Flying with Air Canada, share your experience, please!

[jenny08]

Hi,
We will be travelling with Air Canada from east to west.
From what I could see, the plane is far from being full.
We will have both of our children with us, a 5 year old, and a 10 month old.
We cannot afford buying a seat for the baby, so she will be travelling on our lap.
We are thinking of bringing both of the car seats as we have to rent a car at destination. The seat for the 5 year old can come with us on the plane, but in theory, not the bucket seat.
Knowing the plane is nit full, do you think Air canada would allow us bringing the bucket seat in the plane? Has anybody been in that situation?
Thanks!

 

[SnoGurl]

When are you traveling? If it's not in an hour or so, the plane could definitely still fill up.

What is your five year old riding in? Could you bring a booster for him (thinking turbo-- back the back and carry on the bottom), and then use a convertible on the plane for the five year old, but once at destination use it for the 10 month old?

As well as possible damage, I've heard waaaay too many horror stories of lost luggage with air canada lately-- i'd be very concerned about arriving and not having the bucket seat.

 

[jenny08]

True the plane could be full by the time we take it.
It's just in case it is not.
My 5 year old is quite petite, so she still need to be harnessed (she's 17 kg).
Oh you got me worried with Air Canada losing things!

 

[Olga]

We have flown with Air Canada a number of times, both within the country and internationally. When we had DD as a lap baby most of the time there was room on the plane and we were able to use an unoccupied seat to put her carseat into. Keep in mind that this was at least a year ago as DD is now 3 so we must buy her a seat now. If I were you I would bring the seat with you and hope to use it onboard. Worst case scenario is that you will need to gate check it, which is what you would be doing anyway it sounds like. And I do feel like you are less likely to have it lost if you gate check it right at the plane door as opposed to putting it with luggage at the counter (plus less likely to get damaged though of course, not impossible).

WestJet, on the other hand, as much as I love them for everything else, will not allow you to bring in a carseat if you have not purchased a seat for your baby. They used to but as of a couple years ago they seem to have restricted this.

 

[jenny08]

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!
I think we'll bring the car seat with us. The only inconvenience is that we don't have a travel system, so the car seat doesn't go on the stroller. We will have a lot to carry around!