![]() The wide variety of rental car seats we’ve seen that are expired, illegal, incorrectly assembled, or missing manuals gives us zero confidence that any of the seats available are safe options. We won’t deny the appeal of traversing the airports and airplanes without a car seat in tow. Renting a car seat along with a rental car may seem like the most convenient option. Traveling with a seat you know removes that risk. So if you’re not familiar with installing that particular random seat, you may not be able to achieve a solid installation for your child. A multi-day rental could quickly cost more than buying a seat brand new.Īs we’ve seen, it’s quite likely that the seat doesn’t include instructions and it’s quite possible that the seat’s labels have worn off. ![]() Buying the same car seats pictured above is around $50. Renting a car seat can cost $10-$13 per day. Additional Drawbacks to Renting a Car Seat So not only do these seats have questionable/unknown histories, they’re missing most of the critical tools for a solid installation. Many seats were also missing the labels that might have helped fill in some of the blanks caused by the missing manuals. In every city, at every rental car counter, almost every seat that we were able to take a close look at was missing the manual. While the age recommendation listed on these boosters is lower than we advocate for, it’s nice to see some educational signage available at the decision making point. We would never advocate for children that young to ride in a booster seat so none of the available seats would be a safe option for a child between 3-5 years old.Īll of the rental car counters in the Orlando airport featured these handy signs explaining the age and weight ranges for each seat. Translation: the only type of rental car seat available in each of these cities for children roughly 3 years old and older is a booster seat. Our random data sample of 3 airports (San Jose, CA, Orlando, FL, and Las Vegas, NV) showed that the only the lowest-priced, least-featured rear facing only and convertible seats were available for rent. The Cosco Scenera NEXT and Evenflo SureRide would be longer lasting options than the Cosco Apt and Evenflo Titans we saw the most often in our travels. We’re definitely fans of many low budget car seats but some of the lower cost models can be quite short lived, especially when a child on the larger side of the growth curve is the primary rider. Once you get off the plane and visit the rental car counter, the seats available for rent are often shorter lived models than the ones pictured on the rental car company’s website. Suggested age/weight ranges for rental car seats After a particularly long flight sittingbehind a child who “sat” in a car seat that wasn’t actually secured onto the airplane seat I now mention “installed car seat” instead of just “bring your child’s car seat on the plane.” Getting Your Rental Car and Rental Car Seat We’ve touched on this in both of our travel articles, which cover the whys of airplane safety with Littles and the logistics of airports with Littles. Why not rent one?īecause the reality of renting a car seat along with a rental car is a more than a little different than the vendor’s website might make things seem.įirst and foremost, the Federal Aircraft Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, and American Association of Pediatricians all advocate for children riding in installed car seats on the airplane. Surely, that’s the seat you’d receive at the rental counter. Just hop off the plane, grab your rental car, grab a rental car seat, and go!Some rental car companies show a picture of a high-end car seat with a lot of nice ease of use and comfort features. Renting a car seat along with your rental car sounds so convenient.
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