Aer lingus and car seats

[biddyk8]

Has anyone flown Aer lingus with a car seat recently? We have a choice of Aer lingus or United for our flights home.

Aer lingus say they allow car seats from 6-36 months but it has to be forward facing and under 17".

United obviously follow FAA rules so allow rearfacing.

Just wondering how much of a pain aer lingus are to deal with about car seats in general? One leg of the flight would be codeshared with united anyway so I could still RF on that leg I assume?

Is a FF seat on the plane very hard for a baby to sleep in? As that would be the overnight part.

 

[ketchupqueen]

FF is so much less comfortable for sleeping. How old is your baby? If not a year and over the minimum (20-23 lbs.) for forward-facing, your seat isn't approved for use that way anyway. And I have a friend whose seats were taken away by Aer Lingus for her 2 year old. I wouldn't want to risk it, and would go with United.

 

[biddyk8]

We have no flight booked but likely will have to at some point this year, she will be over 1 at the time and likely over 22lbs, she was 21ish last time she was weighed but had a bug so dropped a 1lb or 2 since then.

I know aerlingus used to not allow car seats for over 2 year olds, and have now changed it to over 3 year olds. I don't want to risk them taking it away but its also over 1k price difference. And having already struggled to persuade hubby to buy a seat for her, another 1k could be a set too far to persuade.

They do ask you to confirm via email if bringing seat so I would have it in writing from them, or do you still think too big a risk?

 

[ketchupqueen]

I am uncomfortable with a one year old forward facing for both comfort and safety reasons. I'd part what it took to ensure safety, personally.

 

[biddyk8]

She would be at least 18 months based on current plans and will rf in the car when we land. I read here previously that in the air rfing was purely for comfort and had no increase safety wise over ffing, has this changed? If it has then I will pay the extra as its for safety.

 

[ketchupqueen]

Most preventable injuries and deaths in planes are runway incidents. Hard landings, hard stops, plane vs. plane and plane vs. fence crashes, etc. These events are the same forces in the car but at several hundred miles per hour. Internal decapitation is a high risk in them. Yes, they are rare, but the risk is there and is enough for me to refuse to ff under two years on a plane.

 

[cantabdad]

She would be at least 18 months based on current plans and will rf in the car when we land. I read here previously that in the air rfing was purely for comfort and had no increase safety wise over ffing, has this changed? If it has then I will pay the extra as its for safety.

When you're (literally) in the air, the main concern is turbulence and my understanding is that there is little difference between FF and RF; the main thing is to be secured in some way.

On the taxiway/runway, as KetchupQueen noted, there is the chance of a hard stop, collision, or forward impact, where it would be advantageous to be RF.

That being said, because FAA's recommendation is for children to RF up to 20 lbs. and then FF from 20-40 lbs., I personally would be comfortable with FF for an 18-month-old who is over 20 lbs. Especially if it is going to save you enough money to be able to afford getting your child her own seat in the first place.

Commercial aviation is very safe to start with. Having a child in an FAA-approved child restraint makes it even safer. While RF would be of course be *even safer* I think statistically we are starting to get into very small numbers.

In terms of comfort and the ability to sleep, I think RF definitely gets the edge based on my limited observations.

 

[biddyk8]

. Especially if it is going to save you enough money to be able to afford getting your child her own seat in the first place.

:yeahthatlove: Buying her a seat already rules out our normal airlines for part of the flight, so our flights home have went from $1600 last year to $3600. If we then have to go to the dearer airline again to RF her it brings it up to $4500 which makes the entire trip un-doable.

I think if she was in the CA or similar which I can recline FF she should be able to sleep that way.

 

[cantabdad]

Buying her a seat already rules out our normal airlines for part of the flight, so our flights home have went from $1600 last year to $3600.

Just out of curiosity, which airlines are ruled out? Is it another European carrier with an even more inflexible policy on carseats?

 

[biddyk8]

Yep, we normally get a connection involving some of the budget airlines. Easyjet and Ryanair don't allow car seats on board at all, just the lap belt attachment.

Just means all the legs have to be the bigger airlines.