Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Canadian hire car question
  • cobrakai
    Full Member

    We’re off to vancouver at the end of the month with our two year old and we’ll be hiring a car to visit friends who are spread out all over the place.

    As it’s BA we’re flying with we can take her car seat for free. Do North American cars have the equivalent of ISOFIX? I know it depends on the car we actually get but, we’ve never had a problem in Europe.

    sweaman2
    Free Member

    Yes. Over here (I live in Calgary) it’s called UAS but it works just the same. Have taken sweajnr’s seat to the UK multiple times and it’s always fit just fine.

    https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/tether-strap-and-universal-anchorage-system.aspx

    cobrakai
    Full Member

    Brilliant! She loves the thing so that’s one less thing to worry about. Now just the long haul flight to worry about……

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    sweaman2
    Free Member

    I can offer some thoughts on that as well. Sweajnr is 3 yr 2 months and has done 5 return trips Calgary to LHR 😯 (The joys of being away from the rest of the family).

    So LHR Terminal 5 – There is a soft play area for kids. It’s currently near A7 (I think). Right at one end of the terminal lookers left as you exit the security (but downstairs). It’s free and worth it to let them have a final run around. If you’re gates are B or C don’t underestimate how far / long it takes to get a toddler onto / off the connecting train. It’s a long way.

    Assuming you’re in economy try to sit near the front as you’ll get served faster for food etc. I find they always try to serve me just as I’m trying to get sweajnr to sleep and so tell them I’ll collect it later which they don’t seem to mind. Don’t forget to pre-order the child meal. It’ll come early and hot but might have stuff they will eat. The “breakfast” you get served just before landing is rubbish so energy bars or similar is a good idea.

    A couple of extra blankets makes all the difference in making them sleep. Have something handy for them to suck on during take-off / landing in case ears don’t equalize.

    Just accept they’re going to watch a ton of digital media. In sweajnrs case 2 runs though of cars the movie and then he slept the rest of the flight. Trying to get them to sleep too early while the lights are on and food is being served is a bit of a hiding to nothing (in my case).

    Depending on the size of the car seat it might be allowed on the plane. We tried this once but it didn’t work for us. We thought it might as he’d be comfortable in his “own” space but it was a tight fit. Getting him in / out was a pain and carrying the car seat though the terminals was a royal pain.

    Enjoy Canada.

    As I’m online and it’s lunch here any other Canada with toddler concerns I can help with 😀

    cobrakai
    Full Member

    We use BA a lot so we love T5 but this is going from T3 for some reason. I’ll check the deathrow website for facilities there.

    Shes flown every couple of months since she was born and loves it, but it’s always been to the alps or Glasgow. Thanks for the long haul tips! We’ll need them!

    BA have taken the car seat when we’ve flown before but we’ll double check before we fly in case long haul is different.

    sweaman2
    Free Member

    Apologies. Re-reading I can see some confusion. You can certainly put the car seat in the hold with BA; you might also (depending of size etc) be allowed to take it into the cabin but (as I said above) we tried this once and it didn’t work out for us.

    cobrakai
    Full Member

    Ah right, Yeh I read it wrong. Just booking flights now. £2400 for flights on their own. £2100 for flights and 8 day hire car (ford kuga)?! I wouldn’t want BA having a say in the way my company was run. Oh, wait…….

    sweaman2
    Free Member

    To be honest the hardest part of long haul with a toddler isn’t the travelling but the jet lag. Make sure you know the location of all the local coffee shops etc as you’re going to be up before the larks fairly often. Good luck,

    markgraylish
    Free Member

    £2400 for flights on their own. £2100 for flights and 8 day hire car

    Is that on BA’s website? If so, do they typically do “packages”cheaper than flight only or have you just lucked out?

    cobrakai
    Full Member

    That’s the 2nd time we’ve done a package. The first was to Geneva and the hire car cost us £100 (1 week) on top of the flights so that was a good deal.

    Both from the BA website.

    Jet lag is a concern but we’ve agreed we’ll take child care in shifts!

    BearBack
    Free Member

    Worth checking but its not legal to use a car seat that snot canadian approved.
    I.e it illegal for me to use a usa purchased child seat here in canada.
    You may want to check that out for a temporary/visitor basis

    antigee
    Full Member

    cobrakai – Member
    Brilliant! She loves the thing….

    now oldest teen antigee had a massive sobbing fit when it went past the aircraft on the luggage cart (you have been warned)

    ^^^^Aus’ has similar (daft) rules…had a set of illegal bike helmets for a while and just sold a canoe with a free euro approved flotation device which will be extremely unsafe in the local bay mind you the child could get there in a taxi without a safety seat ???

    for Aus’ not Canada “How do I know if a car seat is approved?

    To be an approved child restraint, a car seat or booster must be labelled with an Australian Standards sticker for the standard AS/NZS 1754. It is one of the most stringent child restraint standards in the world. All car restraints sold in Australia must comply with the standards that cover materials, design, construction, performance, testing and labelling.

    Car seats bought overseas will not comply with the Australian standard and it is illegal to use them in Australia.

    Come on Canada beat that

    twicewithchips
    Free Member

    Some Canadian rules here

    We’ve just investigated the same thing. Our plan (kids are a bit bigger) is to buy the cheapest booster in Walmart when we get there. Regs are by province, and I suspect the chances of inspection are incredibly small.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

The topic ‘Canadian hire car question’ is closed to new replies.