Looking for the easiest way to travel via airlines with child, child seat, and everything else? Triple Play Products came up with an innovative child safety seat and stroller combination with the hope that it would save all the hassles of airline travel with children.
CSFTL Quick Stats
- Rear facing weight range: 5-30 lbs
- Rear facing height range: 18″ to 3″ from the top of the seat
- Forward facing weight range: 20-40 lbs.
- Forward facing height range: less than 40″
- Lowest harness position: 9″
- Tallest Harness position: 14″
- Shell height 22.5″
- 6 year expiration
Features
- FAA certified
- Converts from car seat to stroller
Child Fit
Newborn Huggable Images doll, 7 lbs, 17″
As you can see this was a pretty bad fit for our newborn model. I didn’t use the infant bolster for her so we could see where her shoulders fit in comparison to the harness slot.
This was on the lowest slot and still about an inch above her shoulder. For rear facing the harness straps need to be at or below a child’s shoulders. So this is an unacceptable seat for her.
19.5 lbs, 32″, 21 months
This seat has a much better fit for our model here. At almost 2 years old, she’s quite a peanut. Her head was right at the max line for rear facing in the seat (it’s actually an indentation in the seat pad). We encourage rear facing to as close to 4 yrs as possible, so even for this peanut this seat would be outgrown closer to 2 than 4. To find out more about extended rear facing, please read our Rear facing Myths post and the Science Junkie’s Guide to Rear facing.
The one downfall to fit for her was that the harness slot she was on was way below her shoulder and she wasn’t quite tall enough to reach the next slot up. I could foresee the straps falling off her shoulders being an issue due to how much lower the harness straps were in comparison to her shoulders.
3 year old Huggable Images doll, 30 lbs, 38″
This doll was too tall and right at the weight limit to still be rear facing in this seat. She is even close to outgrowing it forward facing due to her shoulders being right at the top harness slots. For being at the limits, she fit okay though.
The only downfall I found was with both installation methods her chest/belly was pretty compressed. This is a thin doll, so I could foresee this compression being uncomfortable for larger children.
Installation
This seat was very hard to install, especially rear facing. I installed it in a 2012 Nissan Quest with leather seats. Cloth seats may have been a bit easier, but I couldn’t get a good install rear facing with either seat belt or LATCH in the vehicle I tried. The belt and LATCH was tight, but it kept sliding out of a tight install even with a pool noodle in the seat bight. I did get a few install pictures though just to show what it should look like.
Rear facing with seat belt
The lap belt slides into the clips on the seat and the shoulder strap lays against the seat back. It will require a noodle or a noodle-less install might work as well using this method. The seat will need to be installed and uninstalled each time the child is taken in or out, due to where the seat belt goes over the car seat.
Rear facing with lower anchors
The lower anchor connectors are kept in the storage compartment under the car seat. You just pull it out and thread it just like you do the lap belt. It does have the nice push button connector so all you have to do is push it onto the vehicle lower anchors. The seat is wider than the anchors though, so they could possibly interfere with install though.
Forward facing with seat belt
Unlike most car seats, this seat has you install with the seat belt over the seat rather than behind where the child sits. The lap belt threads over the 2 plastic holders above the rear facing belt path and the shoulder belt slides behind the car seat.
Forward facing with LATCH
Same install as with the seat belt only you attach the LATCH connectors to the vehicle LATCH anchors. Forward facing had the same issue as rear facing in that the connectors go under the car seat which could cause possible install issues.
Stroller conversion
The part of this seat that makes it so unique is that it also can convert to a stroller, so it makes it easier to maneuver your child through an airport. The conversion isn’t too difficult, but there are a few steps to it.
1. Squeeze the red lock release behind the seat and slide it down to the ground to deploy the wheels. Keep sliding until you hear and feel the slider lock into place. *Note: I could easily do this step without a child in the seat, but once I put her in, I couldn’t get the wheels to deploy. *
2. Compress the red handle release tabs under the stroller handle and pull up on the handle. There are 4 height positions you may choose from.
Do the reverse to convert the Sit n Stroll back to car seat mode.
Overall impressions
This seat is definitely unique and the concept could fill the niche of airline travel well, but the actual product didn’t live up to that standard, in my opinion.
1. My biggest concern was that I couldn’t get it installed properly with either installation method. Most families will be using it either in a rental car or friend’s/family’s car once they reach their destination, so ease of install and compatibility is a big factor with this seat.
2. My next concern is how short-lived the seat would be. We recommend rear facing to as close to 4 yrs as possible and as you can see from the review, a small almost 2 yr old had almost outgrown it rear facing. We also recommend keeping a child harnessed to at least 5-6 yrs, our 3 yr old was very close to outgrowing it forward facing.
3. Weight was an issue for me as well. This seat weighs 16.5 lbs. Then once you add a child’s weight to it, it makes it very hard to pick up in order to convert it to stroller mode and back to car seat.
4. Lastly was the quality of stroller. I am by no means a stroller expert, but even to me the stroller was really wiggly and hard to steer.
Even though this is a unique seat that was manufactured to fill the airline niche, there are several other options when traveling via airline. To find out a few, check out Leaving on a Jet Plane and Another Look at Travel with Littles.
Triple Play Products did not sponsor this review; opinions, as always, are all our own! Originally written by Angela Tastad. Edits maintained by CSFTL.
