What do you do if you check a carseat and it doesn’t make it to your destination??  This question comes up a lot!  I fortunately (or unfortunately) have experienced this more than once!  The first time this happened I almost broke down in tears!  Of all things for the airline to lose, the carseat was the most important!  Luckily, the two times this has happened with Delta, they have had extra carseats at baggage services.  Just like a lost bag, they will deliver it to you or you can pick it up at the airport if you’re in a time crunch.  If for some reason baggage services doesn’t have a carseat to borrow, try another airline or call a cab company to request a car with a carseat.

Our most recent lost seat was in Switzerland.  All of our bags made it except for Mack’s carseat, which also happened to contain his diaper supply for the next 3 weeks!  If you are one of those people that like to pack extra stuff in your carseat bag, make sure that you put the essentials in the diaper bag or your personal carry-on.  I luckily had packed enough diapers for two days just incase.  At the Zurich Airport there is just one baggage service for all of the airlines.  It is run by the airport and is considered lost and found.  My husband waited to speak to an agent for 30 minutes.  He had to file a claim and provide the address where we were staying.  This must be a frequent occurrence in Zurich because they had multiple dedicated loaner seats.  It was nothing fancy but it was better than putting Mack in our lap! Delta, for some unknown reason, didn’t put our seat on the next direct flight.  Instead, they sent it through Amsterdam which delayed the arrival even longer.  The only bonus was that we didn’t have to return the seat ourselves.  The gentleman who made the drop off took the loaner seat back.

Even after all of that, I would still check my carseat just to ease the hassle of getting it through security and to the gate.