Airports
Gate check or the baggage counter with a car seat
Where you hand it over decides how much handling it gets, and handling is what damages seats.
Two places to hand it over
Check it at the counter and it goes through the same belts, chutes and loaders as a suitcase. Gate check it and you wheel it to the aircraft door, where it is carried down and put in the hold by hand, then brought back to the door on arrival.
Gate checking means far less handling, and handling is what damages a seat. It also means you keep the seat through the terminal, which is either useful or a nuisance depending on how long the walk is and whether your child is in it.
What the padding is for
A bag with real padding is not protecting against a drop from head height. It is protecting against corners, belt edges, other bags stacked on top and the scrape of being dragged. That is the damage that actually happens.
The awkward part is that a damaged seat does not always look damaged. Shell cracks hide under fabric. Airlines mostly disclaim liability for car seats, which is another argument for the gate rather than the counter.
Carrying it through the airport
Backpack straps beat a shoulder strap once you add a child, a bag and a boarding pass. Wheels are better still on smooth floors and useless on carpet and kerbs, so most people end up wearing it at some point.
A bright bag comes back to you faster at the aircraft door than a black one, for the plain reason that everything else down there is black.
Tracking and the space around it
A tracker tucked in a pocket of the bag tells you whether the seat made the flight, which is worth knowing before you leave the airport rather than after.
Do not stuff the bag full of clothes to save baggage weight. Airlines vary on whether that is allowed, and a bag packed hard puts pressure on the shell from inside instead of cushioning it.
On the aircraft
A seat approved for aircraft use, installed in a bought seat, is the arrangement airlines and safety bodies point at. That is a decision about the seat and the airline rules, and it is made before you pick a bag.
Our part is the bag. It keeps the seat clean and covered while somebody else carries it, and that is the whole of the claim.
Bags for the journey
Padded travel bags and covers for the things that get handled by other people.
