Flying with Four Kids

[AmandaR]

We are flying cross country with four kids (coast to coast). It's only two legs thankfully (layover in Atlanta) and about 9 hours total. I have four kids ages 3 (4 in September), 2 (3 in November), and 1.5 and 6 months.

Someone is meeting us at our destination with our car and car seats. We are buying a plane seat for everyone.

We're thinking F goes in his infant carrier (anyone know about the B Safe fitting on planes?).

Then CARES for the older three.

Then for layovers we'd hold hands for the older two and then Ergo the 1 y/o and carry baby in the B Safe.

I'd like to take a car seat on the plane for the 1 y/o but that really increases how much we'll be carrying.




ETA: Just realized my oldest kid is too tall for the CARES. Would you go against the height or put her in just a plain airline seat?

Does that sound like it would work?

 

[bnsnyde]

I just flew with four kids ages 1, 2, 4 and 5. Each one had a carseat on the plane and the two youngest were rear-facing. Whew! (The flight attendants seemed so overwhelmed they recommended Cares for next time but Cares won't fit my oldest. Not even sure the second oldest.)
Not that we NEEDED to bring a carseat for all on the plane but I figured why not.

I can only say good luck. Your kids are even younger than mine. I would do a carseat for all on the plane. Though I know that's logistically difficult. But they are all 3 and under. It's really not bad with a luggage cart. Get Sceneras and they are very light. That's what we did for everyone who fit! And the oldest needed a Maestro.

Plan to have a lot of install time for four carseats at the destination. Have fun!
And print the FAA rules b/c the flight attendants won't know them. Our kids were split up and by strangers. I didn't mind but just so you know, the flight attendants don't always know what the regulations are!

 

[armyfam]

I'd definitely bring carseats. At least for the 3 youngest. My infant seat did not work on the plane bc the person in front of me could not recline her seat at all. It was an Onboard 35 and a 12 hour flight(big stinking ordeal!).
I would seriously try to get someone in the airport to drive you around in the little cart

 

[calihannah]

I would suggest DEFINITELY printing out the FAA circular http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/avia...afety/info/all_infos/media/2009/info09002.pdf and taking it with you on board. The person sitting in front of the infant seat did not purchase a reclining seat; she purchased the ability to sit on the plane (assuming this is a US airline governed by the FAA). The airline has the responsibility to reseat you to allow your seat to work, per the advisory I linked to above. I know it's NO fun to stand up against arguments, especially not during travel, but your child has the right to be safe on the airplane!

I've taken a Chicco KF30 on many planes and didn't have much trouble, and it's similar to the B-Safe. I should note that we mostly end up with Economy Plus seats though, which have a bit more legroom. That may have made a difference.

 

[Ali]

I would definitely take the seats. The few minutes of arranging is so worth having them contained on the plane. Try to get 3 seats in front of each other then RF won't be an issue.

 

[lovemybabies924]

I would bring a carseat for the youngest two and cares for the rest I'm flying on Tuesday and bringing a cco and maestro for the youngest. Two

 

[Jan06twinmom]

How big are your children?

Is someone meeting you at your destination with your own car seats already or are you borrowing seats from someone else? Is taking your own seats on the plane a possibility? If so, what seats do you have?

We flew cross country (California to Florida) without harness car seats when my twins were 6 1/2 years old for the first time. One of the problems we had is that my children couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep on the plane since they didn't have any headwings to lean against.

Melanie

 

[AmandaR]

How big are your children?

Is someone meeting you at your destination with your own car seats already or are you borrowing seats from someone else? Is taking your own seats on the plane a possibility? If so, what seats do you have?

We flew cross country (California to Florida) without harness car seats when my twins were 6 1/2 years old for the first time. One of the problems we had is that my children couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep on the plane since they didn't have any headwings to lean against.

Melanie

Our older two have Frontiers and I am not lugging two Frontiers on the plane lol. My parents are driving our Odyssey across and meeting us there with the Frontiers. We decided last night I think we'll take the two younger ones car seats.
I have flown with car seats before and I honestly don't think lugging four car seats and four toddlers is actually a feasible option.

My almost 4 y/o is 43in, 42lbs.
My 2nd is 3 in November and 34lbs, 38in.
My 3rd has a Roundabout 55 we're bringing and is 36in and 31lbs.
My little guy is 19lbs and 27in.

 

[Mommy!]

I would bring carseats for all of the children. All except the oldest should fit in Scenera's (I assume they have the same 40lb limit in the USA as we do in Canada). Most children that age will do much better on a longish flight like that in their seats, be more likely to sleep comfortably thus enabling you to keep your sanity Scenera's are nice and light and we always found our reasonably easy to install, just set the harness heights up in advance. If you can arrange for valet (big golf cart) transportation in the airports that would make things much easier for you.

By the way glad to hear you bought seats for all of them! You spent the money, just consider having to buy a couple of Scenera's as part of your flight expenses to keep the kids safe.

By the way the reason I will never fly without my children properly restrained is last year I was on a flight (on business no kids with me) that skidded on the runway while landing in the rain, I felt the passenger behind me hit the seatback, and a lap baby also went flying, paramedics had to meet the plane and took the child off on a backboard.

 

[AmandaR]

I guess I'm not understanding why the CARES harness wouldn't be acceptable for my almost 3 y/o??? We are bringing seats for the younger two. My oldest has long outgrown the Scenera even FFing.

 

[Brianna]

The CARES harness does not tighten the lap belt, many small children do not fit properly because of this.

Sent from my DROID4 using Car-Seat.Org

 

[armyfam]

I would suggest DEFINITELY printing out the FAA circular http://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/info/all_infos/media/2009/info09002.pdf and taking it with you on board. The person sitting in front of the infant seat did not purchase a reclining seat; she purchased the ability to sit on the plane (assuming this is a US airline governed by the FAA). The airline has the responsibility to reseat you to allow your seat to work, per the advisory I linked to above. I know it's NO fun to stand up against arguments, especially not during travel, but your child has the right to be safe on the airplane!

I've taken a Chicco KF30 on many planes and didn't have much trouble, and it's similar to the B-Safe. I should note that we mostly end up with Economy Plus seats though, which have a bit more legroom. That may have made a difference.

I agree! If traveling with your infant seat, I'd go to the gate early and speak to an agent. Definitely board early. It was terrible for us. The person in front of dd reclined her seat( im sure on purpose!)before we even sat down to install the seat so we couldn't even fit the seat there to begin with. We were flying from Korea and the Korean flight attendant did not know what to do. Her English wasn't the best. It was ugly and I was almost in tears. Dd was 1.5 at the time so I felt comfortable with not using the Onboard and putting her into Dd2(4.5) radian FF. The international flight was full and No one would help. On a side note, I think I like traveling with dd Rf in a convertible bc the seat belt install on the infant seat without a base annoys her.

 

[calihannah]

Here's my DD1 when she was 26 months old, about 28lbs 10oz - 75th percentile
35.5 inches - 90th percentile (so the same size as my current 20-month-old, lovely!).

We had our car seat (Scenera) with us, but this was a tiny SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) plane that really was too small for the car seat. Fortunately, we had the CARES as a backup, and the flight was about 2 hours long. She did fine in the harness, and the lap belt did tighten enough to restrain her. I don't think I would have wanted her in it if she would have needed to nap, though.