QQs re flying to/driving in US

We are flying BA to the US in Sept, when Daniel will be 21 months. We've discovered that the only car hire company in the place we're going to will guarantee to have a car seat but can't guarantee it will be for the right age range (wtf?!) and even if they have it, it will be $10 a day - and we're staying two weeks. So, we thought we'd buy a cheapie Argos car seat for £30 (we have a rear facing Group 1 Zento which I'm not prepared to take) and then we don 't have to worry about it too much.

However, we've not booked D a seat on the flight, and the BA website says we can check a car seat into the hold for him. Does anyone know if by this they mean a proper Gp1 seat or are they just referring to infant carriers?

Also, does anyone know if UK car seats are legal in the US?

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Hadn't thought about whether legal or not, I was planning to take my Maxi_cosi Cabrio in Sept....

PC I think the infant carriers are fine - they only do up with the lap belt IIRC but I think they're much the same over there. It's more the group 1 seats I was thinking of.

You can check any car seat into the hold.

I don't know that they specify what car seats are legal - just that you have to have one. Britax are very popular over here. The guy in BRU told me that European safety standards are tougher than US ones anyway.

Most cars over here have LATCH fittings that I think is the same as isofix; most seats can also be strapped in.

Why not wait until you get here and buy a cheapy seat? the Costco ones in babies'r'us go for around $50 (they usually have coupons for discounts on car seats) and get pretty good reviews.

Have you checked Hertz? In the US they offer a free rental seat to AAA (like RAC/AA) members - not sure if they offer this to AA/RAC members if you book from the UK.

So where are you going then????

Actually, car insurance can be invalidated if you are not using a US seat.  I know this because a bunch of New Yorkers were importing MaxiCosis before they were sold over here and the blogged about the insurance issue.

I'd agree with BG - buy one when you get here.  Target, KMart, WalMart, BabiesRUs, all these places sell them.  Perhaps you could even order one online and have it shipped to your car rental office?

Where are you going that you only have one car rental place to choose from?!?

Oh that's a much better idea, I could order online and have it shipped to my SIL's parents. We're going to my bro and SILs wedding, in a small town in Pennsylvania - apparently there are two car hire firms in the town, and only one does car seats but charges $10 a day. Can I really get one for $50? Ideal, then I don't need to carry it to and from the airport either (we're going by train). Only thing is what do I do between the airport (Philly) and the town itself, i.e. till I can pick up the seat? It's a two hour drive!

Stelly, that makes sense about the insurance but will it apply to rental cars? I only ask because if you can't use a UK seat why do so many people take them? Maybe it is infant carriers after all?

SnowflakeMum - when we travelled to the US, I emailed all manner of "important people" (can't remember exactly who they were but along the lines of US road safety organistions; state law people etc...) and they told me that unless the car seat has a sticker that specifically says it complies with US law (or words to that effect) then it isn't legal to use it. I may still have the emails if you'd like me to have a look and forward them to you.

After much googling, I found out that allegedly EU regulations are stricter than US ones in terms of safety - so whilst UK car seats may not be legal, IF they were to be safety tested in the US then they would be pretty much guaranteed to pass due to being made to stricter standards. I know that's kind of irrelevant in terms of the legalities, but at least it meant that it would be safe.

I worked myself up into quite a state over it as I just couldn't work out what to do for the best. In the end we decided to buy a 2nd UK car seat and take it with us, despite being armed with the above information. Our car hire company wouldn't guarantee that they would have one available, and said that even if there was one available, they didn't provide instructions as to how to fit it. I figured that the last thing we needed after a 10 hour flight was to try and figure out how to fit a strange seat and probably end up doing it wrongly! So it was kind of a toss-up between 'safe but illegal', or 'legal but potentially unsafe'. By taking our own at least we knew that we had one which had to be better than getting there and finding there wasn't one!

I think it's a very good idea to pick one up over there if you can (they are SO cheap), and if you were to get a new one it would come with instuctions obviously, although as you say, it does pose a problem as to how to get from the airport to the town. Would it be an option to take the cheap one you bought to use from the airport to the town and then buy another one at the first opportunity? Or would that be car seat overload?  

Good luck, these things are never simple are they?

MM, thank you, that's brilliant to know. I had a feeling it would be the case. I'm waiting to hear back from my SIL as to whether the "car service" (I think that means taxi!) that is collecting us from the airport is coming from her town, as if so I shall just ask them to bring it with them. They're getting paid enough!

My only other thought was to take Daniel's infant carrier with us to use between the airport and the town, as it's a 0+ (up to 13kg) and he is still only about 11kg - fairly sure he's too long for it but it would be better than nothing on that trip! I think I'll do that if the car service won't bring it.

I would take as little luggage/stuff as possible.

Can you use some kind of concierge service, if the car isn't going to be able to bring a car seat for you?

http://airportconciergeservices.com/International-Travel-Assistance-Airports.html#USA

http://www.keystoneconcierge.com/services.htm

Or, there is a Walmart 3 miles away or a BabiesRUs store 5 miles away from the airport, you could book your car service to arrive an hour later, and then one of you could go in a taxi (without Daniel) to the store, and pick out a seat and then bring it back to the airport, ready to meet your car.

Can you say where in PA you're actually going to?  I am intrigued - 2 hours on a train?!? plus a car service..!?  (I am so nosy)

Stelly, don't worry, so am I! He he. The train bit is actually this side of the pond, we are flying from Heathrow but we live in Devon so have got to get train to Paddington then out to the airport. We fly to Philly then my SIL has booked this "car service" (is that just a taxi?!) to Lancaster, which is where our hotel is, I think that's about a ten minute drive from her home town.

I really don't want to take too much as we are spending a week in PA then travelling around a bit (NY, Philly, Washington) so it's all extra lugging. I think I might check about the nearest store, that's not a bad idea - I think we arrive mid-afternoon so easily doing. I wonder if I order it I could pick up in-store? Off to do some hunting :-)

Stelly have just read your message properly - can you give me the links for those two stores?

You can do site to store with walmart, here is the store nearest the airport

http://www.walmart.com/storeLocator/ca_storefinder_details_short.do?rx_title=com.wm.www.apps.storelocator.page.serviceLink.title.default&edit_object_id=5495&rx_dest=%2Findex.gsp&sfsearch_state=PA&sfsearch_city=philadelphia&sfsearch_zip=

Car service is airport taxi - slightly nicer than normal taxi, more like a limo/towncar.

Oh that's fab, thank you. Just looked and Walmart have a $55 car seat which can go rearfacing at his weight and has good reviews! So as long as I order around 2 weeks in advance, it should be in store when I go to collect. Do you think they'll let me pay by UK credit card?

The car service makes sense, there are 7 of us including D so I guess not comfortably doable in a normal taxi.

Is it the cosco car seat? If so we have one for when traveling within the USA so we don't need to take our main one. We have found it to be fine.

You can't use a UK credit card on the Walmart website but can in store.