Car rental when traveling with an infant

[Anonymous]

New mom here, we are planning a trip to Colorado to visit friends, and I am feeling lost with some logistics. DD is 4.5 months and we have a Graco infant carseat that we were planning on using for the flight. When we get there, what exactly do people do with the car rental? Do you just seatbelt the carseat in the back seat? I know that is ok in a cab, but is that legal in a rented car? I heard that you can rent a car with a carseat, but can you rent one with a base? Are all bases interchangeable? Or do you just ask for a convertable carseat, and then we just don't use our infant seat?

And, do we need to bring DD's birth certificate for a domestic flight? If so, is a copy ok, or do we need the original?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Take a deep breath.

1. Use a car seat on the flight.
2. Rent the car and belt the car seat in. Or ask the company if they rent car seats with bases. I would bring the car seat's own base with me as checked baggage, and ask if the rental car has LATCH.
3. Keep the birth certificate safely at home. Bring a copy to prove she is your child (airlines love making difficulties).
4. A seat with aisle access and near a bathroom is handy if they do not give you the first-row bassinet (in which you can change her).
5. Ingratiate yourself with the airline staff to get better baby service.
6. Stare down rude passengers if you breastfeed during the flight.
7. Have her nurse when the plane starts to land, unless she is asleep, to avoid painful ears.

Enjoy the trip.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for the comments. Re the infant seat... not sure that bringing the base would be feasible -- we have an older car so we didn't use the latch, and removing the base and then-reinstalling it would be a pain (especially as we likely will drive to the airport).

When you seatbelt in an infant seat, I assume you don't put it in the middle. Is one side better than the other (ie, passenger v. drivers side)? Sorry to be so obtuse!

[Anonymous]

Read your manuals (car and car seat). They should tell you everything you need to know about installation.

[Anonymous]

Most of the rental cos. don't want to deal with car seats anymore because they perceive them as too big a liability risk. Even if they rent them they usually will not help you install them, which means you have to figure out how to install a seat you've never seen before. I would just install it with the seatbelt (even do a trial run ahead of time in your car if you never have before). No reason you can't put it in the middle-- in fact sometimes that works best if you don't want/need the shoulder strap.

No need to bring the birth certificate (I think it's only necc. to prove the baby is under 2, but that shouldn't be an issue )

[Anonymous]

The infant car seat should install securely with the seat belt. Just be sure you pull the seat belt out all the way, so that it makes a clicking noise as it retracts, then tighten the seat securely as you did when you installed the base at home. The car seat manual will describe this, and that was good advice to do a trial run at home.

I have flown with my two children more times than I can count over the last 10 years, and have never, ever been asked for any id for them. I think TSA's web site might even say something about not needing id for passengers under a certain age. Lately, though, TSA has started asking each kid his or her name and age (not applicable to yours!)

[Anonymous]

I have a couple of ideas for you:

1) do you know anyone in Colorado with kids (ideally no longer infants)? We've had great success borrowing car seats from friends who live in the destination city and have kids who are no longer using their car seat?

2) Go to Children's Hospital or another place that does free car seat checks and get them to show you how to install your car seat base in your car (using seat belt) and ask them to show you how to do it in a car with a latch. Call Children's for details about where and when they offer the car seat check ups.

3) All cars built after 2002 are required by law to include latches. IMHO using the latch is MUCH easier than using the belt. Assuming you rent a car from one of the big companies, your car will definitely have latches.

4) Read the manual of the rental car, it will explicitly tell you where to install the car seat (middle or side). This is very important as all cars are different (ex. for my Subaru Forester we can only install car seats on the side - not the middle.)

5) Definitely bring a copy of your baby's birth certificate. It depends on what airline you fly - some will ask for proof that baby is under 2 (assuming lap baby), many will not ask for proof. Southwest requires it.

DS and I have flown many, many times staring when he was 8 weeks old and it really is not that bad - especially when they are young!

Good luck and have fun!

[Anonymous]

PP here - while we're on the subject I want to make sure that everyone knows that facts about car seats.

I don;t mean to sound preachy but, did you know that 4 out of 5 car seats are installed incorrectly? Case in point, DH installed our car seat and then we went to Children's Hospital and had it checked. Although it looked fine to us, there were major problems with it and our DS could have been seriously injured in a crash. I have since been back to Children's two more times - when DS moved to rear facing convertible car seat and when we adjusted the seat to make it forward facing!

The folks at Children's are very good, they know the ins and outs of installation, and they will take their time showing you how to install the seat correctly - which is a must if you ever plan to remove the seat to travel with it.

Visit the Children's website or call the directory for more information.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks to everyone for the comments. I am leaning towards taking our snap-n-go and using the infant seat on the plane, and then trying to rent a car with a convertable carseat already installed. DH flies a ton and wanted to get 2 business seats with miles, but I said I'd prefer to go economy and get 3 seats for the same miles so we can have the infant seat.

[Anonymous]

Make sure your carseat is approved for air travel because if not you will not be able to use it on the plane.

Maybe you'll be lucky but there is not way I would rent a car seat from a car rental company. The ones I've seen aren't clean and don't look like anything I'd want to put my infant in.

[Anonymous]

Rented acar with a car seat when DS was 5 months old and it was, to say the least, hazardous. No way this thing met any safety standards. They gave me the seat and no locking clip and no manual. So we spent a day of our vacation trying to install it properly, then trying to find a bloody locking clip. Horrible. I know it's a pain, but bring a seat. Check it and hold your baby on your lap during the flight. Just MHO

[Anonymous]

We used the base on the flight. Otherwise the carseat (we had the same one) isn't properly installed on the plane, and then what's the point of bringing it at all?

It was a pain to lug, yes. Does it fit in your stroller basket? We always bring the stroller all the way to boarding and then gate check it. It's very helpful to have it in the airport to hang smaller bags off of, not to mention keep you from having to carry db the whole way.

[Anonymous]

OP here again... thanks for your experience with the car rental seats. Ideally, we could confirm ahead of time what carseat is offered, does it have a latch, etc, and then I can see if we can print a manual from on-line. And then I can just bring some scissors and cut some holes in a cheap receiving blanket and completely cover the rental seat.

I suppose we could buy another base ($65 or so) -- I won't take the one out of my car as it took forever to install because it is an older car and we couldn't use the latch. The last thing I want is to land at Dulles at 10:00 pm and have to re-install the base into our car.

A final option... a friend offered to lend us a convertable carseat, and we just take that with us on the plane. But then we'd also have to get a new stroller a bit earlier than we intended, as we only have the snap-n-go (and, I know it is a whole other issue checking nice strollers at airlines...). DD will just barely be able to sit up, so she probably wouldn't be a candidate for a cheap umbrella stroller.

And, yes, I checked, the Graco infant seat has the sticker that it is certified for air travel.

Thanks again everyone for your insight. I never would have expected these issues to take up so much of my time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again... thanks for your experience with the car rental seats. Ideally, we could confirm ahead of time what carseat is offered, does it have a latch, etc, and then I can see if we can print a manual from on-line. And then I can just bring some scissors and cut some holes in a cheap receiving blanket and completely cover the rental seat.

I suppose we could buy another base ($65 or so) -- I won't take the one out of my car as it took forever to install because it is an older car and we couldn't use the latch. The last thing I want is to land at Dulles at 10:00 pm and have to re-install the base into our car.

A final option... a friend offered to lend us a convertable carseat, and we just take that with us on the plane. But then we'd also have to get a new stroller a bit earlier than we intended, as we only have the snap-n-go (and, I know it is a whole other issue checking nice strollers at airlines...). DD will just barely be able to sit up, so she probably wouldn't be a candidate for a cheap umbrella stroller.

And, yes, I checked, the Graco infant seat has the sticker that it is certified for air travel.

Thanks again everyone for your insight. I never would have expected these issues to take up so much of my time!

I would recommend just using your own seat in the car. While I don't have the same seat (we have the SafeSeat), I imagine Graco's are quite similar. Assuming it operates the same way, you *can* safely install the infant seat just using a seat belt - the seat belt just runs through the plastic channels on the top of the seat. For a seat that has an old fashioned lap belt or on the plane, it is as simple as making sure the seat belt is pulled tight. For a belt with a retractable shoulder belt, you may need to use a locking piece to make sure the belt is locked tight - this is a piece of metal sort of shaped like a figure eight that holds the 2 sides of the belt together. On our infant seat it came with it, and is stored on the bottom of the seat (flip over your seat and look for it.)

Also definitely 2nd your suggestion of 3 seats in Economy over 2 Business class seats. We got upgraded to first when flying with our DD (Around that age), and we actually wound up moving one of us back into Economy when she *finally* fell asleep in one of the seats - she would have been MUCH happier if she'd just been in her own infant seat (whenever she flew in that, she basically just slept the whole way - it was great!)

Good luck, and enjoy your trip. And try not to stress - believe it or not, flying with infants is really pretty straightforward - it's just the unknownness that's scary.