Travelling to Israel

My 3-year-old son and I are going to Israel at the end of October for my brother's wedding. He usually rides rf in a Radian RXT in my car and a Titan 65 in my mom's car. We planned to bring the Evenflo for him to sit in on the plane and install in any car we end up using in Israel. Except I went on the airline's website and they have a very short list of approved car seats they will allow passengers to use on the plane. It is Austrian Airlines. Basically, the only US or Canadian seat they allow is the Scenera. He is a tall kid, and he's outgrown the Scenera both rf and ff. He is almost 38" and 34 lbs. What are my options to keep him safe on the plane and on our trip? I'd prefer to have him rf because Israeli traffic can be brutal and my dad is not the best driver (and he'll be driving a lot). Should I buy a new seat and check it in the box? Or have my brother buy a seat and pick us up from the airport with it? Would a CARES harness fit at 34 lbs for the plane? I have a few months to figure it out and I'm already finding this stressful!

Austrian Airlines is owned by Lufthansa and they seem to have the same (or similar) list of "approved" carseats as Lufthansa does.

I recently e-mailed Lufthansa asking whether I could use a US carseat that's not on their list, and they wrote back with an email very specifically stating that any FAA-approved carseat would be OK.

You might have similar luck here. Be sure to email rather than phone, since the call-center people often have no clue about carseats, and you will want to have a written record that you can bring onboard with you. If a flight attendant challenges you, you can show them the airline's approval -- though you still are ultimately somewhat at their mercy since it is not a US-based airline.

If Austrian doesn't give approval for your carseat of choice, an alternative solution would be CARES, which Austrian lists on their website as an approved restraint. It goes to 40" -- which should be fine for your 38" son in October unless he has a huge growth spurt in between.

CARES has certainly gotten mixed reviews here on car-seat.org but there are folks who do like it. And its portability would definitely come in handy when you are changing planes.

If you go with CARES, it sounds like a relative could purchase a suitable carseat on your behalf and install it in the vehicle that you'll be using to leave the airport.