it in its original box. Fortunately the box came back to me without even a dent. At least if it is in a box you can see by the condition of the box if it got banged around.
 

KaiLing

New member
I would think(do not actually know, just speculating) that the bagged sceneras, since stackable probably arrive with a whole bunch of them stacked inside of a larger container, be it a box or something else. It wouldn't be practical for the seats to all be floating around loose.
.

Good point. Someone else here said they come 2 to a box, but the dude at Target certainly said to me they came without a box (he could be mistaken or trying to get me to leave, though). But still, I don't see why we wouldn't expect exactly the same treatment that we see in the video posted above, ie tossing while sorting. Tossing isn't a crash, but I just don't get it: would everyone who would never check a car seat never buy a Scenera? Or am I missing something?
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
I don't know how the Sceneras work, but I can't imagine they're just coming in the plastic. I never see ripped or torn plastic, but I see boxes with damage. Yes, I'd be worried if they came in plastic only.

Wendy
 

KaiLing

New member
I don't know how the Sceneras work, but I can't imagine they're just coming in the plastic. I never see ripped or torn plastic, but I see boxes with damage.

Yup, the plastic appears pristine (though it's floppy, unlike a box, and doesn't show scuff marks unlike a box). But even if it was unloaded at the particular Target, they could have thrown it around between the back and the shelf (and I'd wager that unlike airline employees they are NOT told they're fired if they throw a car seat). The inequality of this really bothers me: people buying cheaper seats are just supposed to trust someone at Target not to bash around the seat while people buying expensive ones are assured that their seat is OK?
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
Big Lots carries Sceneras in boxes. I'm absolutely sure they are shipped in boxes.

I've known people who work as stockers at Target and they do not throw ANY of the merchandise, to risk breaking it would result in getting fired. Whereas baggage handlers don't care.
 

jujumum

Well-known member
The inequality of this really bothers me: people buying cheaper seats are just supposed to trust someone at Target not to bash around the seat while people buying expensive ones are assured that their seat is OK?

There have been many instances here where folks have gate checked a car seat only to find that the base and or frame is cracked upon arrival. A cracked seat is generally useless, and some people here have had difficulty getting the airline to resolve the issue. I think I remember one instance that a receipt was needed (which the seat owner no longer had available).

There is absolutely no comparison between store employees handling merchandise and airport employees handling luggage. If someone buys a car seat at Target, BRU, or where ever, and it is cracked when the purchaser opens the bag/box, the purchaser would likely return the seat to the store for a replacement. As KQ said, the company will be at a loss putting out damaged merchandise, so it is very, very, very likely that their employees take better care with merchandise (currently owned by their employer, the store), than airport employees who are handling materials that are not owned by their employer and there is less personal accountability for damaged goods (I'm sure at a store the manager knows exactly who handled and/or damaged store merchandise that is put up for sale/display).

Everyone needs to make their own decisions, but for me, checking a car seat is not worth the risk. I don't have time or energy for the hassle of fighting with an airline to resolve the issue of a cracked seat. One airline/airport severely damaged a bag of mine and I wasn't able to get them to replace it. Once bitten, twice shy.
 

KaiLing

New member
There is absolutely no comparison between store employees handling merchandise and airport employees handling luggage. If someone buys a car seat at Target, BRU, or where ever, and it is cracked when the purchaser opens the bag/box, the purchaser would likely return the seat to the store for a replacement.

That's the piece of the comparison I was missing, thank you for the clarification.

(But I'd still rather the Scenera I bought was in a box on the shelf. All this talk of not knowing if a seat is 'crashed' has got me antsy and distrustful.)
 

littleangelfire

Well-known member
Sometimes it really helps to be able to put a story with the worry: http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=128612 A very expensive car seat destroyed, meaning they didn't have a seat to get away from the airport in. And they got refunded, but likely not before they had to shell out for another seat. And the kicker is that damage can be done to a seat, to the foam, to the insides of the belt paths, etc, that we can't even see so that people are walking around with car seats that have been gate checked and are damaged and they'll never know it.

This person was, in a way, lucky b/c at least it was obvious damage and her child then was never put in it and put at risk.

It definitely happens.

As for the Sceneras in bags, I agree with a PP - it's very different b/c there's no way they're putting those things on a truck just loosey goosey to roll around if only from an efficiency standpoint - The seats would be all over the place and they wouldnt be able to get other stuff on the truck. And the company knows that if the seats get damaged in transit it's only going to cost them more money. I doubt they're that frivolous with it. Perhaps not as careful as we'd like, but careful enough. I don't have a big problem with the bags - really cuts down on trash and space.
 

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