Customer Reviews

JL Childress Gate Check Bag for Car Seats, Red

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

This bag is for when you take your car seat through the airport and check it at the airplane itself - gate checking! It's made to keep it clean, and yes I have had baby things come back pretty dirty, but not often. It then folds right back up in it's little bag. It is NOT made to go through airport baggage where it's on the conveyor belts and thrown around like crazy. If you look at the other bad reviews, they are almost all made by folks who have checked this as baggage, not gate checking.
By the way, if you are gate checking spend the best $15 of your life and get Traveling Toddler Car Seat Travel Accessory. Use it with a sturdy carry on bag with a long enough handle that you don't have to stay bent over, and fill your carry on so it's solid. Filled with some of your and your childs things in it (we all know how invaluable that extra set of baby things are if your luggage is lost!) and with your car seat on it, it saves you checked luggage fees $$$ and is convenient! What more could you ask for! A stroller through the airport and no fees for your car seat as luggage or having to rent a (usually old and yucky) car seat with your rental! :)
Even if you aren't using it as a stroller for your older kids car seats, it sure is nice not to have to carry the car seats!

This fit our car seat perfectly (also allowing enough room to stash coats) but after just one flight, it already had 2 holes.

Having read the warnings here about durability, my intent for this bag was to have something to throw the car seat into just prior to gate check to keep the car seat clean while it was stowed below. Even with the (relatively) easy handling, ours had a large hole ripped into it after only 2 trips (actually on the outbound segment of our 2nd trip). Unfortunately, something like this item, designed specifically for travel, should have the durability to last at least several trips (a dozen or so too much to ask?).

I would NOT recommend this bag. Not even for gate checking purposes only.

It's a big orange bag and for me it lasted exactly one trip (4 flights). It did protect the car seat inside decently enough, but the luggage handlers dragged it and just a little dragging across pavement ripped it.

It is bulky to carry with a car seat inside, hence why it was likely dragged. I'd recommend attempting to reinforce the bottom prior to traveling... maybe taping up the corners and bottom before the trip would give it a chance.

The material is not strong enough to withstand multiple trips through luggage claim.

Another issue was when we checked it at the gate the baggage people checked it as luggage because they could not see it was a child seat because of the red cover. We were waiting on the jet way and the airline brought up our stroller ok, but we had to get the child seat in baggage. Extremely frustrating as we waited 20minutes before they figured out it was checked as luggage.

Your better off asking for one of those clear plastic bags for child sets at the check in desk. It's free and you'll save yourself the hassel of going down to baggage claim.

We bought a stroller bag and a car seat bag for our baby's first flights. They kept the stroller & car seat clean and easy to find. Not the most durable material, but better than nothing and fine for gate checking.

FYI, our stroller (a Baby Jogger City Mini) didn't fit in the stroller bag. But it did fit in the car seat bag, and our car seat (a Graco SnugRide 32) fit in the stroller bag -- so we just switched them, and it worked out fine.

I really liked this. It kept both our carseats CLEAN! I'm glad that I bought it and will most definately be using it again!

This is the best money I have spent recently on baby products. I use it with our sit-n-stroll when we have to gate check it. The bag takes all of the beating and the sit-n-stroll stays nice and clean. One time it sat outside in the rain for about 10 minutes and even kept the sit-n-stroll dry. Other moms on the flight weren't so lucky and had drenched strollers and carseats. I highly recommend this bag. The fact that it's red and says "Gate Check" on it means that your stroller/carseat or whatever won't get lost and accidentally end up on a luggage carosel. It's been on 12 flights with me so far. It's covered in black marks, grease, you name it. That's fine with me because it's on the bag and not the sit-n-stroll. With the sit-n-stroll, there's room for other things in the bag that we want to gate check. Before our first trip, I became proficient at putting the bag over the sit-n-stroll with one hand and then closing it. It's easy. But, if you're traveling by yourself, practice before you get to the airport. I've had mothers that didn't have protective bags want to buy this off of me in the airport. As though I would give it up! I'm going to buy another one to carry with me so that when this happens, I can sell it.

When we received our carseats after a trip to Minnesota, the gate check bags had several oil and dirt marks on them. The seats themself were kept perfectly clean! These bags are large enough for a convertible carseat. We used them to bring our Graco Snugrides WITH bases. A fantastic purchase!

We bought and used this bag with our Peg Perego Infant car seat. After 2 flights in dry weather, there were 3 rips and 2 tears along the seams. Although the bag DID make it easier to move the car seat from TSA to the gate, I would not recommend this product, as it fell apart after 1 use. After contacting customer service, & sending them photos of our damage, JChildress has agreed to send me a replacement bag. So...bag, not so great, customer service-fantastic!