Gate-checking car seats and strollers

On the few times that we've flown with Baby, he still fit his Graco Snugride car seat. Since we were renting a car and driving at our destination, we took the car seat along. We have three strollers at home, and the stroller we chose to bring with us was the Snap n Go stroller - it folds easily, has a metal frame that isn't likely to get crushed or damaged easily, and is easy to use with the Graco Snugride.

At the airport, we simply took the carseat and the stroller all the way to the gate with us. (You'll have to take the baby out of the carseat, put the car seat and stroller through the x-ray machine, and carry your child with you through the scanner machine thing.) At the gate, we told the employee that we were gate checking the stroller and the car seat, and they printed up Gate-Check tags for us. Upon boarding the plane, we simply left the car seat and the stroller at the end of the runway, and then picked them back up at the same place when we arrived at our final destination. All in all, it was quite convenient.

I highly recommend gate-checking any car seat you might bring - there's a greater likelihood that it'll make it on to the same plane as you do, and you don't want to arrive at your final destination without your car seat if you have somewhere to go immediately. If you've gone through the trouble of lugging your car seat along, I don't think you'll be very happy if you have to use a loaner car seat from the airline or from the car rental company.

Now, I've seen big glorified red bags out there that claim to protect your gate-check items. Sure, they might work, but rather than spend the money, we simply asked for a couple of the airline's complimentary large plastic bags when we checked in at the ticket counter. These plastic bags were large enough to hold a car seat or a stroller, and they were sturdy enough to survive a round trip flight.

Note: these comments are based on my experiences flying with Southwest Airlines so far. Policies and procedures with other airlines may vary.