I did not have a good experience with the CARES harness. My large 3 yo (just turned 3) kept sliding out of it, and he was sitting pretty still. He also could not sleep in it,which was a real problem on a transatlantic flight. We also inhibited the tray table behind us if we put it in the best spot. I wouldn't use it again. I rented one on ebay instead of buying.

We took our Britax Roundabout on Southwest a few weeks ago for our 2 year old and had no problems at all. The seat was bulky to haul through the airport, so I would say that was definitely the worst part. Once we were on the plane my son sat in it happily (it is his normal car seat) and the flight was fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hated the CARES harness. I've used an Evenflo Maestro, a Cosco Scenera, a Diono Radian, and a Safety 1st Complete Air. All of them fit, though the CA was a bit tight.

The Cosco Scenera is $40 and a very light seat. A lot of people buy them as travel seats. They can be more complicated to install in a car than many other seats, though.

If you're able to get a bulkhead seat, you can put the seat forward facing with no seat kicking.

10:09 here, I was asking to confirm about the CARES harness. Could you elaborate on why you didn't like using it?

My son slide down in the seat so his legs would fall at the front of the seat and the CARES harness was up around his abdomen. He was really uncomfortable and if, heaven forbid, there had been anything that actually required the harness from a safety standpoint, it would have resulted in internal injuries. He was much more comfortable traveling in a car seat.

I concur with PP about the Scenera .. I would definitely try it out before buying one. It's cheap and light but it's definitely not cushy and not terribly user friendly.

I'm the PP at 10:28 and I should have also mentioned -- we bought the cheap Cosco scenera for one trip with my toddler and she cried the whole time that it was hard and uncomfortable. We could never get it strapped into the car tightly, either, so we ended up just leaving it at the parking garage when we returned the rental.

If you do really really want to bring the car seat, I found the best way to transport it was to bungee cord it into your stroller. Another mom on this forum recommended that and it was a great solution. Super easy to detach it for security and at the gate.

Car seat on the plane is a terrible idea, IMHO. Think about how small the seats are to start with. The car seat pushes the child forward so that their knees are wedged against the seat in front of them. If they move at all, they are kicking the seat in front of them (plus they can't move at all). Also, it raises them up so that the lap tray will not come down over the lap, which means they have no place to put their drink and no place to color or anything. The trip I took with a 2 year old in a car seat was the longest 3 hours of my life.

We do usually bring a pillow or two to pack in around them in the seat. That helps them feel cozy.

Anonymous wrote:I hated the CARES harness. I've used an Evenflo Maestro, a Cosco Scenera, a Diono Radian, and a Safety 1st Complete Air. All of them fit, though the CA was a bit tight.

The Cosco Scenera is $40 and a very light seat. A lot of people buy them as travel seats. They can be more complicated to install in a car than many other seats, though.

If you're able to get a bulkhead seat, you can put the seat forward facing with no seat kicking.

10:09 here, I was asking to confirm about the CARES harness. Could you elaborate on why you didn't like using it?

I hated the CARES harness. I've used an Evenflo Maestro, a Cosco Scenera, a Diono Radian, and a Safety 1st Complete Air. All of them fit, though the CA was a bit tight.

The Cosco Scenera is $40 and a very light seat. A lot of people buy them as travel seats. They can be more complicated to install in a car than many other seats, though.

If you're able to get a bulkhead seat, you can put the seat forward facing with no seat kicking.

NP here - could someone confirm, please, to be sure, is this the CARES product posters are mentioning?
https://www.amazon.com/Child-Airplane-Travel-Harness-Restraint/dp/B0012E4FV8/ref=sr_1_1_s_it?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1481554645&sr=1-1&keywords=CARES+harness

Between two kids, we've brought the carseat on dozens of plane rides. It's a bit of a PITA, but not too bad at all. For my kids, having the carseat means they are in a seat that they are comfortable in, they can be securely strapped safely for take off and landing, and I don't have to be some sort of child wrangler trying to make sure they stay seated and buckled.
We stopped using the carseats when both kids were about 3 - by that point, I could trust them to sit still in the seat and not play with it or unbuckle it.
As for getting through the airport - we used a million different things. Hated the go-go-wheelie-thingy, although I realize other people love it.
What ended up working best was wearing the kid in an ergo and pushing the carseat in the stroller. I know it sounds weird, but it was easy and convenient and the kids were happy and we were happy.