Taken later in flight
Except I made the mistake of looking towards 7A. And that wonderful child who had never been told the word no in his life was using the back of 6A as a climbing frame and talking to the little girl in 6A. Were the parents doing anything regarding his behaviour?
What do you think? Of course not.
Meanwhile I tried to ignore them with the noise cancelling headphones – and I mostly did… until the kid reached near to my seat for my bottle of water. A loud “Excuse me?” warded him off me for the remainder of the flight.
I could write masses about the toilet – but I won’t – it’s a standard Airbus toilet module with some nice toiletries in it. That’s it.
I went back to seat and watch the day unfold over the Atlantic as we crossed into Canada. Meanwhile over in 7B, Mummy was asleep, Daddy was out cold in 7J, and 7A… was hyperactive bouncing up and down, and not being able to stay still – with both his own iPad and the BA iPad exhausting his entertainment, and trying to chat to 6A again.
But the question is this: Would you take your child on a business only flight? I’m not saying this to keep it exclusive – on a 777/747/767 you have an acre more space for them to play in, bigger galleys, and areas to keep children active in, rather than a much smaller plane with limited rest/space facilities.
The flight itself was very chop free – with one of the smoothest flights across the pond I’ve had in some trips (most of the flight recently I've had have been bouncy all the way there and all the way back).
A pre-arrivals service commenced with sandwiches, scones and cakes 1½ hours before landing in traditional style afternoon tea. The sandwiches were presented in an open plate, with fresh scones offered with jam and clotted cream - again nothing to fault the food here.
Little luxuries.
A small selection of little cakes followed to conclude the service which was done again with style.
Beginning to close in on our destination
Wistful clouds
Turning for New York
Decent
Commencing finals
The clear down followed as people begun to get ready for landing, with the captain informing us at 40 minutes to landing and 20 minutes when the seatbelt sign came on. Even the little brat in 7A was almost controlled at this point – mainly because he was now in 7B next to his father who was in 7J. That didn’t stop the brat removing his seatbelt more than once during taxing sadly.
Or to put it blunt – the parents were more interested in the kitchen supplements in a magazine and which one to cut out to take on their journey rather than the behaviour of the child.
Touchdown was gentle, and the plane was on the ground a few minutes early.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGkZ9J05u3E[
After a long taxi to gate 1 of T7, the seatbelt sign was extinguished, and everyone got up to race off the plane.
I made the point of thanking the crew (who all got ba.com/welldone's for the service they did), and made my way off the babybus – now in the city of New York.
Overall: A great service by the crew – what I’d call a shining example of a crew working together. A shame it was mostly ruined by screaming and misbehaving kids… and less caring parents.