Mythbusting: It’s Never Safe to Check a Car Seat When You Fly

Welcome to our ongoing Mythbusting Series where we explore common myths regarding kids and car seats.

MYTH: It’s never safe to check a car seat when you fly

The issue of how to best handle flying with kids and their car seats is something that comes up often. Many safety-conscious parents will bring the car seat with them knowing that their child will need to use it once they reach their destination. I applaud all those parents for doing the right thing!

However, for a variety of reasons, most parents don’t actually bring the car seat onto the plane and use it for their child during the flight. I suspect that many of those checked seats that I see on the baggage carousel belong to children under the age of 2, who wound up as lap babies on the flight.

Here at CarseatBlog, we have always recommended that you buy a ticket for your child (regardless of their age), bring their car seat and use it on the plane. But we fly often enough to realize that’s rarely the case. Plus, we’re trying to investigate the myth that a checked car seat is equivalent to a crashed seat and needs to be replaced.

Newborn on airplane – safe and comfortable!

Regardless of why parents chose to check their car seats, the fact remains that most families flying with car seats in tow do check them instead of lugging them through security and using them on the plane. And seats checked with luggage probably get tossed around and manhandled the same way luggage does. I somehow doubt that the baggage handlers suddenly look at the car seat and decide to handle it with care so they don’t crack the EPS foam, kwim?

Clearly, bad things can (and sometimes do) happen to a checked car seat, stroller or anything else that you weighed before handing over to an an airline employee. No one can argue with that.

But what if you’ve already flown with a checked car seat and it survived the experience. Maybe you’ve even checked it multiple times? Is it still safe to use that car seat? There are some CPS advocates that will argue that a checked car seat could have sustained significant damage during the time it was out of your sight and should be replaced as a precaution. Some might actually go so far as to suggest that the checked car seat is now “as good as crashed”.

I personally think that stance is way over the top but I understand the logic behind those opinions. I’ve seen how beat-up my luggage is sometimes when I reach my destination. Plus, many frequent flyers have witnessed first-hand some of the abuse that luggage endures as it’s loaded and unloaded from the aircraft.

What we lacked in the past was any type of official policy or statement from the car seat manufacturers regarding checked seats. The instruction manuals are full of do’s and don’ts and even show us how to install the car seat properly using the lap-only belt on the aircraft but there’s no mention of checking the car seat when you fly.

A few years ago, the Manufacturers Alliance for Child Passenger Safety (MACPS) issued a statement for CPS Technicians on the subject:

Car Seats Gate-Checked or Checked as Luggage
Car seats are designed to withstand most motor vehicle crash forces. In general, the MACPS does not consider a gate-checked car seat or a car seat that is checked as luggage to be one that has experienced forces equivalent to a motor vehicle crash. Once the destination is reached, it is recommended to inspect the car seat to make sure no visual damage has occurred and all aspects of the car seat function properly.

I appreciate that the MACPS has taken the time to address the issue. I trust that they looked at the issues seriously. I’m not a car seat engineer, nor do I play one on TV, so I’m going to defer to them on this issue and trust that they know what their products can withstand.

So, is it ever (or never) safe to check a car seat when you fly? The answer isn’t a simple yes or no. Like a lot of other things there are risks and tradeoffs. Statistically speaking, the chances that your car seat arrives at your destination when you do, is in good working order and has no visual signs of damage, are pretty good. You just need to be prepared with a Plan B if something goes wrong.

Another option, which is a bit of a compromise, is to gate-check the car seat along with your stroller. We encourage gate checking in some sort of a bag or cover (to keep dirt and grime off), if and when it isn’t possible to use the car seat on board the aircraft for the child. You still have to drag the car seat through the airport and through security but if nothing else, a gate-checked seat is much less likely to be lost than a seat that was checked with luggage.

If you do check your car seat and if it doesn’t appear on the baggage carousel with your luggage, don’t panic. It may not be lost. Check the oversized baggage area where the golf clubs, fishing rods and skis wind up. Car seats sometimes wind up in this area too. Also, it’s probably not a bad idea to hide a taped AirTag or Tile somewhere in the checked car seat until it’s safely back in your hands.