# Flying with Britax Boulevard



## mija y mijo (Dec 6, 2006)

Please tell me about your experience flying with a Britax Boulevard. It will be forward facing. Did it fit well? Was it fairly easy getting it buckled in? Anything else I'm not thinking of...


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

If it needs to be FF, get a seatbelt extender from the FA when you get on the plane. You can also just flip the buckle in the belt path, but it is still tricky to get ondone.


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## indie (Jun 16, 2003)

Ours got stuck on a plane once. It took two pilots, a maintenance guy and a couple of flight attendants to get it out. Thankfully we didn't have a connection to make. This happened because we were on the back seat which is against the wall and doesn't recline. There was no give to the seat and we couldn't get our hands positioned to get it undone. I had flipped the belt, but it flipped back and was still extremely tight (and to think I put that sucker in all by myself). So my advice is make sure that you're not on the back row.


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *indie* 
Ours got stuck on a plane once. It took two pilots, a maintenance guy and a couple of flight attendants to get it out. Thankfully we didn't have a connection to make. This happened because we were on the back seat which is against the wall and doesn't recline. There was no give to the seat and we couldn't get our hands positioned to get it undone. I had flipped the belt, but it flipped back and was still extremely tight (and to think I put that sucker in all by myself). So my advice is make sure that you're not on the back row.

We have had the same thing happen, where they had to take the belt apart from the seat. When you flip, instead of turning the whole belt just flip the female part before you buckle, so it can't unflip. The belt extender makes it much easier though


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## PassionateWriter (Feb 27, 2008)

i flew w/ ours on Delta. no problem w/ the seat at all (cant say that about Delta)


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## sarahmck (Feb 11, 2005)

I've had the stuck belt problem, too. I usually get around it by putting one end of the belt (I think it's the male end) around the armrest next to the window so that it buckles closer to the edge of the seat. Then you fit the seat with the airplane seat reclined and then bring the seat up once it's buckled to get a tight fit. Don't make it really tight while the seat is reclined.

Would someone please explain to me how the extender solves the problem? I'm flying next week and if there's a way to make it easy, I'd like to know about it. I just can't picture how making the belt longer is going to solve the problem. What do you do with all the extra belt?

On a separate note, to make traveling with the Boulevard super easy, I recommend the gogo Kidz Travelmate.


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## alegna (Jan 14, 2003)

Flown with ours numerous times without problem. Get the belt extender and it should be a piece of cake









-Angela


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## lirpasirhc (Oct 26, 2007)

i flew with ours RF w/o getting the belt stuck, but i can see how it could happen.

Be sure that you can point out where it says certified for flying b/c the flight attendants have to check and they don't always see it right away. It's pretty awkward to be standing in the isle trying to find where it says that on the sticker.

You have to adjust the recline and flip the Blvd on it's front to get it through the x-ray machine.

I bought a $20 folding luggage cart w/ a bungee cord to wheel the Blvd through the airport. I put my diaperbag and a backpack w/ extra clothes, toys, diapers, necessities, etc. (my luggage has been lost often) in the Blvd. 2 x, they have let me walk through security w/ DD in a Babyhawk.

Be sure to bring snacks and buy water b/c if you get delayed on the tarmac, they aren't allowed to serve anything to you.


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## mija y mijo (Dec 6, 2006)

Thanks everyone! I love the idea of a folding luggage cart and bungee cord.









Can someone please explain how the seat belt gets stuck? Does it get suck in the carseat? I'm having a hard time picturing it. And how specifically does the seat belt extender solve the problem? Thanks!


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## lirpasirhc (Oct 26, 2007)

for me (this was RF), the female side of the seatbelt is almost too think to go up into the belt path. it's not like a car where the female side stays down beside the carseat. the female belt is so long, that it ended up in about the middle of the carseat belt path. i had to angle it just right to get it back out.


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mija y mijo* 
Can someone please explain how the seat belt gets stuck? Does it get suck in the carseat? I'm having a hard time picturing it. And how specifically does the seat belt extender solve the problem? Thanks!









The seat goes in no problem, but when you go to take it out, the buckle is in the middle of the FF belt path, and the belt path is just a hair to shallow to let you flip the buckle release up. So, you're stuck with a tightly installed seat and no way to get it out. Sometimes you can recline the seat and get enough slack to get it released, but if you're in a back row with seats that don't recline like the PP mentioned, you can't do that. Reclining it isn't a guarantee it will come unstuck, either. The extender positions the buckle outside the belt path so you can access it easily


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## mija y mijo (Dec 6, 2006)

I understand now. Thank you!!!


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## sarahmck (Feb 11, 2005)

I still don't understand how the extender helps. How do you get the belt short enough to keep the carseat secured reasonably tightly in the seat?


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## lirpasirhc (Oct 26, 2007)

part of the problem is that it's really hard to flip up the tab on the female side to release the male side (getting the female side back out of the car seat was another issue). with the belt extender, the tab that you need to flip on the female side ends up in another spot on the car seat.


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## green_sturgeon (Feb 9, 2008)

We flew with ours for the first time in August. The only problem we had was fitting it, with the Gogo Kidz Travelmate attached, through the x-ray machines. It fit fine in Hartford, CT, but not in Washington, DC (Dulles) or Los Angeles (LAX). In those two airports we had to wait for a TSA person to manually examine it instead of sending it through the machine (removing the Travelmate is not easy and not something either DH or I want to do in a crowded airport with our toddler and with impatient travelers in line behind us - and in Dulles, the TSA employee working the x-ray said if we weren't going to take it off, he would, until he saw how it was attached







)

On the plane, we did use the belt extender. As a pp said, it allows you to position one of the buckles outside the belt path on the back of the seat so you can easily open the flap on the buckle to release it. With the belt extender, you can shorten up both the regular belt and the extender enough to get the belt tight and secure the car seat, but have one of the buckles end up where it is easy to open. DH and I both had to play with it a bit to get it right the first time we did it, but it wasn't too hard. When it was pulled tight, there was a good length of extra belt, but I just rolled it up and stuffed it into the back of the seat with the latch connectors. The seat was a bit of a tight fit on one of our flights (on a 777) - DS didn't have much room between his legs and the back of the seat in front, but fortunately he made friends with the woman sitting in front of him early on in the flight. This meant that she had some patience for his feet on her seat and he would stop for a while when I asked him not to kick his new friend's chair, please, because she was resting and didn't want to be bumped - although I had to have lots of distractions at the ready too.









Good luck and happy, safe travels.


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## Caneel (Jun 13, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *lirpasirhc* 
Be sure that you can point out where it says certified for flying b/c the flight attendants have to check and they don't always see it right away. It's pretty awkward to be standing in the isle trying to find where it says that on the sticker.

I bought a $20 folding luggage cart w/ a bungee cord to wheel the Blvd through the airport. I put my diaperbag and a backpack w/ extra clothes, toys, diapers, necessities, etc. (my luggage has been lost often) in the Blvd. 2 x, they have let me walk through security w/ DD in a Babyhawk.


both excellent points.

I spent a significant amount of time at check-in once trying to locate the approval wording on all those stickers. The agent wasn't a jerk about it, he said he was just trying to avoid getting in trouble with the flight agents. I didn't quite understand the connection between the two employees but no biggie.

I did see a huge issue arise once where the bucket carrier was not approved, the flight crew refused to take off and the flight was delayed because the parents were being wacky.


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## an_aurora (Jun 2, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Caneel* 
I did see a huge issue arise once where the bucket carrier was not approved, the flight crew refused to take off and the flight was delayed because the parents were being wacky.

Weird. If the bucket wasn't FAA approved, it was expired (or not a US seat).


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## alysmommy2004 (Jun 23, 2006)

I flew this summer with our BV RFing and didn't have any problems on either flight. It was a tight fit through the Xray machine at Charlotte so they used a different machine with a slightly larger opening. Returning from San Diego it fit through the machine a little easier.


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