I just wanted to share my flying experience here. We flew from the U.S. to Japan on United and then ANA on an internal flight in Japan. Both let us use our carseat on the plane. I did print out their carseat policy before hand but I don't think I had to show them it.
Then we flew China Eastern from Sapporo to Shanghai. I also printed out the page from their website in advance with their safety seat policy (which said FAA car seats could be used), and made sure I printed it out in English and in Chinese.
But they still refused to let us use the seat. They said the car seat policy is only for babies (she's four). And I'm pretty sure they said it wasn't safe.
But communication wasn't great. My Chinese is rudimentary, I managed to say a few things, and point at the appropriate paragraph, and they got someone who spoke a little English to say the "she's not a baby" and "not safe", etc.
So what happened is they put the car seat on a seat in FIRST CLASS!! I wonder if they buckled it in.
So we ended up using the airplane lap belt. I couldn't figure out where the heck I packed the CARES harness and at that point wasn't up for more arguing (plus I figured as long as she wore the lap belt, she would be safe enough).
Poor kid got so sad at the end, she was tired and cried because she wanted her car seat, as it was hard to stay comfortable in the regular seat. At least it was only 2.5 hours. I can't even imagine doing that on a long haul. She really is used to her car seat on planes.
This wasn't very surprising to me, as I had heard use of car seats in China is quite rare. (which is another post...)
Then we flew China Eastern from Sapporo to Shanghai. I also printed out the page from their website in advance with their safety seat policy (which said FAA car seats could be used), and made sure I printed it out in English and in Chinese.
But they still refused to let us use the seat. They said the car seat policy is only for babies (she's four). And I'm pretty sure they said it wasn't safe.
But communication wasn't great. My Chinese is rudimentary, I managed to say a few things, and point at the appropriate paragraph, and they got someone who spoke a little English to say the "she's not a baby" and "not safe", etc.
So what happened is they put the car seat on a seat in FIRST CLASS!! I wonder if they buckled it in.
So we ended up using the airplane lap belt. I couldn't figure out where the heck I packed the CARES harness and at that point wasn't up for more arguing (plus I figured as long as she wore the lap belt, she would be safe enough).
Poor kid got so sad at the end, she was tired and cried because she wanted her car seat, as it was hard to stay comfortable in the regular seat. At least it was only 2.5 hours. I can't even imagine doing that on a long haul. She really is used to her car seat on planes.
This wasn't very surprising to me, as I had heard use of car seats in China is quite rare. (which is another post...)