Seatbelt buckle is uncomfortable on airplanes with Britax Marathon?

U

Unregistered

Guest
I'm flying on Friday with my 18 month old daughter, and we're taking our Marathon. I did this a couple of times a few years ago with my older daughter, and we had some problems because, when the car seat is installed forward facing, the airplane's seatbelt was placed such that the hard metal buckle was right under her back, which was uncomfortable. (Unlike car seat seatbelts, the 'receiver' end of the airplane seatbelt ends up in the middle of the seat, not at the side).

Hopefully I'm describing this problem well enough for people to know what I'm talking about. Is there something I can do to shift the buckle so that it won't be under my daughter's back?
 
ADS

lgenne

New member
That's doubtful, actually. The male end of the belt is a fixed length. If the buckle is in the middle of the seat, an extender won't fix that. It'll just put a second buckle outside the belt path.

Can you install it rear facing instead?
 

aeormsby

New member
My kids were never bothered by the buckle behind them (when we didn't use our Britax seats, back in the day Britax had a closed belt path so the buckle couldn't be felt from the seat but it was a huge PITA to get that plane buckle un-done!).

For comfort on the plane (not something I would ever suggest or condone in a vehicle) I could see putting small folded blankets to the side of where the buckle lays to help with comfort. I'd only do this if it were a long flight and the child was complaining. There's really no way to install the seat so the buckle isn't at the back. You could definitely try the seat RF also to see if it fits also, but I found it easier to have the kiddos FF on the plane after a year even if we weren't in the car.

Kudos for buying a seat for your 18 month old!!
 
U

Unregistered

Guest
OP here. Thanks, everyone. I may consider rear facing her if there's room. She's still RF in the car and will be for a long time, but I thought it might be easier to FF on the plane, and at 18 months I'm comfortable doing that for a flight. I may end up implementing the towel idea; I more or less improvised something like that when my bigger kid was complaining.

I would end up having the same problem with the Graco Extend2Fit, right? I haven't ever used that one FFing. Is the seatbelt path between the lining and the shell so that the buckle would still bother her, like it does in the Marathon?

Thanks again.
 

MomWithKid

New member
I have this same problem with our scenera next so I am joining this thread.

I do love our combi coccoro since this seatbelt buckle problem doesn't exist with this seat. But my older son has outgrown it rear facing.
 

Cnidaria

New member
The Evenflo SureRide has the same problem forward-facing (as does the Maestro). I've always just brought a kid-size piece of clothing in my carry-on to put next to the buckle, under the cover. My son has done fine with this.

Lgenne is correct that using a seatbelt extender doesn't affect this problem, because the webbing attached to the female end is still the same length. I do like using an extender for these seats anyway, just to make them easier to uninstall at the end.
 

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