Baby Seats

[What_does_this_button_do?]

Going on holiday on Saturday with baby for the first time; what's the rule on car seats?

Have purchased a seat for baby (C class). I was wondering if this was good enough for the takeoff and landing bit, i.e. won't need to have baby on my lap if I had purchased a seat for her on the plane and she was in her car seat (rear facing) which was seat belted in.

Am I right? or what are the regulations. It's a BA flight....

Buttons

[Desk Driver]

Most UK airlines only accept Brittax & Mothercare. It's OK for the little one to sit in it for Take off & Landing.

Have a good trip!

[ruthie]

Actually we only accept that babies can only sit in the seat for take off and landing if it is forward facing. Of course it can be used during flight as long as it can be strapped in properly

[chilled]

Baby must be facing forward and the seat will need to have a metal frame on the back for it to be strapped in properly.
Have a good trip.

[What_does_this_button_do?]

Bit worrying, one question 3 different answers!

Which one is the right one? Can anyone from BA answer?

[Slaaag]

5 point harness
Forward facing
Metal frame
That it can be secured properly
British standards kite mark
Car seat in good condition

Table must not be attached for t/o and ldg.

Hope this helps

[ruthie]

That last answer is right in our company anyway, although I was told on my last refresher course that the CAA are looking into changing the metal frame bit to fit with the modern car seats which are made of plastic.

[Bird Strike]

Hey Buttons,

Congratulations! I didn't know you recently had a baby...

[Big Red ' L ']

On a recent virgin express flight to Shannon from Gatwick, we had to leave our seat at the doors when we boarded. When we got off the plane at Shannon, our seat was at the bottom of the stairs(on the ramp, outside the plane) alongside a few prams and 2 other baby seats.It was the same going back. Ba wanted an extra £30 just for the baby..!! The baby was strapped to me with an extension belt for all of the flight. Our car seat is brand new. It came 1st in the 'which' baby seat guide. It is made by 'Graco' Didnt get much change out of £110 and shes almost grown out of it already...!!(14 weeks old) So,with having the safest seat around, they still wouldnt let us take it on the aircraft. Good luck to you with you baby on your flight.

------------------
Its not the fall that kills you...Its the sudden stop.....

[RATBOY]

The deal in the U.S. has been that there are no child safety seats certified or approved by FAA. If a seat is in good condition and is approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration then it is okay with the FAA. Whether it can be used on a specific commercial air carrier flight is between mum/dad and the airline and oh by the way fork over for another ticket.

It is kind of logical when you think about it that if the child seat is okay for automobiles it should be okay for airliners and it is a lot easier to get it fitted with the "real seatbelts" in airplanes than with the combination shoulder belt/lap belt abominations in automobiles. If the FAA did start certifying I don't want to know how much the seat would cost.

[What_does_this_button_do?]

Well, here's the update:

Got on the plane with baby in [Graco] car seat.
Stewardness came over and offered an extension belt to strap the seat in.
CSD came over and told her to "get out of the way". Told us quite stearnly to remove child from car seat and afix her to our lap for take off and landing.
CSD them removes car seat from us and stores it somewhere (possibly damaging seat if stowed the wrong way and something was to fall on it).
Got seat back once we levelled and strapped into the seat.
Baby has nice ride and snooze before same CSD comes back and tells us at TOD to get her back on our lap.

During the flight the CSD tells us how many safety videos she's seen and how baby wouldn't survive in the car seat but couldn't explain how baby would survive if the "brace" position had to be adopted as the person wouldn't be able to double over - she hadn't seen the video on that and couldn't answer.

This was a bad move as unknowing to the CSD the wife is a leading radiographer specialising in spinal and neurosurgical imaging; all the time she was biting her tongue gasping to let rip but somehow she managed to stay shtum. Lucky for me!

The stewardess who first helped was a charm and a delight; it's a pity the CSD wasn't.

This performance even after the check in agent called BA control at my request after seeing these responses to ensure that there wouldn't be a problem - no problem was the message from LGW's BA Control.

We're on holiday now - let's see how the trip back is going to be.