First you need to decide on a specific philosophy. Ours was to check the stroller with our luggage, wear Grey & gate check the car seat. We've done this on both trips so far, and it's worked out fairly well. Some parents opt for gate checking the stroller also and using it throughout the airport. For us, it just seemed like another thing to lug (especially through TSA), so we wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. Regardless of whether you gate check the car seat/stroller or check-check them, you'll want to get covers for them. I've seem plenty of parents who choose not to do so, but we figured that we paid way too much for our travel system to let it get torn up. Here's the covers we bought for the car seat and stroller - both are working out phenomenally.
Once we arrived at the airport, we immediately packed up both the stroller & car seat and wore Grey in our Ergo 360 on the airport shuttle and throughout the airport. We knew that we needed to bring Grey's birth certificate, so both trips we've opted to go to the ticket counter to check our bags instead of using the curbside service. Curbside may work just fine, but we haven't taken that risk yet.
Security...this was much easier than I thought it would be. All I can say is get there early and exercise your patience. All airports that we have visited allowed me to wear Grey through without taking him out of the carrier. They just had me go through the metal detector, swabbed my hands, and then checked our bags. We kept all his baby food and meds in one backpack. I was able to take this out quite easily and put it in a bin. We also had to bring a soft-sided cooler with a hard, plastic ice pack for Grey's prescription meds. This was all easy - just takes time. One other word of advice...do not - I repeat do not - use a soft ice pack. I've watched several of these be confiscated at security. Only use the hard plastic ice packs.
Once you get through security, you're home free. Give yourself a pat on the back for sure!! Here's a few other suggestions for the flight:
- Buy water after security to use on the plane for bottles & sippy cups.
- If gate checking an item, don't forget to check in at the gate before boarding.
- Feed your baby on take off and landing...unless they're sleeping. Our little guy didn't have any problems on take off or landing if he was sleeping.
- Most planes have a changing station in one of the bathrooms. on the Southwest flights we were on, the changing station was located in the front bathroom. It pulled down over the toilet. Tight fit but manageable. Take only the supplies you need. Most flight attendants will assist you if needed.
- Buy new toys and bring them out on the plane...but not before!!!
- The barf bag proves to be a great toy/puppet.
As I mentioned before, we are definitely not pros. So there's a thing or two we'd do differently knowing what we know now after these first couple of trips. The most apparent of these is...Uber or hire a car to/from the airport. Why you ask? Because lugging all that stuff is a pain in the a$$! The long-term parking at the KC airport requires you to take a shuttle to/from the actual terminal. The ride is short, and the busses are a decent size. However, it's not a quick process to lug a car seat, stroller, two suitcases, two backpacks and 2.5 humans on/off the bus. When you arrive at the terminal, other passengers just want to get the heck off as they scramble to their gate...or they want to get the heck on anxious to get to their cars. This does not lend itself to the two trips that it takes to gather all this stuff and lug it off or on the bus. Next time...we're taking an Uber who can drop us off or pick us up right at the terminal. No more shuttle busses when I can help it! We'll try this out in October - our next schedule flight. Until then...
Travel safe.
Travel smart.
Cheers!
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