Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory
by Traveling Toddler
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List Price: Our Price: $14.75 You Save: $0.24 (2%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory
Customer Review: THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful product. It's incredibly simple. It should really sell for a bit less than $14.99, but it was still worth every penny. We have an Evenflo Triumph car seat which is one of the biggest on the market. We also have a 20 month old boy who already weighs 30 lbs. The straps held up wonderfully. Both the straps and our new carry-on roly still look brand new after 4 flights. We purchased a Delsey Helium Fusion Carry-On Expandable Suiter Trolley and it did the job wonderfully. The straps really do work better when the carry-on roly is over-stuffed because it helps hold the car seat up a little higher and then the seat doesn't try to drag on the ground if you don't hold the roly's handle down low enough. We didn't even need our stroller and I was thankful that we had one less item to haul around. We checked the stroller in a nice JL Childress Standard and Dual Stroller Travel Bag, Black and it arrived safe and sound. We got several comments strolling through the airport and everyone liked how my baby looked so comfy in his rolling car seat.
I also looked at buying the CARES Child Aviation Restraint System but didn't want to risk not having a strap between my baby's legs. He's too much of a wiggle worm. This wonderful little strap made it so easy to bring along the car seat and then my little guy was comfy and well restrained for all 4 flights. Not to mention it was a lot nicer to pay $14.99 for the Traveling Toddler instead of $65-$75 for the Cares Harness.
Just a travel tip: unhook the car seat before heading down the jetway. Our car seat was too wide to fit down the aisle and then I caused a bit of a traffic jam trying to unhook it in the front of the plane.
Customer Review: This will destroy your suitcase.
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this for a Thanksgiving trip. The shipping was good, and the item itself was a bit smaller than I expected (it's just a T-shaped strap inside a small box, about 1 inch x 1 inch x 4 inches). I've never used the latch system on my car seat before, and it took me about 20 minutes to find the latch system and figure out how to attach everything correctly.
The problem with this is that it broke our suitcases. On the way to our destination I strapped our carseat with baby to my $100 Kirkland roller carry-on suitcase (which I'd used for a long time with no problems and is fairly sturdy). It was fine at the departing airport, but after we arrived and set it up, about 30 feet from the gate the suitcase wheel broke. The suitcase wheel appeared to have a sort of plastic casing that just split right down the middle and broke, and we could no longer move that suitcase.
Thinking that maybe it was the fault of the plastic, we moved the strap and carseat+baby to my wife's roller suitcase, which is a $200 Samsonite suitcase that's fairly high quality and has a kind of rubbery wheel which looks relatively indestructible. This worked for getting to our destination and on the first part of the way back, but when we arrived back at our home airport, the strap+carseat actually managed to crack the casing area connecting the wheels on my wife's suitcase and broke that suitcase too (we can no longer drag it because of the dead casing/wheel). We had to hand-carry the carseat, suitcase, and baby the rest of the way back to our car.
The strap looks nice in theory, but in practice it applies way too much pressure to the suitcases and can probably break the wheel or casing on any suitcase. I thought that bringing our own carseat and buying this $14 strap would save us money from having to rent a carseat with our rental car at our destination, but instead it ended up costing us a lot more money in broken suitcases.
Would NOT recommend!
Customer Review: Single Mom Takes Toddler on Plane; Great, Simple, Device!
Summary: 4 Stars
This product took some practice but it worked great after using it a few times. I bought this product a few weeks before our trip. It arrived promptly without damage. I hooked up the car seat to our carry on, 14" x 22" x 9", and strapped my daughter in for a few strolling trips around the house. I didn't want to check any bags because they always get lost. Her stuff went in a backpack/roller suitcase. My stuff went in the carry-on. The car seat went on the carry on. The diaper bag and purse went on my shoulder. It was a lot to carry and there was some sweat but it worked great. The car seat went on the plane. So, no squirmy toddler. She was comforted by having her car seat along and felt safe during a very turbulent flight. She even said "Wheee" during the bumps. I asked to board early after 1st class/disabled and this helped. I also waited 'till everyone left the plane for the extra room needed to strap the car seat to the luggage in the aisle. Security was a nightmare but manageable. The clip got caught on the luggage corner and I had trouble getting it off. But I was a little panicked because she was having such a melt down. Allow yourself plenty of time at the airport to reduce stress - 1.5 - 2 hours. The device is easily stored in your purse along with the car seat clip and Mighty Tight. The car seat is easy to install upon arriving. I got plenty of compliments at the airport along with some questions from flight attendants who didn't understand that I was not checking the car seat. I saw another mom there who had the expensive convertible car seat to stroller. But, I felt a little smug knowing both how much money I had saved and that her device didn't carry her clothes. She obviously checked her luggage. If you are not afraid of a little extra physical work, you can travel for a long weekend with the toddler, car seat, luggage, and diaper bag, without ever paying fees to the airline for your first bag. Definitely worth the money.Customer Review: Excellent product for carrying your car seat, not so awesome as a stroller substitute
Summary: 5 Stars
The Traveling Toddler is a fantastic invention worth its weight in gold (or more, since it's quite light) for parents traveling with young children and their car seats in the airport. We recently traveled with our 2.5 year old (30lbs) and her First Years True Fit Convertible Car Seat along with a 22" roll-aboard suitcase. To transport the car seat, the Traveling Toddler is ingenious. It attaches quickly to the LATCH straps and top tether of your car seat to give you an easy way to roll your seat through the airport -- much easier than the GoGoKidz TravelMate, which takes far more time to install.
The only drawbacks I see of this product are:
*You need make sure you route your LATCH straps through in the forward facing position, or they may not be long enough to reach around your suitcase -- so if you're using your car seat rear-facing, you'll have to re-route the LATCH straps before reinstalling it in your car. Not a big deal, but takes a few extra minutes.
*Not so much a drawback of this particular product, but of this concept in general: this strap turns your car seat into a very novel stroller, which will likely attract your toddler's attention. Sounds good in concept, right? In practice, 20lbs of suitcase (or more) plus 20lbs of car seat plus 30lbs of toddler make for one really, really heavy contraption to be pulling through the airport! The product photos show a man pushing the seat and suitcase, but in reality, to get an angle that keeps your child's feet off the floor, you have you exert a fair amount of force, and at 5'10", I would be walking pretty bent over to accomplish that. So we pulled it -- still bent over, but less awkwardly.
Overall, I highly recommend this product and will keep it in my travel arsenal for quite some time.
Customer Review: Easy travel with toddler
Summary: 5 Stars
I am 5 months pregnant, so the less stuff I travel with, the better. Before I found this product, I was a little stressed out about traveling alone with my toddler from Florida to California. My toddler is 17 months old and weighs 24 lbs. She has a Britax Marathon car seat, so it's not small at all. The carry-on I attached her car seat to was small (16 inch long). I loaded it up with entertainment for my toddler, so it was nice and full. It worked great! Going through security was easy. While in-line, I took my toddler out of her car seat and had her hold on to me while I released the straps from the suitcase. Make sure you don't release the top strap. That way, it's always attached to your car seat and reattaching your car seat will be a faster process after going through security. When you attach the straps, it fits a little snug, so you might need some upper arm strength. However, I have no upper strength and I was able to do it. This product works great! The tough part was carrying the car seat down the Southwest Airlines airplane aisle. (If you're on an International flight, your carrier will most likely have wide aisles and you'll be able to walk right up to your seat with your toddler still attached to your suitcase.) As soon as I walked into the plane, I left my carry-on with a flight attendant. Once I found a seat, she brought it to me. If you need help with your car seat as well, they'll help you with it too.
After reading reviews for similar traveling products, I decided that this was the best one. At first, I was going to purchase the Go Go Kidz Travelmate, but then I read that it didn't fit through some airport security machines and at this point you had to detach the wheels which involved unscrewing some screws (a bit time consuming). When traveling in airports, you need a simple, easy and fast product to use. This is the product for you.