Finale 2-in-1 Booster Car Seat

Flying home LHR - PHX after starting the day ZRH - LHR, and a 5 hour layover in Heathrow (thankfully in lounges), the 4 year old makes it 20 minutes in and asks his favorite question: "how many minutes until we land?" Buddy, like, 600. He actually did alright on that flight. Got a bit bored with movies, got a bit bored with play-doh/mini magnatiles, but showed him a few IFE games and that helped until he passed out. Would have loved to keep him awake, but it was a 2pm LHR departure, wasn't ever going to happen. All things considered, he did solid. We bought one of these guys as our travel car seat: https://amzn.to/49aBkNZ It may seem insane, but he's too small to keep confined in a plane seat on his own, and especially to sleep in one, and this is a decent weight as opposed to our 50 lb daily driver Britax, and can be kind of trivially strapped to the back of the stroller to roll through the airport. Kind of. Works for us to keep him locked in when needed.

I just got [this one](https://a.co/d/3dzIHsB) for travel. Consumer Reports doesn’t recommend it OVER 40 pounds but you’re good there. Very light and very easy to install.

Highly recommend going as lightweight as possible when traveling. There’s just so much stuff to lug around when traveling with kids. We had the Cosco Scenera and recently moved up to the Cosco Finale with our big 3.5 yo (wears 5t/xs regular kid sizes). It sounds like your kid is on the smaller side if they’re still in the Doona at 16 months. My kid had a massive growth spurt and sized out of her infant car seat well before 1 year. Growth rate also slows way down during the toddler years. You can make an educated guess on your child’s weight and height by following those growth curve charts.

You need 51" of rear hip room and the narrow base car seats. I fit 3 in the back of a Prius. The cosco finale for instance is 17" wide so will fit 3 across in most vehicles. I've currently got 3 across including a carseat with click in base in an e class

We used the Cosco Finale car seat (from Walmart) for travel around age 5 for my daughter. It’s the lightest weight and cheapest out there (but still fully tested and approved safety wise.) My youngest just outgrew the cosco scenera so he’ll be using the finale our next trip.

We looked into a number of options and now have 2 of the Cosco Scenera Finale carseats. Super lightweight, converts to a booster style when they can use a traditional seatbelt. Bought a couple of Gorilla Grip car seat bags.

The Cosco Scenera is typically outgrown by age 3 via height. It requires 1” above the head rear facing and the harness must come out at or above shoulders when forward facing. So I wouldn’t recommend it for either of your kids. And their Cosco Finale seat now has a 40lb minimum on the harness. Look at Graco Tranzitions. It’s narrow for 3 across. Just be sure to buckle and tighten the harness when carrying it around an airport etc, it can convert to a backless booster and you don’t want that to accidentally be done while traveling.

3 year old is 37” tall right? That’s about when a Scenera seat is outgrown. Many car seats don’t fit until their published limits. Plus if you’re shopping new the Scenera Extend is 19” wide, not narrow for 3 across. A child cannot use a new Costco Finale at all until they weigh at least 40lbs. Cosco changed both seats in the last 12 months, so if you’re seeing otherwise it’s the version that isn’t sold anymore.