Canadian Car Seats on US Planes - Problems?

While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on the
plane (if they do at all).

My problem is that I do a lot of air travel with American air carriers
and we are Canadian and bought our son's carseat in Canada. It comes
with a sticker on the carseat that says it is 'Certified for air
travel'. I have not traveled with my son on a plane yet, but plan to
a couple of times in the spring when he is almost 2 years. I could've
got free seats for both flights, but I will purchase a seat so he is
safe and sound in his carseat.

We have already booked one flight on United. United's policy seems to
be quite liberal (as long as your seat conforms to all the safety
standards in the US and is certified for air travel, everything is
fine). Now, I have confirmed this on the phone with an agent and read
this on their website, but I am SOOOO AFRAID that some dipsh*t at the
ticket counter or the gate is going to give us a hard time about
bringing a 'Canadian' carseat on the plane.

A friend of mine had this problem on Continental. The ticket agent
said the carseat needed to be 'FAA' approved (a Canadian-made carseat
will NEVER be FAA approved to my knowledge) and would not allow her to
seat her son in it. She bought a seat and was refused the use of her
carseat (which defeated the whole point of reserving a seat). She did
not receive a refund for the empty seat.

Now, Continental's website does say the carseat does need to be FAA
approved, so I see their point (my friend probably should have checked
on this before she booked the flight). I have another friend who
successfully brought their Canadian-made carseat on board with no
trouble.

My problem with this whole business, is that it almost seems 'at the
descretion' of the ticket agent whether or not they are willing to let
you use the carseat based on their 'understanding' or 'interpretation'
of the rules. In most cases in the retail/customer service world, I
don't have a problem with this, cuz not much is at stake. But, in
this case, it means we don't fly (I would never fly without my son's
carseat) and our whole vacation is ruined.

Do you think it would be prudent of me to get a letter from United
(for my existing reservation) stating that my carseat would be okay
(they did not have a 'list' of acceptable carseats) in the event of a
problem at the ticket counter?

I was planning on booking my next flight with Continental - until my
friend told me this story and I confirmed it on their website. Now I
am afraid to book with them.

Can anyone confirm what rights I have here? What should I do to ensure
I book a seat with the right airline and that I am well-prepared for a
confrontation at the ticket-counter if our understandings of the
policies differ?

Thanks!
Paula

Your chance of getting a letter from UA is probably nil.

"Paula" wrote in message
om...
While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on the
plane (if they do at all).

My problem is that I do a lot of air travel with American air carriers
and we are Canadian and bought our son's carseat in Canada. It comes
with a sticker on the carseat that says it is 'Certified for air
travel'. I have not traveled with my son on a plane yet, but plan to
a couple of times in the spring when he is almost 2 years. I could've
got free seats for both flights, but I will purchase a seat so he is
safe and sound in his carseat.

We have already booked one flight on United. United's policy seems to
be quite liberal (as long as your seat conforms to all the safety
standards in the US and is certified for air travel, everything is
fine). Now, I have confirmed this on the phone with an agent and read
this on their website, but I am SOOOO AFRAID that some dipsh*t at the
ticket counter or the gate is going to give us a hard time about
bringing a 'Canadian' carseat on the plane.

A friend of mine had this problem on Continental. The ticket agent
said the carseat needed to be 'FAA' approved (a Canadian-made carseat
will NEVER be FAA approved to my knowledge) and would not allow her to
seat her son in it. She bought a seat and was refused the use of her
carseat (which defeated the whole point of reserving a seat). She did
not receive a refund for the empty seat.

Now, Continental's website does say the carseat does need to be FAA
approved, so I see their point (my friend probably should have checked
on this before she booked the flight). I have another friend who
successfully brought their Canadian-made carseat on board with no
trouble.

My problem with this whole business, is that it almost seems 'at the
descretion' of the ticket agent whether or not they are willing to let
you use the carseat based on their 'understanding' or 'interpretation'
of the rules. In most cases in the retail/customer service world, I
don't have a problem with this, cuz not much is at stake. But, in
this case, it means we don't fly (I would never fly without my son's
carseat) and our whole vacation is ruined.

Do you think it would be prudent of me to get a letter from United
(for my existing reservation) stating that my carseat would be okay
(they did not have a 'list' of acceptable carseats) in the event of a
problem at the ticket counter?

I was planning on booking my next flight with Continental - until my
friend told me this story and I confirmed it on their website. Now I
am afraid to book with them.

Can anyone confirm what rights I have here? What should I do to ensure
I book a seat with the right airline and that I am well-prepared for a
confrontation at the ticket-counter if our understandings of the
policies differ?

Thanks!
Paula

Paula wrote:

What should I do to ensure
I book a seat with the right airline and that I am well-prepared for a
confrontation at the ticket-counter if our understandings of the
policies differ?

I don't know if this will help you any, but we've brought car seats on
Jet Blue several times and they've never looked to see what kind they
were.

--
Sara

"What people do all day? Mayor Fox. Bunny! Bunny! Hop!
Bunny! Bunny! Bunny! No... bunny."

In article , 127.0.0.1 says...

On 9 Dec 2004 14:44:24 -0800, (Paula) wrote:

While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on the
plane (if they do at all).
is that so? no airline I've ever flown allows car seats to be used on
their planes

??!?

I always ticketed my son and brought a car seat aboard United Airlines.

Banty

Are you close enough to the airport to go and check with the UA people long
before your planned flight?

"127.0.0.1" wrote in message
...
On 9 Dec 2004 14:44:24 -0800, (Paula) wrote:

While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on the
plane (if they do at all).
is that so? no airline I've ever flown allows car seats to be used on
their planes

I've flown with a child's carseat on United, Air Canada, American,
Southwest, and Aloha. I've seen carseats also on Luftansa, Air France,
Virgin, British Air, and ATA. I'm interested in what airlines don't allow
any car seats to be used.

In article ,
127.0.0.1 wrote:

On 9 Dec 2004 14:44:24 -0800, (Paula) wrote:

While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on the
plane (if they do at all).
is that so? no airline I've ever flown allows car seats to be used on
their planes

This poster may be non-usaian. Australian domestic airlines will not
allow carseats onboard - unless you take them to the airport a minimum
of three *days* before the flight and leave them there for an "aircraft
engineer" to install on your flight. At first I thought it was a joke,
but they are serious. As a result all children under 3 years are lap
children. I regularly fly the Sydney-Gold Coast route (big tourist
destination) and it is a nightmare of of enormous "lap babies".

eggs.

eggs wrote:
In article ,
127.0.0.1 wrote:

On 9 Dec 2004 14:44:24 -0800, (Paula) wrote:

While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on
the plane (if they do at all).
is that so? no airline I've ever flown allows car seats to be used on
their planes

This poster may be non-usaian. Australian domestic airlines will not
allow carseats onboard - unless you take them to the airport a minimum
of three *days* before the flight and leave them there for an
"aircraft engineer" to install on your flight. At first I thought it
was a joke, but they are serious. As a result all children under 3
years are lap children. I regularly fly the Sydney-Gold Coast route
(big tourist destination) and it is a nightmare of of enormous "lap
babies".


I've never seen a carseat on any domestic Australian flights either, nor on
Aus - NZ international flights. As far as I'm aware a child over two has to
have a seat but I could be wrong as far as domestic flights are concerned.
I've certainly always booked a seat for a child over two.

I wonder if all carseats would fit, btw? Some of them must have a shadow
wider than the average cattle-class economy seat in this part of the world.

Tai

In article , "Tai"
wrote:

eggs wrote:
In article ,
127.0.0.1 wrote:

On 9 Dec 2004 14:44:24 -0800, (Paula) wrote:

While I know you can reserve a seat for your child and bring your
carseat aboard a plane nowadays, I do not know how each airline
differs in their official 'policy' of what carseats they allow on
the plane (if they do at all).
is that so? no airline I've ever flown allows car seats to be used on
their planes

This poster may be non-usaian. Australian domestic airlines will not
allow carseats onboard - unless you take them to the airport a minimum
of three *days* before the flight and leave them there for an
"aircraft engineer" to install on your flight. At first I thought it
was a joke, but they are serious. As a result all children under 3
years are lap children. I regularly fly the Sydney-Gold Coast route
(big tourist destination) and it is a nightmare of of enormous "lap
babies".


I've never seen a carseat on any domestic Australian flights either, nor on
Aus - NZ international flights. As far as I'm aware a child over two has to
have a seat but I could be wrong as far as domestic flights are concerned.
I've certainly always booked a seat for a child over two.

I wonder if all carseats would fit, btw? Some of them must have a shadow
wider than the average cattle-class economy seat in this part of the world.

Tai

I think the letter of the law is "over two", but that gets interpreted
as "under three" ... but by the look of some of those kids, I'm thinking
they coach them to say they are "nearly three" when they are really
"four"!

eggs.

(Not a Canada US flight but to do with car seats on planes)

The biggest problem I had with taking a car seat on flight was that I was
told (after I had got the ok from the airline etc) by the flight attendant
that my DD couldn't be in the seat during take off and landing, and that the
seat had to be stowed away. So here I was flying on my own from the UK to
New Zealand, and I would have to ask someone to hold DD, unstrap the seat,
manhandle it into the overhead lockers, get DD back, strap her to me using
the special belts they give you, take off, unstrap myself from her, get
someone to hold her, get seat down, strap seat in, put her in the seat
again......phew!! So about 8 times I had to go through this routine, and
each time the flight crew found themselves *busy* and said they couldn't
help me.

It was the flight from hell, and my rather long winded point (lol) is check
that your seat can be used at all times, which must include take off and
landings.

Best wishes
Pip
P.S It was a Britax car seat (cradle type with handle on the top that you
can clip back, 0-1year kind of age group)