BubbleBum - BubbleBum Inflatable Travel Booster Seat

I recommend the bubble bum car seats - they're inflatable booster seats.

If your kid is 40lbs/40” we love the Bubble Bum booster! It’s certified in US and UK/EU, so we use ours a lot for mostly-car-free trips where some incidental taxis and transit to/from the airport are the main instances of being in a car.  

We bring a Cosco finale for trips with actual driving around or a BubbleBum booster for incidental taxis and EU/UK travel. The latter is 40lbs/40” but fabulously small to pack!

We don’t drive much when we travel, so our 5yo (similar stats for height and weight) uses a Bubble Bum. I got it specifically because it’s UK and EU certified and I didn’t want something that would be disallowed in Europe.  We previously had a Cosco Finale for travel, but are probably done with it in harness-mode based on height. It was fine on the plane in harness mode though, and pretty lightweight to tote around. I never checked it - always flew in-cabin. 

Bubble Bum! An inflatable booster seat that squishes down into a pouch at your destination. When they are very young (2-4ish), we used the Ride Safer vest.

For plane no car seat for the 5 year old Travel car seat is a bubble bum. Super easy to use. Portable and light weight. Can’t wait til my daughter is 4 so she can use it too and we don’t need any traditional car seats when traveling

You can buy blow-up booster seats on Amazon. (I know, my initial thought was how is that safe?) But the booster gets them in the right position so the seatbelt is more effective. We bought the Bumblebum and it collapses down to the size of a lunch bag or so. We’ve used it when flying and needing to take a Uber to a hotel. We pair the blow-up car seat & riding in an SUV and it feels fairly safe.