Evenflo - SureRide/Titan 65

We have a convertible car seat for each vehicle. One of them is the Evenflo Titan which is super light weight and we took that with us for a trip to install into a rental vehicle for 2 weeks. If we need a car seat for our toddler in another vehicle, that's the one we had (not the Graco 4ever).

Extra pieces of advice: 1. Get an [FAA approved car seat ](https://www.safeintheseat.com/post/what-car-seats-are-faa-approved)and the lightest one possible, especially for the older one. We got an Evenflo one that weighs less than 11 lbs, and then got a rolling carrier for it. 2. I think the more difficult one is the 1 year old, because car seats for 1 year olds that can be rear facing are going to be harder to find in options that are light. If you can splurge, this is where something like the Doona would be worth its weight in gold.

It’s a bulky seat, for sure. At least it’s a compact one and not a 27lb Diono 😜 (the school bus of car seats) For Canadian lightweight travel seats (if you plan to travel often) I’d recommend an Evenflo Sonus if under 37” or the Evenflo Sureride/Titan 65 if over 37”. You could get away with a Cosco Scenera Next if they’re petite but it won’t be long lasting as it’s often outgrown by 2-3yo.

We also don’t have a car. We mostly use public transit because car seats are a pain in the butt. A couple tips: 1. We had the Cosco Scenera next. It is very lightweight and easy to install. Be aware though that it is outgrown fairly early and can basically only be used rear facing. The reason front facing is outgrown first is that the straps must be at or above the shoulders for front facing, whereas they must be at or below the shoulders for rear facing. Our petite child is freshly 3 and is too big for it. We upgraded to an evenflo titan 65. Despite the name, it’s the lightest weight seat we could find for a bigger kid. It should fit until the child is big enough for a booster seat. The smaller, lighter size of the Cosco seat was worth it for us and we’re now using it for our second child, but if money is tight you might consider getting the titan 65 right away even though it’s a few pounds heavier. 2. Not sure what uber is like in NYC, but in my city I prefer to use taxis for a couple of reasons. One is that they won’t turn you away with a car seats because they’re worried it’ll take a long time to install because they can just run the meter while you get everything set up. The other is because most taxi drivers are older and have kids of their own, so they’re much more tolerant of parents and kids.

Going to give you another perspective. We’ve flown trans Atlantic 4 times now with our 2.5 year old ranging from when he was 18 months to just last month at 2.5. We have an evenflo titan 65, it weighs 8 pounds. We have a collapsible trolley from Amazon that we pull it through the airplane on. You install it super easily on the airplane. It’s compact and will for sure fit. Our son knows what the deal is with his car seat and it’s the safest spot for him. For night time we just jam the top of the seat under the headrest in the airplane seat and recline it a bit. You don’t have to worry about putting the car seat rear facing since it’s only purpose on a plane is to provide a harnessed belt instead of limiting front/ back collision impacts like it would in a car. He’s comfortable in it and stays in place. He would absolutely not stay in his spot if he had only a lap belt and lots of potential to get up and down and whatever else. The harness doesn’t have to be as tight as in a car either. One important note: Europe doesn’t have seat belt limiters (like when you pull it out all the way in order to fasten the car seat properly) so if you’re relying on that vs the UAS tethers you’ll need to buy a little metal clip that does the limiting otherwise the whole thing is useless. Alternatively: find a car service that can bring a car seat to the airport when it picks you up and drops you at your destination.

I’ve looked into the harnesses and they are fine for keeping kids safe but they’re restrictive for sleeping etc. we’ve done a lightweight car seat (cosco scenera for younger age but it’s outgrown quickly and now the titan sureride which is 8lbs). Pros of this is that he knows what the deal is with a car seat, he was comfortable and was safe even when sleeping. Since the car seat doesn’t need to be “tight” like it is in a car, but only attached, you can also try to jam the top of the car seat under the airplane seat’s headrest for a bit of a better recline for sleeping. One downside of the car seat is that the food tray doesn’t fold down so when it comes time to eat I always have 2 trays sideways and feed my toddler first, then try to stack the trays and feed myself. A lot of flight attendants either gently scold me or scoff quietly because apparently stacking actually makes things harder for them to tidy. It’s minor but it’s an annoyance. From what I’ve read the harness is tricky for in flight functionality and is best for a really small weight and height range (can be way too big for a lot of kids that it’s advertised to be suitable for).