Today (7/12) I went to board my Continental Airlines flight from Houston, TX to Tampa, FL. I was taking along my 7 months old child and had bought him his own seat. I did a lot of research and decided that the Radian XTSL would be the best seat for him, given that the width of the seat is less then other car seats I looked at and the airlines says the seat should be around 16" wide.
According to the "Childproof you flight" brochure published by US Department of Transportation and FAA I should have been able to install this seat RF for my 16 pound child. www.faa.gov/passengers/media/childsafety.pdf
The car seat touched the airplane seat only under the boot. The top of the back was jammed into the seat in front. I used the seat belt to install it.
I asked for help from the flight attendant and got all kinds of comments from flight personel "I don't know anything about car seats", "Turn the seat FF" (my reply, "He is too small to fit in the car seat FF"), "Just carry him on your lap" (I said, "What happens if we have turbulence?"- To which they said "Just hold on to him").
There was an off duty pilot in uniform across my aisle and he said that it is safer for the baby to fly in my lap. I questioned him and he restated that this was true. My husband said "So you are saying it is safer for him to ride on my lap in a car as well?" He had no response to this. Insert Curse Words Here!!!!!!!
So, we got off the plane, after making it late for departure. They had to cut the plane seatbelt to get the seat out. For proper seat installation we needed a seat-belt extender which the flight attendant should have provided.
After telling them it was against FAA regulations to so strongly "encourage" us to fly with him on our lap. They re-booked us for tomorrow on a bigger plane where they say the car seat might fit in the bulkhead seats. I am still skeptical that it will work, we will have to wait and see.
Also one of the flight attendants said that they recently moved the seats closer together to accommodate more passengers, and that may be why our car seat even though it is FAA approved wouldn't fit. -- I don't know if what she said is accurate -- because half the stuff they said to us was just wrong (i.e., it is safer for him to sit on our lap).
Take home message... if you need to use a car seat RF make sure that you are either in the bulkhead or in first class. If we had known this ahead of time, we would have made different arrangements.
I am very annoyed by all of this!!!!
Suzy
According to the "Childproof you flight" brochure published by US Department of Transportation and FAA I should have been able to install this seat RF for my 16 pound child. www.faa.gov/passengers/media/childsafety.pdf
The car seat touched the airplane seat only under the boot. The top of the back was jammed into the seat in front. I used the seat belt to install it.
I asked for help from the flight attendant and got all kinds of comments from flight personel "I don't know anything about car seats", "Turn the seat FF" (my reply, "He is too small to fit in the car seat FF"), "Just carry him on your lap" (I said, "What happens if we have turbulence?"- To which they said "Just hold on to him").
There was an off duty pilot in uniform across my aisle and he said that it is safer for the baby to fly in my lap. I questioned him and he restated that this was true. My husband said "So you are saying it is safer for him to ride on my lap in a car as well?" He had no response to this. Insert Curse Words Here!!!!!!!
So, we got off the plane, after making it late for departure. They had to cut the plane seatbelt to get the seat out. For proper seat installation we needed a seat-belt extender which the flight attendant should have provided.
After telling them it was against FAA regulations to so strongly "encourage" us to fly with him on our lap. They re-booked us for tomorrow on a bigger plane where they say the car seat might fit in the bulkhead seats. I am still skeptical that it will work, we will have to wait and see.
Also one of the flight attendants said that they recently moved the seats closer together to accommodate more passengers, and that may be why our car seat even though it is FAA approved wouldn't fit. -- I don't know if what she said is accurate -- because half the stuff they said to us was just wrong (i.e., it is safer for him to sit on our lap).
Take home message... if you need to use a car seat RF make sure that you are either in the bulkhead or in first class. If we had known this ahead of time, we would have made different arrangements.
I am very annoyed by all of this!!!!
Suzy