Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Need advice: Sending my wife and young kids... seating arragements?

OK need a bit of advice here from those with any helpful suggestions. I am going to be in Europe this summer on business and my wife and 2 kids (5 year old and 18 months old) are joining me - later on. Managed to secure upgrades for them but the trouble is don't understand how my wife and 18 month old are going to sit. She's too old to fit in the bassinet (CX inform me that its only for up to 6 months of age) and she's only going to be on the 10% fare (YAY) - but no seat???

Any suggestions on how they'll sit particularly in the new business class? My 5 year old will be fine and just glued to the entertainment system but I am concerned about how my wife and younger daughter will sit... thought about the car seat option but don't know if CX even allow that and moreover how they'll fit - unless there was a nice way i could fit my 2 kids on one seat?

Any thoughts please advise...

OK need a bit of advice here from those with any helpful suggestions. I am going to be in Europe this summer on business and my wife and 2 kids (5 year old and 18 months old) are joining me - later on. Managed to secure upgrades for them but the trouble is don't understand how my wife and 18 month old are going to sit. She's too old to fit in the bassinet (CX inform me that its only for up to 6 months of age) and she's only going to be on the 10% fare (YAY) - but no seat???

Any suggestions on how they'll sit particularly in the new business class? My 5 year old will be fine and just glued to the entertainment system but I am concerned about how my wife and younger daughter will sit... thought about the car seat option but don't know if CX even allow that and moreover how they'll fit - unless there was a nice way i could fit my 2 kids on one seat?

Any thoughts please advise...

Just to let you know, your wife and 5 year old will be separated by a wall. The new business class is not a good way to travel in groups. You should ask CX more about options for the 18 month old for traveling.

I was on SFO-HKG last week. I was in 15K and a couple with their 1-year old were travelling on 14G/14K. The daughter slept with her father for a while and with her mother for a while. The parents were average-size Caucasians. Both parents got pretty good sleep. There was no car seat, but there was no problem too.

Pretty certain you can't use carseats in the new business class (or economy, for that matter) so that's not an option...

The new style seating is very family unfriendly. The best I can recommend is to obtain two seats across the aisle from each other, as this way your wife can see at least partly into the 5-year-olds' seat. If you get two seats that are "beside" each other in the coffin row, such as 11A and 12A, the wall separating the two seats will defeat most attempts to converse or monitor the child.

The new style seating is very family unfriendly. The best I can recommend is to obtain two seats across the aisle from each other, as this way your wife can see at least partly into the 5-year-olds' seat. If you get two seats that are "beside" each other in the coffin row, such as 11A and 12A, the wall separating the two seats will defeat most attempts to converse or monitor the child.

Yeah thats what i got - i have 11D & G for them - my concern is not the 5 year old its more how my wife and 18 month old will sit - if they were fortunate to get bumped up to first which certainly isn't going to happen with kids, it wouldn't be a worry as the seat is wide enough there but it biz - i really can't imagine it is going to be a comfortable journey!

Not sure whether to feel sorry for my wife that I'm not flying with her or whether to thank God that i don't have to go through that! Hehe... if its any consolation we'll be flying back together at least!

I think people actually suggested seats across the aisle from each other, i.e. A/D or G/K...instead of D/G. with D/G seats, while you can still stand up and see your kid, if there's really anything happening you won't be able to go to his/her seat at all unless you go there via the front or back galley (or you climb and jump over)...

I am afraid there is no easy way to travel with a 18 month old on CX new longhaul J.
5-6 years old wouldn't be much of a problem as they will easily get preoccupied with the IFE on their own seats.

18 months to 2 years is tricky without a seat for the infant, been there done that with both of our children.

The only slight ray of hope re bassinette for an 18 month old is if your younger daughter happens to be a petite child, in which case I would definitely ring reservations and request the bassinette seat allocation. It is most likely that an 18 month old girl is still well under the 12kg max allowed weight, but also probably quite likely that she is slightly taller than the 76cm length of the bassinette (then again, most children sleep slightly "curled", so 1 or 2cm over that length is cosy, but not impossible). See here for verification:

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_HK/helpingyoutravel/children

Basically, both of my children have been small for their ages as youngsters (eldest due to extreme prematurity, and my currently 17 month daughter is just petite, still not quite 10kg in weight). So I have travelled successfully in CX J using basinette with them both at around 18 months of age, but that was really the upper limit for my children due to their height.

If your daughter is similar and you wish to explore that option, talk to Res directly, and be ready to quote her weight (which they then note in the basinette request). You have been misinformed re the 6 month rule, which I find unfortunately happens quite often! They "recommend" under that age - but honestly, a 6 month old would have to be on around the 130th percentile for weight and height to be anywhere near the CX basinette capacity!

Please note, however, that they do usually preferentially assign basinettes to the youngest infant requesting one (with which naturally I have no problem).

And please don't be overly concerned about your 5 year old. The new configuration annoys me no end, in that I can't see my child next to me anymore, but my 5.5 yr old son actually preferred it that way! And no, he didn't play up, just seemed to feel honoured by the extra responsibility and was as good as gold. In fact, he informed me after our most recent flight in the herringbone J that henceforth he feels he can travel between Australia & Hong Kong on his own!

I think people actually suggested seats across the aisle from each other, i.e. A/D or G/K...instead of D/G. with D/G seats, while you can still stand up and see your kid, if there's really anything happening you won't be able to go to his/her seat at all unless you go there via the front or back galley (or you climb and jump over)...

Sorry meant to say 11G & K not D/G...

instead of starting a new thread, just wondering if anyone had tips for a "just" 3 year old in new J. will travel from YYZ to HKG with spouse and 3 year old child. we travelled with our child when she was 13 months on our lap in old J without much trouble, however, we wonder whether she will be OK at 3 in new J by ones self. i know new J sucks etc. but AC also has the same issue. i think we have 18G, 19G, 18K

instead of starting a new thread, just wondering if anyone had tips for a "just" 3 year old in new J. will travel from YYZ to HKG with spouse and 3 year old child. we travelled with our child when she was 13 months on our lap in old J without much trouble, however, we wonder whether she will be OK at 3 in new J by ones self. i know new J sucks etc. but AC also has the same issue. i think we have 18G, 19G, 18K
I think for your 3yr old, it should be ok. Just keep him/her occupied with child movies on the "new" StudioCX.;)

instead of starting a new thread, just wondering if anyone had tips for a "just" 3 year old in new J. will travel from YYZ to HKG with spouse and 3 year old child. we travelled with our child when she was 13 months on our lap in old J without much trouble, however, we wonder whether she will be OK at 3 in new J by ones self. i know new J sucks etc. but AC also has the same issue. i think we have 18G, 19G, 18K

Mkjr: Just an update for you since we completed the journey this past summer. Going to LHR: my wife was alone with my 2 kids (5yo+22mth old). 5yo not an issue at all - just sat and watched TV and ate to her hearts content and slept through most of the flight.

With the younger one, it was really hard on my wife as they were sharing seats (infant). Obviously wanting our child to sleep through as much of the flight as possible so she had to basically give her most of the seat and my wife felt more cramped up than she would have sitting in Y by herself!

I guess in your case you have a 3yo so as long as she can be occupied by the TV for a while you won't have an issue. Just try to pick night flights both ways so your child can sleep. Once asleep the seat is definitely comfortable enough for them (and relatively safe for kids - you can just pad up the sides with blankets, etc).

When traveling with kids my suggestion is just take night flights and worry about the jetlag when you get there...

Also my wife said the service going to LHR was outstanding and they were unbelievably helpful. However she really had the opposite experience on the return - DESPITE being upgraded to F!! But thats another story!

Mkjr: Just an update for you since we completed the journey this past summer. Going to LHR: my wife was alone with my 2 kids (5yo+22mth old). 5yo not an issue at all - just sat and watched TV and ate to her hearts content and slept through most of the flight.

With the younger one, it was really hard on my wife as they were sharing seats (infant). Obviously wanting our child to sleep through as much of the flight as possible so she had to basically give her most of the seat and my wife felt more cramped up than she would have sitting in Y by herself!

I guess in your case you have a 3yo so as long as she can be occupied by the TV for a while you won't have an issue. Just try to pick night flights both ways so your child can sleep. Once asleep the seat is definitely comfortable enough for them (and relatively safe for kids - you can just pad up the sides with blankets, etc).

When traveling with kids my suggestion is just take night flights and worry about the jetlag when you get there...

Also my wife said the service going to LHR was outstanding and they were unbelievably helpful. However she really had the opposite experience on the return - DESPITE being upgraded to F!! But thats another story!

Sadly, when we fly, the flight out of YYZ will be at 9:30am arriving in Hong Kong at 1 pm local time or early morning EST....at least we will know our child will be asleep from about 7:30 pm TO time...so with a nap, i think we will have about 8 hours of "up" time...perhaps the worst flight to sleep on there is....no other option...

oh...and then the onward flight to Tokyo....at 4pm....

i think we will progressively start to wake our child up earlier and earlier the week before...perhaps start getting her up at 4 am - usually up at 7...sucks for us but I think that even if we can get her a few hours extra sleep on the flight that should help....

However she really had the opposite experience on the return - DESPITE being upgraded to F!! But thats another story!
What happened?