avicov

I'm surprised I can't find anything on the a380 bassinet. Can anyone shed any light?

avicov

Also...are the business class seats comfortable enough with an infant on the lap if no bassinet is available? My baby will be 7 months by the time we travel.

avicov

Can anyone shed light on the a380 business class bassinet?

msm2000uk

Regrettably, in J on the A380, there are no bassinet positions reported.

M

Namlakhorn

Hi All

I have travelled several times in J with my baby, and while it is not mentioned anywhere - then on A380 10A and 10K are bassinet seats.

The bassinets are being installed on the top of the "cup-board" in front of the seat. This means that the baby is laying very high - and when you are seated it is not easy to keep an eye on the baby unless you stand up. Also - every time the seat belt sign is coming on, you need to take your baby out of the bassinet... and our baby wakes up when we move him around like that.

That is one of the reasons that we now deliberately book normal seats (non-bassinet seats) when travelling in J, and then let our baby sleep with the infant seat belt on together with mommy during the flight, which gives much less disturbances. By this, you can also choose a seat in the middle of cabin. Bassinet seats tends to be at front next to the lavatories and galleys /staff area - and both the noise and traffic with light coming in everytime the curtain is being opened can be a bit annoying, particular if you are trying to make baby sleep.

But the main reason for us not choosing bassinet seats in J (on QR) anymore is that we have had so bad service from QR when trying to book bassinet seats. I don't want to give the full story here (I think parts have already been shared in another tread), but from our experiences, we have on several flights been refused bassinet seats because other passengers had booked them, though not travelling with infants. We even tried one time to loose our seats after initially had them confirmed to a couple travelling without kids).

The absolutely worst we have experienced (unfortunately several times also) is that we have been separated in the cabin so my wife and baby were sitting in the opposite side of the cabin than me (which we with the cabin crew and friendly co-passengers got changed every time once boarded, but it is just stressful not knowing beforehand if you will be seated together with your family. Unacceptable when travelling on same PNR - and me being PC Plat and my wife PC Gold hasn't done any difference).


Namlakhorn

avicov

Thank you for your very informative reply. Interesting that you don't opt for the bassinet seats. Is it comfortable with a baby in the lap in the business product Qatar have?

I don't quite understand was when you and your wife are separated? Was this when a bassinet was offered to you or just in general?

msm2000uk

Thanks for the info namlakhorn.

I will make sure the A380 Seating Guide thread is duly updated.

M

Namlakhorn

You are welcome Avicov - happy to share.

During take off, landing and turbulence - the baby has to be taken out of the bassinet seat anyway and placed on your lap with fasten seat belt, so my wife prefers the normal J-seat over bassinet J-seat. She is a small person, and can lay okay comfortable on the J-seat together with Little Nam.

Actually, we prefer much to avoid A380 when travelling with infant in J-class, due to the 1-2-1 configuration (A - E F - K).

When on A-380 J class, we normally choose seats in the middle of cabin (not too close to the galley and not too close to the bar). Wife and baby at window seat, and myself at the "row behind". Reason for that is that the 1-2-1 configuration is not on the same row-line (a little skewed), so 16A is actually a bit behind the 16E. By choosing 16A to wife and Little Nam, and 17E to myself - I can easier keep "an eye on them" and assist whenever is needed. The seats E F are not suitable when travelling with infant - as they are separated with a wall in between - so you need to walk all around via the galley or bar to get from F to E seat /or vice versa).

The B777 or A340 are in our opinion more comfortable when travelling as couple with infant in J as the seating is 2-2-2. The benefit is that you are seated truly together, and the infant can use the floor within the seat area to play.

That said, the on-flight service received from QR when travelling with infant is really good. Not much difference in the kindness and helpfulness between J and Y on QR - but of course more comfortable seating/space in J.


Bassinet seats can't be booked during online booking as the seats are blocked. So you have to call into QR customer service. We have never managed to get the bassinet seats confirmed prior travelling except one time. I'm always asking QR customer service if it is because the seats are taken by other passengers. Sometimes they say it is just blocked but not occupied and that they can't allocate the seats to us. Other times they say it is taken by other passengers - and I have tried even to be told that the other passengers are not travelling with infants but they are seated together due to same PNR. QR Customer Service will tell you that a note has been added to the PNR, and it is then up to the ground staff on flight day to decide if you can be seated at bassinet seats. PC Platinum does not help you here.

What we have tried is that only my wife and baby is being giving the bassinet seat. And I'm seated at another place in cabin - not on same row or even nearby...
Sometimes this happens automatically several days or weeks prior the trip - without any notification - so we only find out at check in, where it can be too late to reverse the seating in order to ensure we are seated together as other passengers have already checked in. Then the checkin staff says we need to speak with cabin crew and see if they can get us seated together once boarded... A typical example of the bad ground service handling by QR.... the cabin crew is usually much more helpful - and here it normally also helps to flash ones Platinum card to get things sorted out.


Namlakhorn

Ben_W

Whilst I cannot comment on the bassinets in J, we have never had problems getting bassinet seats assigned for any Qatar Airways flights (in economy).

Sometimes when calling, they don't quite understand, say they cannot do it or tell us to do it at check in so I just hang up and call back to somebody who knows what they are doing. Most of the time they can put one adult and the infant in the seat, then they send an email to the seating team to put the other adult and child (over 2 years) in the same row. Normally a few days later when checking back online, all seats are sorted and we have never lost them.

Even occasionally, the agent has been able to put us all together straight away in a bassinet seat.

This is from my last three years of experience. We were lucky that as soon as our eldest turned two, our second was born so got another two years of being able to get the bassinet seats!

irishmanlev

I called QR and the got 10K as bassinet seats for me. So seems like there are indeed bassinets there.

Namlakhorn

Hi Irishman

Great - happy you got it sorted. Wish you and the family a comfortable and safe trip.


Can I ask which QR customer center did you call?

BR
Nam

MKE-MR

I've never been denied bassinet seats in now 12 segments, all economy. I've had both an immediate assignment for both of us, and the "we can put you there immediately but we have to call Doha to get Mrs assigned". My experiences are with Singapore and Hong Kong call centres.

irishmanlev

Hi Namlakhorn,

I called the German Call Center. They had been really helpful in updating the booking with my new born son and immediatly also moving us to a bassinett position on all sectors. Really good and quick service.

BR

andrelux

Sorry for bumping this. Any thoughts?

Hi

After a bit of advice.

Just booked QR for the first time (BA drip, drip, drip cuts starting to annoy me...), CDG-DOH-ICN. On the A380 legs (QR39/QR40) we've been allocated 10E/F both ways. Just wondering if it is worthwhile trying to change these? I've noticed comments about proximity to galley/toilets, also slightly concerned that 10A/K are bassinet seats (small baby alert?).

Other point is I do like a gander out of the window on daytime flights. Middle seats fine on the outbound CDG-DOH leg, since it'll be dark after about 2hrs, but inbound would it be worth going for A/E or F/K?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Post Scriptum

Also one new QR-flier here due to the promos, going down under with family. Unfortunately lack skills to acquire money has lead to Y-booking but with residual OWR-status I could choose upper deck/main deck. 2+kid+infant travelling so current seating at row 40 something seems okay due to three adjacent seats but I'm wondering would the upper deck be any better and i.e. playing with fate and booking 1+2 seats from following rows on the side of the aircraft.

I'll be definately losing by status by the time of booking, will they dump me out from the upper deck when my status is gone or should I cling on the seats while I can?

Edit: Looking at the seatmaps we aren't on bassinet seats, how likely it is that they'll dump us to bassinet seats (all bulkhead seats are fully booked on both decks) in any case or is a life of continous hell to be expected in the new life of statusless Y-travel (with family)